The Board of Directors held its first meeting of 2007 in January. There were several important items on our agenda, but the big ticket items were the review of comments received in response to last year's Exposure Draft of proposed changes to CFP Board's ethical standards and the search for a permanent CEO. I'm happy to report that we're making progress on both fronts.

Interviews for the CEO position are underway. The Board is confident that the search process developed with the executive search firm Spencer Stuart has identified several high-quality candidates qualified to lead CFP Board. We expect the first rounds of interviews will narrow the list of candidates and allow the Board to move closer to finding the right person, if not select a final candidate, by our May meeting.

At the January Board meeting, the Ethics Task Force also presented a detailed report on the comments about last year's Exposure Draft of proposed revisions to CFP Board's Standards of Professional Conduct. The task force also made several recommendations that incorporate feedback heard from many of CFP Board's stakeholders. The Board has directed the Ethics Task Force to work with staff to prepare a second Exposure Draft that will be released for comment later this year.

I suspect some will be surprised with the plan to release a second Exposure Draft. I have heard comments suggesting that the Board would wait for a new CEO before taking action with any proposed revisions to CFP Board's ethical standards. The search for a permanent CEO is moving forward in a thoughtful and thorough manner, but it is the role of the Board of Directors, not the CEO, to make policy decisions. The Board takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that the ethical standards for CFP® certification remain strong and enforceable, and we believe the process of reviewing those standards must move forward.

The current Board is blessed to have members well-qualified to serve on the Ethics Task Force that is leading the Board's review of CFP Board's ethical standards. Each of the four task force members has spent considerable time working with the development and application of those standards. Marilyn Capelli Dimitroff, CFP®, chair of the task force, served on the Board of Practice Standards that developed the Financial Planning Practice Standards and worked to integrate those standards with the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The other task force members each served on and led the Board of Professional Review that applies CFP Board's ethical standards to the actual conduct of CFP® professionals. Stewart H. Welch, III, CFP® was chair of the Board of Professional Review in 2000, Dan Candura, CFP® was chair in 2002, and Alan Goldfarb, CFP® was chair in 2006. All four task force members bring to their experience with CFP Board's ethical standards their own experiences from careers as practicing financial planners.

While details of the second Exposure Draft and comment period are still being developed by the Ethics Task Force and CFP Board staff, I can assure you that the Board is pleased with the progress to date.

The Board did decide not to move forward with one item planned for 2007. As CFP Board staff continues its work to support the Board's review of the Ethics requirement for CFP® certification and begins work to implement the recommendations from the Board's review of the Education requirement, the Board determined to delay its review of the Experience requirement, which had been expected to take place in 2007. Rather than move forward with another review process at this time, we want to ensure that the existing reviews are completed thoroughly and without overwhelming our staff resources.

Stay tuned in the following weeks for more information about the release of a second Exposure Draft. The Ethics Task Force and other Board members look forward to presenting the second Exposure Draft to CFP Board's stakeholders, and we are committed to making ourselves available during the comment period to discuss the proposed changes.

Karen P. Schaeffer, CFP®
2007 Chair, Board of Directors
CFP Board

Parallel parking, fly-fishing, locating obscure addresses while driving (without asking directions), and managing money. What do all these things have in common? They are all supposed to be abilities granted primarily to the male of the species. When it comes to questions of cash, the assumption has always been that guys have more aptitude than girls. But are men really better than women at making financial decisions? Recent advances in neuroscience and evolutionary biology are beginning to suggest some answers.

The great gender debate got a kick start a few years back when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, gave a speech in which he appeared to suggest that women were less suited than men to becoming mathematicians and scientists. From a strictly biological point of view, what he said was correct. There are crucial physiological differences between males and females that influence their interests and eventual career choices. Many of these differences first emerge during puberty, when surging hormones begin transforming girls and boys into women and men.

"As estrogen floods the female brain, females start to focus intensely on their emotions . At the same time, as testosterone takes over the male brain, boys grow less communicative," writes Louann Brizendine in The Female Brain. "At the point when boys and girls start deciding the trajectories of their careers, girls start to lose interest in pursuits that require more solitary work and fewer interactions with others, while boys can easily retreat alone to their rooms for hours of computer time." In other words, the effect of estrogen on female brains makes girls, on average, more interested in fields involving people (medicine) or living things (biology); the effect of testosterone on male brains makes boys, on average, more interested in fields involving abstractions (math, economics) or non-living things (engineering).

