I like to watch Spooks on the BBC on a Monday evening. It can often be a little corny, but the plot and action scenes are enough to capture my attention for an hour once a week.
Last night the story involved a Russian spy being allowed access to ‘the grid’ to work alongside MI5 in their efforts to a capture a terrorist with a weapon of mass destruction.
Russian spies are on my mind again today as I type this. A Certified Financial Planner (CFP) in the US has been stripped of the professional designation because it turned out that she was a Russian spy.
Cynthia Murphy was one of a number of Russian spies deported from the US this summer. She and her husband were described in the press as ‘suburbia’s Spies Next Door’. In fact, Cynthia was acting as a Financial Planner in her local community.
As a result of the spy scandal, Cynthia (or Lydia Guryev as we should probably be calling her) was investigated by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFPBS) who removed her CFP title in August.
Perhaps not too surprisingly, she failed to file a response to allegations of misrepresenting herself as a US citizen when challenged by the CFPBS.
Here at Informed Choice, we don’t have any Russian spies, but we do have five Certified Financial Planners (CFPs). A further four members of our team are studying to achieve this internationally recognised professional qualification.
Becoming a CFP and maintaining this testing professional standard involves demonstrating knowledge and skill to a defined international standard. The qualification is the equivalent to an honours degree, which shows how tough it is for a Financial Planning qualification.
When choosing a financial adviser, it makes sense to ask questions about their professional qualifications. You might not want to ask if they are reporting commercially sensitive information back to their handler in Moscow.
Photo courtesy of Dave McLear.
