At the Board of Directors’ regularly scheduled meeting last month, our agenda included a report from the Ethics Task Force. This task force was charged with the responsibility of reviewing the comments provided to CFP Board about the proposed revisions to the Standards of Professional Conduct released in March. The task force faced the challenge of making the first significant updates to CFP Board’s ethics requirements since the Financial Planning Practice Standards were fully implemented in 2002. During the past year we’ve released two draft revisions for public comment and considered input from hundreds of CFP® professionals, employers of CFP® professionals and the public.

After reviewing the latest round of feedback, the Ethics Task Force recommended that CFP Board adopt an updated version of the Standards of Professional Conduct. I’m pleased to announce that the Board of Directors approved the updated Standards of Professional Conduct with an effective date of July 1, 2008.

When the Board formally began its review of CFP Board’s ethics standards in 2005, we set forth several goals: maintain the integrity of the standards; strengthen the standards where appropriate; make the standards understandable, with a logical organization and use of simple language; ensure the standards apply to all individuals over whom CFP Board has jurisdiction; and ensure the standards are something CFP Board can enforce. With input from CFP Board’s stakeholders, we believe we have put together an updated version of the Standards of Professional Conduct that meets those goals.

The updated Standards affirm that all CFP® professionals must put the interest of their clients ahead of their own and to provide financial planning services with a fiduciary duty of care, in the best interest of the client. We believe the updated Standards are a significant step forward in CFP Board’s efforts to ensure the public has access to competent and ethical financial planning, and we truly appreciate the feedback and assistance CFP Board’s stakeholders and allied organizations provided as these updated ethics standards were being developed.

We had several reasons for selecting a July 1, 2008 effective date for the updated ethics standards. Some of the changes in the updated Standards are significant, and we want to make sure there is adequate time for CFP® professionals, their employers and their educators to integrate the new ethical rules and have any questions answered. Over the next year, CFP Board will be working closely with educators to assist them in updating their materials with the content of the updated Standards. We’ll also be working with employers of CFP® professionals to assist them in bringing their supervisory procedures and documentation in line with the requirements of the updated Standards. And we will be developing information and materials for CFP® professionals to help them understand the revised Standards and integrate them into their daily practice.

We encourage all CFP® professionals to begin applying the updated Standards to their daily practice well in advance of the July 1, 2008 effective date. To help you get started, we’ve provided side-by-side comparisons of the language in the current and updated documents. We’ll be developing more tools and procedures to assist with the implementation of the revised Standards in the coming months. In the meantime, if you have questions about the Standards or suggestions for ways CFP Board can assist you with integrating the Standards to your business activities, please send them to CFP Board at mail@CFPBoard.org.

Many thanks to Marilyn Capelli Dimitroff, CFP®, who served as Chair of the Ethics Task Force during this latest process of updating CFP Board’s ethical standards, and to Dan Candura, CFP®, Alan Goldfarb, CFP® and Stewart H. Welch, III, CFP®, who each made invaluable contributions to the updated Standards. This task force took on a great challenge and has kept its focus on CFP Board’s mission to benefit the public.

I also want to thank Bob Glovsky, CFP® for his superb work as Chair of the Education Task Force that was assembled in 2006 to review CFP Board’s education requirements. This task force brought together experts from all areas of financial planning education, including Wade Delk, John Ebersole, Eva Kampits, Ph.D., Gary Matkin, Ph.D., Carol Lee Roberts, CFP®, Deanna L. Sharpe, Ph.D., CRPC®, CRPS®, CFP®, Richard Stumpf, MBA, CEBS, CFP®, Jerry Trapnell, Ph.D., CPA and Tom Warschauer, Ph.D., CFP®. At the May Board of Directors meeting, Bob shared the final report of the task force, which incorporated feedback received after the initial report was released in late 2006. The final report of the Education Task Force sets out a thoughtful blueprint for the future of CFP Board’s education standards, and we expect that report will guide the future work of CFP Board’s education staff.

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

As I take the helm at CFP Board, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to those of you I have not yet had chance to meet and discuss with you the priorities the Board of Directors has set for CFP Board.