As these hormones wash over male and female brains, they leave important changes in their wake. Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist and founder of the Women's and Teen Girls' Mood and Hormone Clinic in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, notes that male brains are larger than female ones by about 9%. But women and men have the same number of brain cells, or neurons-and when it comes to brains, it's not size just that matters but the number of and connections among neurons. Women have 11% more neurons than men in the brain regions responsible for language and hearing, while the hippocampus-the principle hub for emotion and memory-is larger in women than in men. Perhaps this helps explain why women are quicker than men at picking up emotional cues in others, and why they tend to talk more (women use about 20,000 words a day; men use about 7,000, most of them monosyllabic). Men have larger brain areas devoted to sex drive and aggression. Well, no surprise there.

Does all this mean that women can never become financial professionals or physicists? Not at all. It simply means that, on average, more men than women tend to be attracted to these careers, an observation easily verified by glancing at any trading floor or laboratory. Gender discrimination and cultural stereotyping may also play a role. Either way, the biological facts remain.

The bottom line is: Women can do everything men can do. Brizendine cites a German study in which men and women were asked to mentally rotate abstract three-dimensional shapes while under a brain scanner. (Visual-spatial ability is often correlated with proficiency in math.) Men and women performed equally well on the task, but they used different brain pathways. So the real question is: Do women want to do everything men can do?

When it comes to money, they often do not. One area where the difference between women and men is most evident is future discounting, the tendency to prefer a modest, immediate reward to a greater, delayed one. Studies of future discounting, in which a choice is offered between an amount of money immediately and a greater amount after a certain period of time, consistently show that men prefer the smaller, earlier payoff to the larger, later one.

In "Carpe Diem: Adaptation and Devaluing the Future," published in the March 2005 issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, suggest this is because evolution has conditioned men to seek immediate gratification. "In the reproductive market of our evolutionary history," they write, "early and frequent reproduction had the greatest chance of success. Men have had far less investment in child-rearing than women, so mating often was the best strategy. Women, on the other hand, invest heavily in child-rearing, so they tended to delay gratification and prevent too often or successive reproduction."

One of the tenets of evolutionary biology is that the genetic and environmental pressures faced by our distant ancestors still influence our behavior today. Status symbols may change-back then it may have been lots of offspring; today it may be a fancy car and several houses-but the basic instincts are the same. "For most mammals, including humans, the chances of reproduction are less certain for men than for women," says David Geary, Curators' Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri. "Aggressive, risk-taking males tend to be more successful. This results in a behavioral bias: Men tend to push for success, to make things happen, and on average more men than women strive to achieve the markers [of financial success]. Women, who invest far more in child-rearing than men do, tend to prefer a college fund for their children over a new speedboat."

This gender difference is borne out by what women and men themselves report about their relationships to money. In 2004, Redbook and SmartMoney magazines asked one thousand men and women between the ages of 18 and 50, all of whom were married or part of a committed relationship, a series of questions about their financial lives. The survey's findings were published in The Truth about Women, Men and Money. When asked to describe their "money style," 32% of women described themselves as "worriers," while just 18% of men described themselves this way. When asked if they were "willing to take a risk on investment decisions," 62% of men said yes, compared to only 19% of women. When asked which partner had better financial judgment, 68% of men said they did, versus 59% of women.

Confidence (or overconfidence) in their financial acumen is another area in which there are clear differences between women and men. Brad M. Barber of the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis and Terrance Odean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley used account data from over 35,000 households to analyze the common stock investments of men and women during an almost eight-year period in the 1990s. The results, published in "Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence and Common Stock Investment" in the February 2001 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics, showed that men traded 45% more than women, and that this trading reduced men's net returns by 2.65 percentage points a year, as opposed to 1.72 percentage points for women. They also found that single men trade 67% more than single women, thereby reducing their returns by 1.44 percentage points per year more than those of single women.

