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NAPFA’s Four Core Purposes
NAPFA’s Four Core Purposes (1984 Articles of Incorporation)
NAPFA was established to:
- Foster the practice of comprehensive, fee-only financial planning.
- Provide opportunities for financial planners to enhance their skills, knowledge, and methods.
- Promote public awareness of financial planning and the value of fee-only advice.
- Establish and enforce criteria for membership regarding the sales of financial products.
At their core, these purposes reflect two enduring commitments:
- Advancing comprehensive, fee-only financial planning, and
- Promoting public awareness of conflict-free, client-first financial advice.
These principles are not historical artifacts - they are the foundation of NAPFA’s unique role in the financial planning profession.
What Is the Core Purpose Coalition (CPC)?
What Is the Core Purpose Coalition (CPC)?
The Core Purpose Coalition is a collaborative, volunteer member group for individuals who want to:
- Ask thoughtful governance and strategy questions
- Offer constructive, mission-aligned solutions
- Help guide NAPFA back to its founding principles
- Strengthen NAPFA as an organization for future generations of planners and consumers
Participation is open to both current and former NAPFA members and investor advocates who share a commitment to comprehensive, fee-only, client-first financial planning advice.
Why the Core Purpose Coalition (CPC) Exists
Why the Core Purpose Coalition (CPC) Exists
In recent years, many NAPFA members and investor advocates have expressed concern that the organization’s strategic direction and governance practices may be drifting from these foundational purposes.
While NAPFA leadership continues to voice support for fee-only planning, the alignment between stated mission, strategic priorities, and operational decisions deserves thoughtful review and constructive engagement.
The Core Purpose Coalition exists to:
- Encourage clarity and accountability around NAPFA’s governing purpose
- Support constructive dialogue between members and leadership
- Help reaffirm fee-only, conflict-free advice as NAPFA’s defining differentiator
- Strengthen long-term organizational trust and credibility with the public
This effort is not adversarial. It is pro-mission, pro-member, and pro-consumer.
Governance Issues
Governance Issues Mapped to the Articles of Incorporation
1. Mission Fidelity - Articles Language: “The purposes for which the Corporation is formed are…”
Governance Principle: NAPFA exists only to pursue the purposes enumerated in Article II. All strategies, programs, and partnerships must be demonstrably tied to one or more of those purposes.
2. Fee-Only Differentiation - Articles Language (Purpose #1): “To foster the practice of comprehensive, fee-only financial planning.”
Governance Principle: Fee-only financial planning is not a preference or value statement—it is the primary corporate purpose and must remain central to NAPFA’s identity, strategy, and public positioning.
3. Strategic Plan Alignment - Articles Language: “The purposes for which the Corporation is formed are…”
Governance Principle: The strategic plan is a subordinate document. It must implement the Articles—not reinterpret, expand, or replace them.
4. Board Duty of Obedience - Articles Language: Articles of Incorporation as the governing instrument
Governance Principle: The board has a fiduciary duty of obedience to ensure that NAPFA operates strictly within the purposes defined in its Articles of Incorporation.
5. Purpose-Driven Decision Making - Articles Language: “The purposes for which the Corporation is formed are…”
Governance Principle: Major decisions should explicitly identify which Article II purpose(s)they advance and how.
6. Membership Standards Integrity - Articles Language (Purpose #4): “To establish and enforce criteria for its membership with regard to the sales of financial products.”
Governance Principle: Membership rules regarding product sales are a core governing purpose, not an optional policy lever.
7. Enforcement of Standards - Articles Language (Purpose #4): “To establish and enforce criteria…”
Governance Principle: The obligation is two-part:
- Establish clear criteria
- Enforce them consistently
Failure to enforce undermines the Articles themselves.
8. Public Awareness Obligation - Articles Language (Purpose #3): “To promote public awareness of financial planning and the alternative of fee-only financial planning assistance.”
Governance Principle: NAPFA has an affirmative duty to market and educate the public about fee-only financial planning—not merely to support members internally.
9. Message Consistency - Articles Language (Purposes #1 and #3): “Comprehensive, fee-only financial planning” and “Public awareness… of the alternative of fee-only financial planning assistance.”
Governance Principle: External messaging must consistently reinforce fee-only planning as the defining alternative—not dilute it with broader or ambiguous framing.
10. Professional Development in Service of Fee-Only Planning - Articles Language (Purpose #2): “To provide opportunities for financial planners to increase their skills, knowledge, techniques, methods and tools of practicing financial planning.”
Governance Principle: Education and professional development must support the practice of fee-only financial planning, not unrelated or conflicting business models.
11. Limits on Mission Expansion - Articles Language: Enumerated purposes only
Governance Principle: Activities that fall outside the four stated purposes require formal amendment of the Articles, not reinterpretation.
12. Long-Term Stewardship - Articles Language: Foundational governing document dated January 16, 1984
Governance Principle: The board’s role is stewardship across generations, preserving the organization’s original purpose and public trust—not redefining it through incremental drift.
