Reference
Definitions
“Certified”, “verified” and “independent” are used loosely across professional services. This page sets out exactly how Trusted Firms Global uses them. Every term has its own link.
- Trusted Firms Global certification#trusted-firms-global-certification
- A credential awarded to a professional services firm on the basis of client feedback that was collected and measured independently of the firm. It is not self-declared, not applied for on reputation, and not awarded on a submission written by the firm. Each credential has a public verification page showing its tier, program, dates and status.
- Certification tier#certification-tier
- What Trusted Firms Global is willing to vouch for publicly about a given credential. Each tier is a stronger public claim than the one below it – Standard, then Verified, then Gold. Tier describes the strength of the evidence behind the claim, not a ranking of the firms holding it.
- Standard#standard
- The firm submits to independent client measurement, checked through Client Culture’s manual integrity review. Completeness of the client population is not vouched at this tier, so no public score is published. The public claim is independence and certified status.
- Verified#verified
- Everything in Standard, plus the client population is drawn from a verifiable client record – the firm’s own, not a list assembled for the survey – with coverage reconciled against firm size and across cycles, so selective omission is detectable. Because the client list is checked against that record, a public score is unlocked at this tier.
- Gold#gold
- Everything in Verified, sustained. Coverage is maintained across every cycle for a full year, at a measurement frequency proportionate to the firm’s client base, with structured follow-up of every detractor, evidenced in the platform; where there were no detractors, the record says so. Gold’s sustained-coverage requirement makes selective measurement impractical to sustain.
- Independent measurement#independent-measurement
- Client feedback is collected and measured by Client Culture rather than by the firm being assessed – independent of the firms certified. The firm does not choose which responses are counted, and does not handle the collection.
- Completeness#completeness
- Whether the client population measured represents the firm’s actual client base rather than a favourable subset. It is described by where the survey list comes from, not by who responds: at Verified and Gold the list is drawn from the firm’s billing records, supplied by its finance function, or from its register of fee-paying clients. Whether a client responds is their choice, and no certification can guarantee otherwise.
- Invoiced client population#invoiced-client-population
- The clients the firm invoiced in the window. For a firm that does not bill per engagement, the clients on its register of fee-paying clients.
- Public score#public-score
- The average client score out of 10, published on a firm’s verification page and reviews page. It appears only at Verified and Gold, where the client list has been checked against a verifiable client record – so that every public score is comparable with every other – and only from 30 responses. At Standard no score is published, because a score drawn from a client list that was not checked against the firm’s records is not comparable to one that was. Adviser verification pages show only that the Trusted Adviser standard was met: no figures and no score.
- Verification page#verification-page
- The public page on this site for a single credential, at trustedfirms.global/verify/[ID]. Anyone – a client, a prospect, a regulator, a journalist – can use it to confirm that a firm’s certification is current and legitimate, without contacting the firm or Trusted Firms Global.
- Trusted Adviser#trusted-adviser
- An individual credential held by a named adviser within a firm, measured on that adviser’s own client list rather than the firm’s aggregate. It carries its own verification page and its own credential ID, prefixed TFA. Trusted Adviser credentials are available only to advisers within a firm that holds a current Trusted Firms Global certification, at any tier. If the adviser moves firms, the credential stays on the register until it expires, as the record of their clients’ feedback at the issuing firm. It cannot be displayed at the new firm; a new credential can be issued there if that firm holds a current Trusted Firms Global certification.
- Client Culture#client-culture
- Client Culture Pty Ltd collects and measures the client feedback that certification is based on. Trusted Firms Global (TFG Certification Pty Ltd) sets the standards and awards the credentials. The two are related entities under common ownership with deliberately separated functions: independence is from the firms certified, and is not a claim of independence from Client Culture.
- Certification cycle#certification-cycle
- The measurement period a credential covers. Credentials are renewed annually. At Gold, coverage must be sustained across every cycle within the year rather than achieved once.
The full requirements behind each tier are published in the standard, and the evidence base is set out in the research foundations.