The reason men trade more than women: overconfidence. "There is tremendous evidence that active trading for individuals correlates negatively with returns," says Odean. "Men trade more actively because they think they have more ability, and trading is more fun when you expect to win. Women tend to be more conservative, investing in less risky stocks and allocating lower proportions of their wealth to stocks in the first place." So, when it comes to making financial decisions, boys may always be boys-but girls often know best.

This is the first in a series of three articles on women and money. Next month: Women, money and divorce.

- James Geary

A lot of people cite technology as the cause of many of their day-to-day frustrations. Computers break down, Web sites crash, printers eat documents. For Tim Clegg, though, technology has been the solution to his frustrations. A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional with 20 years of experience, Clegg was increasingly irked by the fact that low- and moderate-income clients couldn't afford to pay for the time it takes to prepare a thorough financial plan. "These clients face financial issues just as complex and challenging as anybody else," Clegg says, "but they can't afford to sit down face-to-face with a planner to organize their situations." The answer, Clegg thought, was to create software to automate parts of the planning process so the planner could spend more time with the client. CFP Board has awarded grants to two organizations harnessing the power of software to reach underserved populations: Financial Solutions, for which Clegg is a senior advisor, and the University of California, Irvine.

Financial Solutions is an initiative of the Solutions Community Development Corporation, a non-profit agency providing financial literacy, asset-building and entrepreneurship programs to low- and moderate-income families in the Holyoke-Chicopee area of Western Massachusetts. Around 55% of households in the Holyoke-Chicopee area earn less than $35,000 a year, and this is the group Financial Solutions has set out to reach. With the CFP Board grant, Clegg and co. will transform their tax software and training systems into financial planning tools that produce high-quality, customized financial plans on the basis of four one-hour meetings with the client. Financial Solutions charges just $60 per hour for this service, part of which may be paid by an employer or non-profit organization.

Data gathering and input are often the most time-consuming parts of the planning process. To make this stage faster and more efficient, the Financial Solutions system generates a client financial data questionnaire, which includes a list of all the documents needed prior to the first meeting with the planner. The client is also asked to answer a series of questions about his or her short-, intermediate and long-term goals. On the basis of the information provided in the questionnaire, the software then creates financial scenarios to be presented to and discussed with the client. "The system is designed to create meaningful scenarios," Clegg explains, "so the planner's time is spent helping the client make good decisions rather than fiddling with data. The idea is to get a complete picture of the factors in the client's life, flag the assets, and then dig for opportunities to build resources."

Tim Clegg, CFP®, works with Cindy Enriquez at Lyman Terrace Boys and Girls Club to bring financial services to residents of the housing complex.

Once the a plan is in place, clients are also entitled to a one-hour follow-up session, which could be used to monitor progress or modify the plan based on changed circumstances. "Sorting out your financial life can mean big money," says Clegg, "whether it has to do with making better spending decisions, saving more effectively or putting a down payment on a home. The payoff will be dramatic down the line. Our goal is to feed the community with success stories to encourage people to develop financial plans."

In a joint effort, the Distance Learning Center and the Business and Management division of UC Irvine's Continuing Education department are deploying technology to distribute basic financial planning information to underserved consumers. With its CFP Board grant, UC Irvine - which already offers two CFP Board-Registered Programs that provide an education program that qualifies individuals to take the CFP® Certification Examination - will create "Fundamentals of Financial Planning," a free online course designed to provide a comprehensive overview of personal financial planning for the general public. "The course mixes what people need to know about managing money," says Don DeBok, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional who is designing the curriculum, "with what they might need help in order to do, such as creating net worth and cash flow statements or planning retirement needs. The course gives a snapshot of a person's financial situation, helping them answer questions like: Where am I in my financial life? What do I need to do next?"

Course materials will be accessible through a dedicated Web site hosted by the UC Irvine Distance Learning Center. The course will cover the nuts and bolts of financial planning: budgeting, basic insurance needs, personal savings, tax-efficient investing, and retirement considerations. "All the learning materials will be university-quality," says Jia Frydenberg, director of the Distance Learning Center, "and users can follow a step-by-step guide or skip directly to the areas they're interested in. The course is designed to be user-friendly, with generic templates to help people accomplish basic planning tasks." All you need is an Internet connection and a desire to learn more about financial planning.

