A Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor is not automatically a fiduciary. The CRPC is a specialty credential in retirement planning, not a legal status, so whether the person holding it must act in your best interest depends on how they are registered with regulators and how they are paid. A CRPC who works as an investment adviser representative at a registered investment advisory firm owes you a fiduciary duty. A CRPC who works as a broker-dealer representative does not, though they must still meet the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest standard when making a recommendation.
That distinction is the whole answer to the question, and everything below is about how to tell which kind of advisor you actually have.
What the CRPC Designation Is
The College for Financial Planning awards the CRPC to professionals who complete a retirement-focused curriculum and pass a proctored exam within one year of enrolling.1College for Financial Planning. Home2The American College of Financial Services. Retirement Financial Planner Designations for Financial Advisors The coursework covers Social Security claiming, Medicare, drawing income from different account types, estate planning, and the tax consequences of withdrawal sequences. Holders must complete 16 hours of continuing education every two years to keep the designation active.3FINRA. Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC)
What the designation does is signal specialized training. What it does not do is impose any legal obligation on how the holder treats clients. Two advisors sitting in the same office, both with CRPC after their names, can operate under completely different legal standards depending on their registration.
When a CRPC Holder Is a Fiduciary
Fiduciary duty comes from statutes and regulations, not from professional letters. A CRPC holder is a fiduciary to you in these situations:
- They are registered as an investment adviser representative with a registered investment advisory (RIA) firm. Section 206 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 requires both a duty of care and a duty of loyalty to clients, applied continuously across the relationship.4SEC.gov. Commission Interpretation Regarding Standard of Conduct for Investment Advisers
- They also hold the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) mark. The CFP Board requires its certificants to act as fiduciaries whenever they provide financial advice, exercising the care, skill, and prudence that a prudent professional would use given the client’s goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances.5CFP Board. CFP Professionals Fiduciary Duty When Providing Financial Advice
- They give individualized investment advice to participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans or IRAs under conditions that trigger ERISA fiduciary status. The current test requires professional investment recommendations to retirement investors on a regular basis, made under circumstances that would lead a reasonable investor to believe the advice is individualized and intended to serve their best interest.6eCFR. 29 CFR 2510.3-21 – Definition of Fiduciary
- They are dual-registered as both a broker and an investment adviser, and they are acting in their advisory capacity at the moment. When the same person acts as a broker, the fiduciary duty does not apply.4SEC.gov. Commission Interpretation Regarding Standard of Conduct for Investment Advisers
A one-time rollover pitch from a broker who happens to hold the CRPC does not, by itself, make that broker your ERISA fiduciary. The Department of Labor restored the longstanding investment advice test in March 2026 after courts vacated the broader 2024 Retirement Security Rule, and DOL specifically noted the vacated rule had “wrongly sought to impose ERISA fiduciary status on securities brokers and insurance agents when there was not a relationship of trust and confidence.”7U.S. Department of Labor. US Department of Labor Restores Long-Standing Investment Advice Rule After Pair of Court Decisions Vacate 2024 Retirement Security Rule If someone is recommending you roll over a 401(k), do not assume they are acting as your fiduciary. Confirm it.
When a CRPC Holder Is Not a Fiduciary
A CRPC who works for a broker-dealer operates under the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest. Reg BI requires the broker to act in the retail customer’s best interest at the time a securities recommendation is made, and it imposes four obligations: disclosure of fees and conflicts, care in understanding the product and the customer, identification and mitigation of financial conflicts, and written compliance policies.
The gap between Reg BI and a fiduciary duty is real. Reg BI applies at the moment of the recommendation. A fiduciary duty applies across the entire relationship. Once a broker sells you a product, they have no continuing obligation to monitor whether it still fits your circumstances. For a retiree whose health costs or market exposure can shift year to year, that difference matters. The SEC’s examination division continues to focus on how broker-dealers handle rollover recommendations, limited product menus, and conflict mitigation.8U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fiscal Year 2026 Examination Priorities
The CRPC’s own code of ethics is enforced by the College for Financial Planning, which can censure, suspend, or revoke the designation for violations.3FINRA. Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) Those sanctions are professional, not legal. The College cannot order the return of your money or bar the person from working in financial services. Only government regulators can do that.
How Compensation Signals the Standard
How your advisor gets paid usually tracks which standard applies, and it is often the fastest way to gauge conflicts.
Fee-only advisors earn money only from what clients pay: a percentage of assets under management, a flat annual fee, or an hourly rate. They almost always register as investment advisers and owe fiduciary duties.
Fee-based advisors charge client fees and can also earn commissions from selling products such as mutual funds, annuities, or insurance. Those commissions create a built-in incentive to recommend products that pay the advisor more. Mutual funds, for example, can carry 12b-1 fees capped by the SEC at 1% annually (up to 0.75% for distribution and 0.25% for servicing). Over a 20-year retirement, the compounding difference between a fund with a 0.25% 12b-1 fee and one with none is not small.
Commission-only advisors earn nothing unless they sell you something. This model creates the sharpest conflict. When a commission-based CRPC recommends rolling a 401(k) into an IRA, ask whether the recommendation is driven by your financial situation or by what the advisor earns on the products purchased inside the new IRA.
How to Check Whether Your Advisor Is a Fiduciary
You do not have to guess. Several free tools give you the answer directly.
Form CRS. SEC-registered investment advisers and broker-dealers must deliver a Client Relationship Summary to retail investors. It states plainly whether the firm is an investment adviser, a broker-dealer, or both, and it describes services, fees, conflicts, and disciplinary history.9U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Relationship Summaries (Form CRS or Form ADV Part 3) Investor Bulletin
Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD). The SEC’s free database shows an adviser’s Form ADV Part 2A brochure, registration status, employment history, and disciplinary disclosures.10Investor.gov. Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD)11Investment Adviser Public Disclosure. IAPD – Investment Adviser Public Disclosure – Homepage
BrokerCheck. FINRA’s tool covers broker-dealer representatives: employers, licenses, qualification exams, criminal charges, regulatory actions, and customer complaints.12U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Using BrokerCheck If your CRPC-holding advisor shows up on BrokerCheck but not on IAPD, they are a broker, not an investment adviser, and they are not your fiduciary.
Questions to Ask Directly
The Department of Labor recommends asking pointed questions before hiring anyone for retirement advice. The core question: “Do you consider yourself a fiduciary?” If the answer is no, ask whether they will act as one and put that commitment in writing.13U.S. Department of Labor. How to Tell Whether Your Adviser is Working in Your Best Interest Also ask exactly how they are compensated, whether they earn commissions on any product they might recommend, and whether one product would pay them more than another. A professional who avoids these questions is telling you something.
If You Believe You Have Been Harmed
The path to resolution depends on registration.
Broker-dealer disputes generally go to FINRA arbitration. Most brokerage account agreements require it. The process begins with a Statement of Claim filed through FINRA’s Dispute Resolution portal, along with a submission agreement and a filing fee scaled to the claim size, and FINRA can waive that fee for financial hardship.14FINRA. Arbitration Claim Filing Guide
Disputes with investment advisers acting as fiduciaries have broader options, including state court litigation for breach of fiduciary duty. Federal securities claims carry strict deadlines: generally one year from when you discovered or should have discovered the violation, and an absolute outer limit of three years from the transaction.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 77m – Limitation of Actions Miss those and you may forfeit your right to recover.
You can also file an ethics complaint with the College for Financial Planning against a CRPC holder, and a complaint with your state securities regulator, which has independent authority to investigate and sanction financial professionals. Those channels can affect the advisor’s ability to practice, but the College cannot recover your money. For that, you need the regulatory or arbitration route.