Why This Matters: Articles of Incorporation are not symbolic. They are the legal and ethical north star of the organization. The Core Purpose Coalition’s governance concerns are grounded in a single question:
Are NAPFA’s current governance, strategy, and messaging fully aligned with what the Articles of Incorporation require? That question is not adversarial - it is fiduciary.
Articles by and About the CPC
NAPFA Should Be Reminded Fee-Only Is Vital to Fiduciary Duty
FA Magazine, November 25, 2025 • by Knut Rostad
FA Magazine, December 5, 2025 • by Tracey Longo
Has NAPFA Drifted from Its Governing Purpose to Promote Fee-Only Financial Planning?
FA Magazine, December 30, 2025 • by David Bromelkamp
How You Can Participate
Participation in Monthly Meetings and Other Events
The Core Purpose Coalition welcomes ideas, perspectives, and engagement.
Examples include:
- Submitting governance or strategy questions for discussion
- Encouraging the NAPFA board of directors to stay true to our articles of incorporation
- Helping articulate how fee-only planning benefits consumers
- Supporting transparency and accountability initiatives
- Encouraging clear public messaging around NAPFA’s fee-only compensation differentiator
- Participating in CPC meetings and working groups
Core Purpose Coalition (CPC) Events
1. Monthly CPC Zoom Meeting
All current and former NAPFA members are welcome.
To receive a Zoom invitation, email david @ AdvisorSmart.com
Invitations and reminder emails will be sent a few days before the meeting.
2. CPC In-Person Gatherings
NAPFA National and Regional Conferences
All current and former NAPFA members are welcome.
If you plan to attend a NAPFA Conference and would like to participate in a CPC meeting, please email david @ AdvisorSmart.com
Meeting details will be shared prior to each NAPFA conference.
This is a forum for constructive leadership, not criticism for its own sake.
CPC Advisory Council (CPCAC)
Fee-Only Financial Planning Leaders Who Support the Core Purpose Coalition
We created our Core Purpose Coalition Advisory Council with a group of volunteer leaders who want to collaborate to advance our CPC initiatives and activities. The Core Purpose Coalition Advisory Council is a volunteer group of experienced, mission-driven professionals who support and promote the work of the Core Purpose Coalition. Advisory Council members serve as stewards of NAPFA’s founding purpose, helping to keep the NAPFA board of directors focused and aligned with the principles set forth in the 1984 NAPFA Articles of Incorporation. Our advisory council leaders bring diverse perspectives as practitioners, investor advocates, and long-standing supporters of comprehensive fee-only financial planning.
The Advisory Council’s role is not operational or political
Instead, members:
- Help articulate and reinforce the CPC’s mission-aligned message
- Encourage thoughtful, respectful engagement with NAPFA leadership
- Support CPC programming, discussions, and member outreach
- Provide historical, professional, and governance perspective
- Promote transparency, accountability, and fiduciary-minded governance
Advisory Council members act as ambassadors for constructive reform, modeling the professionalism and integrity that have long distinguished comprehensive, fee-only financial planning. Participation in the Advisory Council is voluntary and unpaid. Service reflects a shared belief that strong governance, clear purpose, and public trust are essential to NAPFA’s long-term success - and that members have both the right and the responsibility to help uphold those standards.
Our Advisory Council Volunteers
- The Core Purpose Coalition Advisory Council exists to support the NAPFA mission - not to control outcomes - and to help ensure that the Core Purpose Coalition remains a positive, principled force for alignment, clarity, and credibility within NAPFA and within the financial planning profession.
David Bromelkamp, Founder, AdvisorSmart
Michael Haubrich, CFP®, Founder, Financial Service Group, Inc.
Steve Fox, CFP®, EA, Founder, AdviceOnly
Gary Pittsford, CFP®, Business Advisor, Castle Consulting (First President of NAPFA)
John Sestina, Founder, John E. Sestina and Company (Second President of NAPFA)
Justin McCurdy, CFP®, Financial Planner, Bridge Financial Planning, LLC
Robert Schmansky AIF®, ChFC®, Investment Advisor Representative, Pathworks Financial, Inc.
To get involved, volunteer and/or share your name publicly as a supporter of our CPC initiatives, please send an email with your name, job title and organization to david @ AdvisorSmart.com
Join the Conversation
How You Can Participate
We want to know your thoughts.
How can the Core Purpose Coalition best support NAPFA’s mission?
What steps can members take to help reaffirm NAPFA’s commitment to conflict-free, fee-only, financial advice?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts - and working together to strengthen NAPFA’s future.
To get involved: send your inquiry to david @ AdvisorSmart.com
Disclaimer
The AdvisorSmart Role Defined
AdvisorSmart® supports investor education, transparency, and governance practices that advance better financial advice. The Core Purpose Coalition (CPC) is an independent, volunteer initiative and is not an official NAPFA committee.