The course should benefit financial planners as well. "The course is intended to supplement rather than supplant financial planners," says Lori Munoz-Reiland, director of the UC Irvine Business and Management Program. "It will give users the tools and information they need before meeting with a financial planner. It will also be a great resource for financial planners to suggest to clients as a way to help them prepare for meetings." UC Irvine and Financial Solutions are both making technology part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Read more about projects receiving funding through CFP Board's 2006 Financial Planning Grants program.

CFP Board and FPA to Co-Sponsor 2007 Program Directors Conference

CFP Board and the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) are pleased to announce a joint effort to host the 2007 Program Directors Conference in Seattle, Washington on September 7-8, 2007. For the past 14 years, CFP Board has held an annual Program Directors Conference for directors of CFP Board-Registered Programs that provide the educational courses that prepare individuals for CFP® certification. For the first time, the conference will be held in conjunction with FPA's national conference, FPA Seattle 2007, which takes place September 8-11, 2007.

"We are partnering with FPA to provide CFP Board-Registered Programs with a larger-scale conference, increased support, a wider variety of subjects and interaction with other facets of the financial planning community," said Karen P. Schaeffer, CFP®, Chair of CFP Board's Board of Directors. "The co-sponsored event will provide educators with what they've come to expect from a Program Directors Conference - the opportunity to interact with the leaders in financial planning education, exchange information on best practices and continue discussions with the standard-setting organization, CFP Board."

Program Directors who regularly attend FPA's national conference will be able to attend both meetings without scheduling two trips, and those educators who haven't yet attended one of FPA's conferences will get to experience an event that brings together thousands of financial planning professionals each year.

"We are thrilled to co-sponsor this event for program directors with CFP Board," said FPA Executive Director/CEO Marvin W. Tuttle, Jr., CAE. "Our annual conference is the gathering of the global financial planning community. Our hope is that by holding this event in conjunction with our annual conference educators will have the opportunity to connect with industry leaders and the larger financial planning community."

The 2007 Program Directors Conference will have more to offer than ever before. Mark your calendars now and watch for more details about the 2007 Program Directors Conference in the months to come.

CFP Board Disciplinary Actions

CFP Board recently took the public disciplinary actions listed below. Public disciplinary actions taken by CFP Board, in order of decreasing severity, include permanent revocation of an individual's right to use the CFP® certification marks, suspension of the right to use the CFP® certification marks for up to five years, and letters of admonition.

These disciplinary actions were taken by the Board of Professional Review, a board of CFP® certificants that interprets and applies CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Financial Planning Practice Standards as well as investigates, deliberates and takes appropriate action with respect to alleged violations. Consumers can use CFP Board's Web site to check on a planner's disciplinary history and certification status with CFP Board.

Revocations and Permanent Relinquishments

DELAWARE
William R. Barto (Hockessin): In November 2006, CFP Board permanently revoked Mr. Barto's right to use the CFP® marks after he failed to respond to CFP Board's August 2006 complaint investigating an inquiry initiated by his state's insurance department. Because Mr. Barto failed to respond to CFP Board's complaint, the allegations in the complaint were deemed admitted and an order of revocation was issued.

MICHIGAN
Carl P. Kellogg (Ada): In November 2006, Mr. Kellogg entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to a finding that he entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver & Consent (AWC) with NASD pursuant to which he consented to a sixty-day suspension from association with any NASD member in any capacity and to pay a fine of $10,000. As part of the AWC, without admitting or denying the allegations, Mr. Kellogg consented to an entry of findings that he borrowed $140,000 from public customers in violation of his member firm's written procedures that prohibited its registered representatives from borrowing money from customers unless the customers are the representative's immediate family members and the representative obtains the firm's prior written permission. The findings of the AWC further indicated that the customers from whom Mr. Kellogg borrowed the $140,000 were not his relatives and that he had not obtained written permission from his firm. Mr. Kellogg also consented to a finding that he failed to notify CFP Board of his professional suspension within ten calendar days as required. As part of the settlement with CFP Board, Mr. Kellogg agreed to permanently relinquish his right to use the CFP® marks.