I come to CFP Board after more than a dozen years with the Association for Financial Professionals, a membership organization for treasury and finance professionals that awards the Certified Treasury Professional certification. The last seven years I served as senior vice president and chief operating officer at AFP, with responsibility for implementing the strategic initiatives of the organization. Association management has been the focus of my career, and it is something I take seriously. I understand the value professionals place on certification — the feeling of pride engendered when someone chooses to expend great effort to achieve a voluntary mark of distinction within a profession. I also know that CFP® certification holds a special place in the financial planning community and strong recognition among the public that seeks professional financial planning assistance. CFP Board’s mission to help people benefit from competent and ethical financial planning is an important one with great potential.

The month since I became CEO of CFP Board has been very busy. The company’s management is undergoing transition; we are planning a transition to a new location, and key initiatives are proceeding. As busy as my first month has been, I didn’t want to miss this opportunity provide an update on CFP Board’s plans, including the pending move of our headquarters to Washington, D.C. and the other important initiatives underway.

CFP Board’s mission will remain steady as it relocates to Washington, D.C., even if the relocation is strategic as much as geographic. The move will allow CFP Board to have a more influential voice in public policy debates and to better serve the American public at a time when it is faced with more financial challenges and options than ever before. Given the public’s growing needs, we plan to continue CFP Board’s public education efforts and expand CFP Board’s staff with subject matter experts who will increasingly speak out on critical topics and CFP Board’s views. In the nation’s capitol, where retirement security and tax reform are among the prime topics of discussion, CFP Board will be better able to make its voice heard. Going forward, CFP Board will focus more of its efforts to ensure that the standards of competent and ethical financial planning encompassed by CFP® certification are increasingly recognized and respected as standards of excellence that benefit the public interest. While we are expanding our strategy, we believe this expansion complements CFP Board’s first priority: the public interest.

The transition is proceeding smoothly. We have secured temporary office space in Washington and identified space for a permanent office. We have outlined a new organizational structure for CFP Board that will allow it to continue its certification activities, increase its involvement in public policy and continue to reach out to our various stakeholders. In the next few weeks we will begin posting job openings and begin staffing the Washington office, including several positions that will require the expertise of CFP® professionals. Our goal is to open the permanent Washington office at the start of October 2007 and to close the Denver office by year’s end.

Much of my first month at CFP Board has been spent looking forward, but our daily work is also proceeding. I would be remiss in not recognizing the exemplary dedication of CFP Board’s staff to the company’s mission. During this period of change, staff remains engaged with their work and has kept a “business as usual” attitude even as we’ve taken on significant new tasks, including the implementation of the updated Standards of Professional Conduct. I appreciate staff’s commitment to keeping CFP Board's operations running smoothly, and I’ve enjoyed working with them each day.

I am truly grateful for the generous level of contribution that CFP® professionals and other CFP Board stakeholders are making to CFP Board. From the more than 150 CFP® professionals who have signed up to provide the public with free financial information at this year’s Financial Planning Clinic in Boston, to the educators who are hard at work planning this year’s Program Directors Conference, to the task forces that have completed thoughtful and detailed analysis and recommendations regarding CFP Board’s ethics standards and education requirements, it’s clear the financial planning community needs little prompting to come together for a common purpose. It bodes well for CFP Board and the future of the financial planning profession.

During the next few months, I look forward to meeting many of CFP Board’s stakeholders and representatives of other organizations with allied missions. It would be difficult to understate financial planning’s relevance for the growing options Americans face as they make plan to invest, retire and make everyday financial decisions. CFP Board will continue to develop relationships and partnerships to help the public benefit from financial planning, to maintain the strength of the CFP® certification standards, and to increase the influence of CFP® certification.

Kevin R. Keller, CAE
CEO, CFP Board

Art and money don’t mix, right? That, at least, was the message I picked up as a college student, when I was more interested in perusing the Romantics than perfecting my resume. I got the impression that it was impossible to pursue both creativity and wealth at the same time. After I graduated and entered the “real” world, it turned out to be pretty much true: It is incredibly difficult to simultaneously earn a living and sustain a creative life. That’s part of the reason why the image of the “starving artist” — the impecunious poet surviving in his garret on boiled rice and absinthe — has always held such allure. That allure has invested poverty with a kind of glamour, as long as it is endured for art’s sake. It is worth asking, though: Can art and money ever be reconciled?

