The Canadian Institute of Financial Planning (CIFP) has dropped its $1.2-million lawsuit against FP Canada, which arose after the CIFP’s Chartered Financial Planner designation was approved as a credential under Ontario’s title protection.
“CIFP has discontinued its action … against FP Canada in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and does not intend to take any further legal action against FP Canada, as the parties have resolved this dispute,” a spokesperson for the CIFP said in an emailed statement.
An FP Canada spokesperson said in an email that the certification body “has agreed that it will not challenge CIFP’s right to award the Chartered Financial Planner designation in Canada.”
Gervas Wall, partner with Deeth Williams Wall LLP in Toronto and counsel for the CIFP, did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.
The Chartered Financial Planner designation was approved in March by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) as a credential for the “financial planner” title.
Following that approval, FP Canada issued a statement saying consumers could confuse the Chartered Financial Planner with the designation FP Canada oversees — Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation, which is subject to global financial planning standards. Vehement criticism about the CIFP’s credential and FSRA’s approval of it arose on social media. An industry coalition asked FSRA to make the CIFP rename the credential or rescind approval.
In April, the CIFP filed its claim, alleging breach of agreement, depreciation of goodwill and discrediting its business and services in violation of the Trademarks Act, and trade libel.
The claim stated that the CIFP had granted the Chartered Financial Planner designation since “at least as early as 1979” and previously used CFP as an abbreviation.
FP Canada began overseeing the CFP credential in Canada in 1995 (the certification body was then the Financial Planning Standards Council).
According to the claim, as part of an agreement in 1996 with FP Canada, the CIFP joined FP Canada and assigned its “rights in CFP” to the credential’s owner (then the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards).
The CIFP doesn’t abbreviate the Chartered Financial Planner.
The CIFP also agreed not to grant the Chartered Financial Planner credential to any future student, so long as the CIFP remained a member of FP Canada, according to the claim. But the CIFP stopped being a member “some time ago,” it said.
“FP Canada has agreed, pursuant to the 1996 agreement, that it will not challenge CIFP’s rights to award or use the Chartered Financial Planner designation in Canada,” Keith Costello, president and CEO of the CIFP, said in an emailed statement.
Costello said there are 700 people across Canada with the Chartered Financial Planner designation, up from 200 before FSRA approved it.
When asked about consumer confusion, FP Canada said in an emailed statement that it recognizes FSRA has “the authority and duty” to approve credentialing bodies and credentials under the title protection framework.
“FP Canada is committed to working with FSRA and any other jurisdictions where frameworks are established, to continue enhancing the framework in the public interest,” the statement said.
FP Canada oversees about 17,000 CFP designation holders, according to its website.