TENNESSEE
Edward Alan Martin (Franklin): In November 2006, Mr. Martin entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to findings that he submitted an Offer of Settlement to NASD wherein, without admitting or denying the allegations, he consented to the entry of findings that he converted a public customer's funds to his own use and benefit without the customer's knowledge or consent. As part of the NASD settlement, Mr. Martin was barred from association with any NASD member in any capacity. Mr. Martin also consented to a finding that he failed to notify CFP Board of his professional bar within ten calendar days as required. As part of the settlement with CFP Board, Mr. Martin agreed to permanently relinquish his right to use the CFP® marks.

WISCONSIN
Thomas Van Tassel (Sparta): In December 2006, Mr. Van Tassel entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to a finding that, although his OSJ was aware of it, he violated the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility by not making sure that his broker/dealer was aware that he had affixed certain clients' signatures to certain forms at their request. Mr. Van Tassel was previously suspended by NASD for 60 days for this conduct. As part of the settlement with CFP Board, Mr. Van Tassel agreed to permanently relinquish his right to use the CFP® marks.

Suspensions/Delay of Certification

CALIFORNIA
Garry A. Estrada (Murrieta): In November 2006, CFP Board suspended Mr. Estrada's right to use the CFP® marks for one year and one day after its investigation of a state securities division proceeding. After a hearing, the Board of Professional Review (Board) found that Mr. Estrada entered into a Consent Agreement with his state's securities division, pursuant to which he consented to findings that he recommended and sold his clients interests in private placements, even though those private placements were not registered for sale in the state, Mr. Estrada was not registered as a securities salesperson, and Mr. Estrada's firm was not registered as a broker/dealer. The Board further found that as part of the Consent Agreement, Mr. Estrada consented to pay a $20,000 fine, to accept the revocation of his firm's investment adviser registration, to accept the revocation of his investment adviser representative registration, and to accept further restrictions on his ability to re-apply for reinstatement of his registration. Finally, the Board found that Mr. Estrada failed to notify CFP Board of his professional revocation within ten calendar days as required.

Eric C. Howie (Santa Clara): In December 2006, Mr. Howie entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to findings that he violated CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility when he approached family and friends for financial help to investigate a possible new type of auto insurance without understanding how NASD interpreted their "private securities" rule or understanding that his actions could violate that rule, and as a result he entered into a settlement with NASD consenting to a 30-day suspension. As part of the settlement with CFP Board, Mr. Howie's application to use the CFP® marks was delayed for 30 days.

NEW YORK
Frank P. Grasso (Sayville): In January 2007, Mr. Grasso entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to a finding that he violated CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility when, influenced by his firm's policies and procedures, and at all times relevant acting upon the best interests of his clients, he caused applications to be processed with inaccurate address information to provide his clients with a favorable policy not officially provided by his firm. As part of the settlement with CFP Board, Mr. Grasso's right to use the CFP® marks was suspended for nine months.

Kenneth L. Sojka (New Rochelle): In December 2006, Mr. Sojka entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to the following findings: 1) he failed to exercise prudent authority over employees who, on at least one occasion, appeared to have affixed his clients' signatures to certain documents, which were omitted by the client; 2) he accepted full responsibility and was aware that his lack of adequate control over his employees amounted to a violation of CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility; 3) he accepted responsibility for not acting prudently related to an alleged unauthorized sale of stock in his client's account and was fully aware that it was his responsibility to clear up any ambiguity regarding the transfer of assets with his clients; and 4) he acted imprudently with regard to the alleged "settling away" of a claim with his client because, although he believed that he had approval to issue the refund to his client directly, this belief should have been substantiated in writing. As part of the settlement with CFP Board, Mr. Sojka's right to use the CFP® marks was suspended for one year and one day.

Letters of Admonition

ARKANSAS
Henry H. Godbee III (Little Rock): In November 2006, CFP Board issued Mr. Godbee a Letter of Admonition after its investigation of an NASD inquiry. After a hearing, the Board of Professional Review (Board) found that Mr. Godbee was terminated from his firm for failing to follow firm procedures related to the exercise of discretion in client accounts without the firm's written approval. The Board also found that Mr. Godbee entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with NASD whereby he consented, without admitting or denying the allegations, to findings that he exercised discretion in the accounts of 53 customers without prior written authorization from his firm and despite written notification from his firm to stop exercising discretion in client accounts. Pursuant to the AWC, Mr. Godbee agreed to accept a suspension of his NASD registration in all capacities for 60 days and a $10,000 fine.