In his book The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World, Lewis Hyde, professor of creative writing at Kenyon College, begins to suggest an answer. (The book, originally published in 1983, is being re-issued and is also known as The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property and The Gift: Art, Imagination and the Power of the Creative Spirit.) “Works of art exist simultaneously in two ‘economies,’” Hyde writes, “a market economy and a gift economy.” Hyde defines a “gift economy” as one in which reciprocal giving is the basis of exchange. In other words, I give something to you based on the understanding that you, in turn, will give something to someone else, and that this process of serial gift-giving will continue indefinitely. He cites examples of gift economies from anthropological studies of tribal people, including the Massim, who inhabit the South Sea islands near New Guinea.

The Massim conduct a ceremonial exchange called the Kula, in which the inhabitants of various islands continually present each other with necklaces and armbands made of shells. Whenever an individual receives such a gift, he or she is expected to eventually give one in return, so jewelry ends up in constant circulation. The Kula is one way the Massim, dispersed across so many islands, keep a sense of community alive. For Hyde, it is also a model of the gift economy. “In a gift society,” he writes, “the increase follows the gift and is itself given away, while in a market society the increase (profit, rent, interest) returns to its ‘owner.’”

Thinking about artistic works as part of a gift economy helps explain the difference between “pure” and “commercial” art. Artists are, after all, “gifted” individuals. Their talent is a gift, which they nurture and develop and then pass on in the form of poems, paintings, music, etc. We receive the artist’s gift every time we read the poem, look at the painting, or hear the piece of music. Works of art remain in circulation, and increase our cultural wealth, through the effect they have on us. Andy Warhol — who, ironically, gained fame by painting images of money — put it well when he wrote: “An artist is someone who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he, for some reason, thinks it would be a good idea to give them.”

Commercial art, in contrast, is made in response to market demand. If people want paintings of weeping clowns, then that’s what commercial artists will make. Because commercial art is, by definition, a commercial transaction, Hyde argues that it remains a commodity rather than art: “A work of art can survive without the market, but where there is no gift there is no art.”

Trouble is, while works of art can survive without the market, artists cannot. They need money. It will always be difficult for artists who cannot earn a living from their art alone to earn a living by other means. But there is at least one basic principle of economics that always works in their favor: scarcity. Artists have a monopoly on the production of their art. No one else can make what they make. If demand for their art goes up, prices will go up, too — as one British street merchant recently discovered to his chagrin.

A few months ago, a man offered Sam Khan, who has sold luggage and soccer scarves on a central London street corner for the past 30 years, $2,000 in cash for graffiti that had been spray-painted onto the wall of his stall. Mr. Khan took the money, happy to be rid of what he considered a piece of vandalism. A few days later he read in the newspaper that an art gallery had put that same section of wall — which showed a stencil of a young boy holding a paintbrush — on sale for half a million dollars. What Mr. Khan thought was a worthless piece of graffiti was actually one of the few remaining outdoor works by Banksy, who a few years ago was unknown but is now one of the hottest artists in the world. Few artists can command prices as high as Banksy’s, but his success does offer some hope to all those currently laboring in obscurity.

It’s difficult enough to survive in one economy; artists have to survive in two. “How, if art is essentially a gift, is the artist to survive in a society dominated by the market?” Hyde asks. The answer is, of course, by making the market work for them. Artists conduct commerce with the soul — and those transactions are priceless. The market rules; there’s no denying that. But supporting artists, especially local ones who may not have access to the wider market, is a gift we can give back to them. Art creates community, just as the Kula exchange does for the Massim. By supporting local artists we give the soul market a much-needed boost, helping alleviate in some small way the conflict artists face when all they have to sell is their gift.

- James Geary

CFP Board’s Workplace Education Program was developed in 2002 as a key element of a larger strategy to help make financial planning available to underserved segments of the general public. At the time, a series of circumstances and corporate scandals had left many employees anxious and confused about their own financial security. With an economy in recession, skyrocketing consumer debt and the collapse of Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen, there had never been a better time to direct financial planning education to employees. For average Americans, the locus for financial planning is the workplace. Employees must make very important decisions about retirement planning, health, life and disability insurance, tax management and other issues that affect their finances – and many are required to make these decisions within the compressed time frame of open enrollment. Unfortunately, these critical financial decisions are quite often made quickly and without guidance from qualified professionals.

The Workplace Education Program has provided Human Resource professionals with educational resources to help employees learn about the benefits of financial planning. From posters and flyers offering information about the importance and benefits of financial planning, to presentation materials, newsletter articles and Financial Planning Resource Kits, these materials remind employees of the need to plan their own futures, regardless of the benefits offered by their employers.