GEORGIA
John T. Carter (Macon): In November 2006, Mr. Carter entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to findings that he copied a customer's name onto a letter of direction, in violation of CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and that he failed to notify CFP Board of his professional suspension within ten calendar days as required. As part of the settlement, CFP Board issued Mr. Carter a Letter of Admonition.

ILLINOIS
Timothy J. Stearns (Arlington Heights):In December 2006, Mr. Stearns entered into a settlement agreement with CFP Board, pursuant to which he consented to findings that he was suspended by NASD for one month after he consented to findings that he engaged in private securities transactions, in violation of CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and that he failed to notify CFP Board of his professional suspension within ten calendar days as required. As part of the settlement, CFP Board issued Mr. Stearns a Letter of Admonition.

MICHIGAN
John R. Hantz (Southfield):In November 2006, CFP Board issued Mr. Hantz a Letter of Admonition after its investigation of an NASD inquiry. After a hearing, the Board of Professional Review (the Board) found that Mr. Hantz and his firm, of which he was President, CEO, Director and primary owner, entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with NASD whereby they consented, without admitting or denying the allegations, to the entry of several findings, including the following: 1) Mr. Hantz's firm encouraged its financial advisors to suggest to clients that both they and the firm were "independent," "not captive to one or a few product companies," and free to offer a number of different products, which was misleading; 2) his firm failed to inform its clients that it sold almost exclusively the products of certain preferred suppliers and that the firm selected those suppliers based in substantial part upon those firms' willingness to pay significant marketing fees; 3) no system was in place to prevent the firm and its financial advisors from a) suggesting to investors that they and the firm were "independent;" b) failing to disclose that the firm sold almost exclusively the products of its preferred suppliers; and c) failing to disclose that the preferred suppliers were paying significant marketing fees to the firm that created a financial incentive to promote the products of preferred suppliers; 4) his firm received special cash compensation for NAV transfers of mutual funds from a particular mutual fund company even though those fees were not disclosed in the prospectuses or related documents as required; and 5) his firm failed to adequately disclose that its financial advisors received referral fees as compensation for recommending their clients to the affiliated mortgage subsidiary. As part of the AWC, Mr. Hantz was censured, fined $25,000 and suspended from acting in a supervisory capacity with any NASD member for 30 days. Pursuant to the AWC, his firm was censured, fined $675,000, and required to 1) place disclosures on its Web site regarding the preferred supplier relationships; 2) notify existing and new customers of the preferred supplier relationships; 3) implement procedures for training its financial advisors regarding disclosures of the financial incentives and independence; 4) arrange for an independent consultant to review the adequacy of its policies, procedures and disclosures and submit a report; and 5) adopt the independent consultant's recommendations.

MISSOURI
Christopher J. Jacob (St. Louis):In November 2006, CFP Board issued Mr. Jacob a Letter of Admonition after its investigation of a state securities commission proceeding. After a hearing, the Board of Professional Review found that Mr. Jacob entered into a Consent Order wherein, without admitting or denying them, he consented to allegations that within a period of less than two full years, he switched a client from an existing long-term annuity to another long-term annuity that offered similar benefits but which restricted the client's access to retirement assets, subjected the client to higher mortality fees, extended the number of years of withdrawal charges and generated additional commissions for him and his supervisor. As part of the Consent Order, Mr. Jacob also consented to findings that he engaged in dishonest or unethical practices in the securities business by failing to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade when he sold four long-term annuities to a client with very little investment experience, even though the purchase involved approximately 90% of the client's net worth, restricted the client's access to those assets and generated repeated commissions for himself. As part of the Consent Order, Mr. Jacob agreed to accept heightened supervision for a twelve-month period, to pay a $6,000 administrative fine, and to pay $150,000 in restitution to the client.