While many companies provide employees with educational materials about financial issues, others go further by including options for financial planning services in their employee benefits packages. For example, it’s becoming more common for Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) to be enhanced to include access to legal and/or financial services, such as the enhanced EAP offered to Google employees.

Financial planning subsidies are also offered by some companies to employees who seek financial planning assistance from qualified financial professionals. Denver Water Board, for example, offers its employees an option to discuss their retirement plan disbursement options with a financial planner within six months of their anticipated retirement dates. The company has contracted with a group of financial planners who have agreed to provide services within a certain fee structure, and employees who choose to receive additional services are responsible for paying any additional fees incurred beyond the eight hours subsidized by Denver Water Board. Other organizations that offer a financial planning subsidy include Boston College and CFP Board.

Some employers take the financial planning needs of their employees so seriously that they hire financial planners as full-time employees to serve as a resource for other employees. Employees are encouraged to meet individually with the on-staff financial planner for any financial planning-related assistance they might need. The Houston Police Officers Pension System, for example, has hired as a full-time employee a local CFP® professional to provide Houston police officers free financial planning advice on an as-needed basis. The CFP® professional cannot sell or recommend any specific products or make referrals to other financial planners, but the on-staff planner can act as a middleman between the police officers and the financial marketplace. Other organizations with on-staff CFP® professionals include Wells Real Estate Funds, Howalt McDowell Insurance and many credit unions.

As an increasing number of employers take steps to help their employees establish, maintain or improve their financial security, several companies and financial planners have focused their businesses on offering financial planning education and advice through the workplace.

The Heartland Institute for Financial Education (HIFE), for example, offers low-cost financial planning education seminars to employees of all income levels. The seminars are taught by experienced financial planners who have been certified by HIFE to become teachers of adult learners, and the seminars not only help increase the employees’ understanding of financial concepts, but they also encourage employees to make the decision to seek financial planning assistance from a qualified financial planning professional. Approximately 60 percent of employees who participate in HIFE seminars go on to seek financial planning assistance from the financial planner who instructed the seminar, many of whom are CFP® professionals.

Myfinancialadvice, Inc (MFA) offers an online service platform that connects employees with CFP® practitioners directly through their company’s HR intranet. Employees receive live, one-on-one advice from the CFP® professional of their choice, delivered by phone and e-mail through a secure Web site. Depending on the pre-paid package options selected by their company, employees may receive retirement planning 401(k)/403(b) advice, assistance evaluating Health Savings Account options, and any of a number of financial planning services. At the close of each advice session, the employee receives a highly personalized written advice summary, including the adviser’s analyses and recommendations.

Health Savings Account (HSA) options offered by MFA have become increasingly popular with Human Resource professionals, with employers such as the law firm Bryan Cave and the international consulting group ORC Macro offering the service to employees with excellent results. Susan Bruckert, Benefits Manager for Bryan Cave, said “the service helped [the employees] to understand the value of health savings accounts, as well as determine if this type of plan is a good option for them.” Rhonda Goldstein, Benefits Manager for ORC Macro, sees great benefit from the HSA service’s focus on advice rather than investment products, observing that the employees “liked that they could feel like no one was trying to sell them something.” ORC Macro employees who took advantage of the HSA service rated their advisers across a number of service dimensions including professionalism, objectivity and quality of advice, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest), the composite customer rating of advisers was an astounding 9.87. One ORC Macro employee commented that the financial planner “was helpful even beyond delivering my project, offering advice for the coming year. I greatly appreciate that.”

Why would an employer offer access to financial planning in the workplace? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Financially-stressed employees are less productive, which negatively affects the bottom line. Furthermore, employees who are offered tax-advantaged retirement or healthcare plans such as a 401(k) plan or Health Savings Account, but who are confused as to how they work or how to allocate money, tend to adopt such plans at a very low rate when they do not have access to financial guidance. However, when employees do adopt these plans, their employers gain significant savings. For example, an increase in employee contributions to a company’s 401(k) plan means a bigger tax break for the employer; likewise, the larger the plan, the greater the employer’s negotiation power with plan fees. Increased HSA plan adoption may also provide a company with significant savings on FICA tax, premiums and claims costs. And employer liability is reduced by the use of CFP® professionals who are registered investment advisers and must work in the employee’s best interest. There is a tremendous incentive, therefore, for employers to sponsor and pay for targeted advice on complex healthcare, retirement plans and other financial products and accounts.

The payoff for employers who provide access to financial planning in the workplace is obvious: a reduction in the employee stress and absenteeism that so often stems from personal financial difficulties; an increase in employee productivity, which means an increase in the bottom line; and tangible savings that come from increased participation in employer-sponsored retirement plans and account-based health plans. New, more personalized and scalable solutions for delivering financial planning in the workplace are here, and through the workplace the financial planning profession may finally be able to serve those who need it most.

Employers and CFP® certificants interested in learning more about Heartland Institute of Financial Education’s financial planning education seminars may contact them at 303-597-0197 or www.heartlandfinancialeducation.org.

CFP® certificants interested in learning more about Myfinancialadvice.com’s programs may contact Tim Cunningham, CFP® here. Employers interested in providing their employees with access to financial planning advice through the Internet may contact Ron Peremel here.

You’re never too young (or too old!) to learn about money management. Two CFP Board grant recipients — Northwoods Saves and The Friends of The Finance Academy — are proving that by involving high school students in their financial education programs.

Should you ever find yourself in northern Wisconsin on a late Monday afternoon, make sure to tune in to the 5 o’clock news on WJFW TV 12 Rhinelander. Look out for Money Watch, a three-minute segment on personal finance that goes out live as part of every Monday afternoon broadcast. The program covers a diverse range of topics, from renters’ insurance to funeral trusts, and is the creation of Northwoods Saves, part of the national America Saves campaign. Northwoods Saves picks the topics and provides the presenters for each program, and is using its grant from CFP Board to extend this kind of innovative educational activity throughout northern Wisconsin.

“Many of the people in our region rely on seasonal employment, boating on the Great Lakes in the summer and snowmobiling in the winter,” says Northwoods Saves executive director Phil Schlachtenhaufen. “They are mostly low- and moderate-income people with few opportunities for financial education. Money Watch is a great way to reach them.” Northwoods Saves does more than just TV, though. The organization also conducts workshops throughout northern Wisconsin, visiting businesses, colleges, libraries and community centers to spread the financial planning message. And Schlachtenhaufen himself has visited a number of high schools as part of Northwoods Saves’ effort to reach young people.

“Kids don’t even suspect what financial planning is all about,” Schlachtenhaufen says. “They have no idea about things like pensions or matching funds from employers.” To introduce basic financial planning concepts to high school kids, Schlachtenhaufen sticks to real-life examples. In one session, he had a group of students work out a budget detailing how much it would cost for basics like owning a car, renting an apartment, buying groceries, and having some fun on the weekends with friends. They came up with about $30,000 a year. Then Schlachtenhaufen asked, Where as a high school dropout can you find a job that pays $30,000 a year? “The answer, of course, is nowhere,” he says. “The message was, Stay in school. The workshops are a wake-up call for a lot of kids. They realize they need to start thinking about this stuff now.”

The message seems to be getting through, and not just to high school students. The number of Northwoods Saves workshops and one-on-one financial counseling sessions has doubled each year for the past two years. The organization is now looking to extend its workshops to all the area’s public libraries, to offer adult education at a nearby technical college, and to launch a financial literacy program geared to the unique situations faced on Native American Reservations in the region. “Many people are put off financial planning because they don’t understand the language,” says Schlachtenhaufen. “If we can help give them that understanding, they will feel more comfortable. They will understand where they’re at, and how to make changes.”

The Friends of The Finance Academy (FOFA) is using its CFP Board grant to effect change, too; in its case, among residents of the Pine Bush area of New York state. Pine Bush is largely rural, and to date locals have had few places to turn to for financial advice. The FOFA is trying to change that, in part by setting up a series of financial planning seminars for the Pine Bush community — and getting high school students involved in the process.

Before launching the seminars, the FOFA conducted a survey to determine the financial education needs of the community. “The top three issues were retirement, investment and insurance,” says the FOFA’s Phil LaRocco, CFP®. Instead of preparing educational materials on these topics himself, though, LaRocco asked a group of about 40 high school juniors and seniors to read the Wall Street Journal Complete Personal Finance Guidebook. The students were then asked to develop (with a little help from LaRocco, of course) a PowerPoint presentation to be used in the seminars. “The students had to read the book,” LaRocco explains. “They had to find out what a mutual fund is. They had to find out what compound interest means. In other words, they had to learn about financial planning—and hopefully, see how financial planning can help them, too.”