NEW JERSEY
Robert M. Ryerson (Freehold):In November 2006, CFP Board issued Mr. Ryerson a Letter of Admonition after its investigation of an NASD inquiry. After a hearing, the Board of Professional Review found that the National Adjudicatory Council of NASD made the following findings and sanctions: 1) Mr. Ryerson engaged in private securities transactions for compensation without providing written notice to and obtaining written approval from his employer, for which he was suspended for two years in all capacities, ordered to re-qualify in all capacities, and fined $230,000; 2) Mr. Ryerson shared commissions with a non-NASD member, for which he was suspended for 15 business days, to run concurrently with the previous suspension, and fined $5,000; and 3) Mr. Ryerson failed to provide fully and promptly on-the-record testimony to NASD, for which no additional sanctions were imposed.

TEXAS
Sidney J. Lorio (Bedford):In November 2006, CFP Board issued Mr. Lorio a Letter of Admonition after its investigation of an NASD arbitration generally alleging that Mr. Lorio breached his fiduciary duty to a client and recommended unsuitable investments. After a hearing, the Board of Professional Review found that a panel of NASD arbitrators determined that Mr. Lorio used improper hedging techniques, created excessive risk in the security selection process, and failed to actively monitor and correct the risk of his client's portfolio.

November 2006 Exam Results Released

Score results for the November 2006 CFP® Certification Examination were recently released to exam takers. The 10-hour, two-day exam was conducted at 50 sites nationwide. Of the 3,642 individuals who sat for the November 2006 exam, 54 percent passed. Of the 1,954 exam takers who passed the exam, 899 completed the remaining requirements for CFP® certification within a week of the exam score release.

The November 2006 CFP® Certification Examination was the first exam to cover the 89-subject topic list created as a result of the 2004 Job Analysis Study of the job knowledge necessary to practice financial planning. CFP Board's CFP® Certification Examination requires full integration of knowledge covered in CFP Board's financial planning topic list and is designed to assess a person's ability to apply financial planning knowledge to real-life financial planning situations.

The next exam will be held March 16 and 17, 2007. The application deadline for the March 2007 exam is February 7, 2007. Read more about the CFP® Certification Examination.

Protecting the Trademarks: Everybody Wins

Since the release of the updated Guide to Use of the CFP® Certification Marks (Marks Use Guide) last September, CFP Board Report has featured several of the updated trademark rules in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of using CFP Board's trademarks properly. We've covered many trademark tips, from a reminder that the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ mark must be in all caps or a small cap font to a reminder of the tagline required to be included in materials that use the CFP® marks. We understand that the rules for using the CFP® marks correctly may seem cumbersome and irrelevant to the practice of financial planning. But there are several reasons trademark protection is vital to maintaining the ability of CFP® certification to identify competent and ethical financial planners.

While CFP Board is a standard-setting body, when it comes to trademarks, the standards are governed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Those rules and guidelines change from time to time, which causes CFP Board to update its guidelines for using the CFP® marks. CFP Board expects CFP® professionals to be focused on becoming financial planning experts -- not becoming experts on trademark law -- so CFP Board's Marks Use Guide was designed to present the sometimes complex rules of trademark usage to CFP Board's stakeholders in an easy-to-understand manner that addresses the specific situations in which CFP® certificants and other stakeholders may use the CFP® marks.

If CFP Board failed to take steps to ensure that the CFP® marks are used properly, the CFP® marks could lose their registration with the USPTO. Without registration, CFP Board would be unable to protect the marks from those who wish to use them to identify things other than CFP® certification. One phenomenon that can cause a trademark to lose registration is when a trademark is seen as being "generic." Words such as "aspirin," "escalator" and "yo-yo" were once registered trademarks, but each lost its trademark registration due to their widespread generic use. Companies today spend millions of dollars to prevent trademarks like iPod®, Google™, or Xerox® from becoming generic and losing trademark registration. In a country where people are allowed to call themselves "financial planners" without any specific training or regulatory oversight, it is especially important that the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ trademark be protected.

CFP Board recognizes that CFP® professionals work very hard to achieve CFP® certification. The right to display the CFP® marks after one's name is something to be proud of. We hope all CFP Board stakeholders appreciate that CFP Board's concern with the proper use of the CFP® marks is an effort that provides benefits to all who hold CFP® certification, and we thank all of you who have taken time to verify that your written materials use the CFP® marks correctly.

TRADEMARK TIP: The standard keyboard does not contain keys for the trademark symbol or registered trademark symbol, but there are keyboard shortcuts and that make it easy to add these symbols to your written documents.

• In standard PC word-processing software:
  • create the trademark ™ symbol by typing Ctrl - Alt - T
  • create the registered ® symbol by typing Ctrl - Alt - R, then superscript by selecting the symbol and typing Ctrl - Shift - +
• In standard Mac word-processing software:
  • create the trademark ™ symbol by typing Option - 2
  • create the registered ® symbol by typing Option - R, then superscript by selecting the symbol choosing "superscript" from the Format/Font menu
• In an html document:
  • create the trademark ™ symbol by typing ™ or ™
  • create the registered ® symbol by typing ^® or ^®

If you have a question about proper usage of CFP Board's trademarks, CFP Board's Trademark Department is available to answer your questions or review materials. Questions, materials and comments may be sent by e-mail to Compliance@CFPBoard.org or by fax to 303-860-7388.

CFP® Marks in the News

It was a year ago this month that Newsweek's nearly 19 million subscribers were invited to read Jane Bryant Quinn's answer to the question "Who qualifies as a 'genuine' financial planner." Her answer? A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.

Of course, Newsweek wasn't the only national publication to mention the value of CFP® certification. As more in the media learn about the public's interest in financial planning, more publications are directing their readers to seek out CFP® professionals when they need financial planning assistance. To keep you informed about some of the publications have featured CFP® certification, CFP Board has posted highlights on a "CFP® Marks in the News" Web page that we plan to update regularly.

CFP Board continues its efforts to promote awareness of CFP® certification among media outlets and the audiences they serve. Those efforts are greatly enhanced by the many CFP® professionals who are engaged in their own efforts to reach national and local media with the message of the benefits of financial planning and working with a CFP® professional. We appreciate all of you who help further awareness of CFP® certification across the country through your media contacts and your involvement with your communities.

Application Deadline Approaching for 2007 Financial Planning Grants Program
Application Deadline Extended to March 15, 2007

The March 15, 2007, deadline for submitting applications for CFP Board's 2006 Financial Planning Grants program is fast approaching! (The application deadline has been extended from March 1, 2007 to March 15, 2007.)

If you need funding for a distinct program that provides financial planning services or resources to non-traditional populations in a sustainable and innovative way, CFP Board is interested in hearing about it.

All grant applications must be submitted electronically, through the online grant application form or by e-mail to grants@CFPBoard.org, no later than March 15, 2007. (The application deadline has been extended from March 1, 2007 to March 15, 2007.)

Read more about CFP Board's 2007 Financial Planning Grants Program.

2007 Financial Planning Clinic: Join Your Colleagues in Boston on August 4

Join your colleagues in Boston this August as CFP® professionals gather to provide free financial planning information to people interested in experiencing the benefits of financial planning. Since the announcement of the 2007 Financial Planning Clinic last month, more than 100 CFP® professionals have generously offered their time and expertise to help answer financial questions at the 2007 Clinic. We expect the event to draw thousands of consumers, so there's still room for more participants.

At the Clinic, volunteer CFP® professionals meet one-on-one with individuals and families to answer their financial questions. The Boston Financial Planning Clinic builds on the success of the 2006 Financial Planning Clinic in Los Angeles, where thousands of individuals, couples and families received information from CFP® professionals. For many attendees, the event was an introduction to the benefits of financial planning, and the comments from both attendees and the CFP® professionals who assisted them were enthusiastic.

On Saturday, August 4, 2007, CFP Board will bring the Financial Planning Clinic experience to the Sheraton Boston Hotel from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. If you are a CFP® certificant interested in participating, apply online or contact CFP Board by e-mail at clinic@CFPBoard.org or by phone at 800-487-1497 with the following information:

• Name
• Phone Number
• E-mail Address
• Mailing Address
• If you are multi-lingual, the languages you would like to use at the Financial Planning Clinic.
• The general financial planning topics you are most interested in discussing with attendees.

Only CFP® certificants in good standing with CFP Board may participate. For additional information about the 2007 Financial Planning Clinic, visit www.CFP.net/clinic.