The students were all part of the Academy of Finance, a program of the National Academy Foundation that aims to introduce high school students to the principles of and career opportunities in the financial services industry. “Our goal,” says LaRocco, “is to educate Pine Bush residents about the financial planning process and to demonstrate that education, even at the high school level, can benefit our community.” Appropriately enough, one of the hottest issues for the next series of seminars is — you guessed it — saving for college.

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

Updated Standards of Professional Conduct Adopted: Effective July 1, 2008

Revised Standards Strengthen Ethical Guidelines for CFP® Professionals and Help Foster Greater Consumer Confidence

CFP Board’s Board of Directors recently voted to adopt a revised version of its Standards of Professional Conduct, which sets forth the ethical standards for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals. The revised ethical standards apply to the more than 55,000 financial planners in the U.S. who are authorized by CFP Board to use the CFP® certification marks. The revised standards become effective July 1, 2008.

“Ethics has always been a vital part of the requirements for CFP® certification,” said Karen P. Schaeffer, CFP®, Chair of CFP Board’s Board of Directors. “CFP Board believes these updated standards reflect the level of ethical service the public deserves from financial planning professionals.”

The revised standards require a CFP® professional to “at all times place the interest of the client ahead of his or her own.” The new language replaces the lower standard of “reasonable and prudent professional judgment” contained in CFP Board’s current Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

The revised standards also require CFP® professionals who provide financial planning services do so with the duty of care of a “fiduciary,” a term partly defined as acting “in the best interest of the client.” The heightened duty of care significantly strengthens the current requirement that financial planning services be performed “in the interest of the client.”

Intensive review of CFP Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct began in 2005 with the Board of Directors’ decision to review all of CFP Board’s ethics-related functions. Two drafts of proposed revisions were released for public comment, and the Board of Directors appointed an Ethics Task Force to review the comments received and make recommendations a course of action.

“When we set out to update CFP Board’s ethical standards, we understood that input from CFP Board’s stakeholders was a necessary part of the process,” said Marilyn Capelli Dimitroff, CFP®, Board of Directors member and Chair of the Ethics Task Force. “The quality of the comments CFP Board received was impressive and demonstrated the financial planning profession’s dedication to high ethical standards.”

The updated Standards include several changes made in response to comments on the Second Exposure Draft, including the following:

• A definition of financial planning subject areas was added back to the terminology section.
• The definition of financial planning was expanded to include some initial guidance regarding what may be considered material elements of the financial planning process.
• The language of certain Principles was revised for improved consistency of presentation.
• The required disclosures and their ongoing nature under Rules 1.2 and 1.3 were stated more explicitly, as were certificants’ responsibilities to prospective clients.
• A new rule was added in section 4: Obligations to Prospective Clients and Clients reinstating the requirement to maintain competency.
• References to agents and principals were added to Section 5: Obligations to Employers.
• The current requirement in Article 12.2 of the Disciplinary Rules and Procedures requiring reporting of criminal convictions and professional suspensions/bars was added to the Rules of Conduct.

Through July 2008, when the revised standards take effect, CFP Board will undertake a campaign to educate CFP® professionals and financial planning educators about the impact of the revised standards. Side-by-side comparisons of the language in the current and updated Standards are now available on CFP Board’s Web site, and additional tools and procedures will be developed in the coming months to assist with the implementation process. Those with questions about the updated Standards or suggestions about ways CFP Board can assist you with integrating the standards to your business activities may be sent to CFP Board at mail@CFPBoard.org.

“CFP Board believes the revised Standards of Professional Conduct move the ethical standards for CFP® certification forward in a way that benefits the public,” said Schaeffer. “We believe these updated standards are enforceable, strong, and presented in a manner that will help the public understand the level of ethical service they deserve from CFP® professionals.”

CFP Board Disciplinary Actions

CFP Board recently announced public disciplinary actions against the following individuals' rights to use the CFP® certification marks:

• James W. Brophy (Winston-Salem, North Carolina): Suspension for one year and one day
• Randy R. Brunson (Duluth, Georgia): Suspension for 90 days
• Lawrence K. Bushey (Ventura, California): Suspension for one year and one day
• Brandon J. Cook (Reston, Virginia): Revocation
• Richard A. Daniels (Chagrin Falls, Ohio): Permanent Relinquishment
• Peter J. Dawson, II (Huntington, New York): Interim Suspension
• Jay J. Gianni (Depew, New York): Revocation
• Joel M. Johnson (Wethersfield, Connecticut): Suspension for three months
• Michael W. Keffler (Lolo, Montana): Suspension for 21 months and 19 days
• Michael D. Mathias, CFP® (Mt. Kisco, New York): Letter of Admonition
• Phillip J.W. Miles, CFP® (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania): Letter of Admonition
• Samuel G. Morocco (Canfield, Ohio): Permanent Relinquishment
• Scott D. Patterson (Memphis, Tennessee): Permanent Relinquishment
• James Charles Stone (Post Falls, Idaho): Revocation
• Donna M. Vogt (Campbellsport, Wisconsin): Revocation
• Robert L. West (Greenwood Village, Colorado): Revocation
• Kevin J. White (Hudson, New York): Revocation

Read more about these disciplinary actions.

Amendment to Disciplinary Rules and Procedures Approved

At its meeting on May 24, 2007, the Board of Directors approved a resolution to amend Article 5.5 of the Disciplinary Rules and Procedures to allow individuals involved in interim suspension proceedings to respond to an Order to Show Cause with an Offer of Settlement, pursuant to Article 13.

Results from March 2007 CFP® Certification Examination Released

Score results for the March 2007 CFP® Certification Examination were recently released to exam takers. The 2-day, 10-hour exam was conducted at 50 sites nationwide. 1,358 (61 percent) of the 2,225 individuals who sat for the exam in March received a passing mark. As of June 1, 2007, 936 of the exam takers who passed the March 2007 exam had completed the remaining requirements to attain CFP® certification.

CFP Board's CFP® Certification Examination requires full integration of knowledge covered in CFP Board's 89-subject financial planning topic list and is designed to evaluate one's ability to apply a comprehensive understanding of financial planning to real-life financial planning situations.

The next exam will be held July 20 and 21, 2007. The application deadline for the July 2007 exam is June 6, 2007. Read more about the CFP® Certification Examination.

Trademark Tip

If you’ve changed your name to something other than the name in CFP Board’s records, consumers who visit CFP Board’s Web site to verify your CFP® certification status may not be able to find correct information. Use of the CFP® marks with a new name not in CFP Board’s records may also cause CFP Board’s trademark department to question whether that use of the CFP® certification marks is unauthorized. This situation is easy to avoid. If you’ve changed your name after getting married, or for any other reason, you can notify CFP Board by faxing documentation showing your legal name change (a copy of your marriage certificate, etc.) to 303-860-7388.

As part of its Regional Trademark Education Initiative, CFP Board’s trademark department has been contacting certificants in the Boston area about materials that use the CFP® marks incorrectly. While the trademark department’s focus is currently on the Boston area, we encourage all CFP® certificants to take a moment to review their business materials for trademark compliance. To ensure that your use of CFP Board’s trademarks complies with the recently updated guidelines, please review our Guide to Use of the CFP® Certification Marks. If you have any questions or would like to send in your materials for review, please contact us at compliance@CFPBoard.org.

Virginia Tech Takes 8th Annual Ameriprise Financial Planning Invitational

A team from Virginia Tech took home the trophy at the 8th annual Ameriprise Financial Planning Invitational. From April 18-21, 2007, eight teams visited the Ameriprise Financial headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn. to compete in the championship round of a contest that challenges college students to demonstrate the depth of their personal financial planning knowledge as they strive to best meet the financial planning needs of a fictional “client” through an elaborate case study.

Earlier in the year, undergraduate students from U.S. colleges and universities with financial planning educational programs registered with CFP Board were invited to form teams of three. Each of the teams worked to develop a comprehensive personal financial plan for a fictitious couple. The plans were submitted to a six-judge panel that evaluated each plan to find which best incorporated all six major financial planning areas. After the judging, eight teams were invited to the final round in Minneapolis.

The final round of the 2007 competition brought together teams from Appalachian State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Minnesota State Mankato, Slippery Rock University, Texas Tech University, Virginia Tech and Wright State University. Once in Minneapolis, the finalists presented their plans to a panel of judges and competed in a Jeopardy-like “How Do You Know?” challenge that tested their knowledge of personal financial planning.

Each team was then presented with a significant twist to the original client profile and asked to carry out an on-the-spot revision to their original plan, accounting for the modification. The revised plans and recommendations were presented to the panel of three judges, Kathleen M. Longo, CFP®, Principal with Accredited Investors, Inc. in Edina, Minn., James M. Knaus, CFP®, CFP® practitioner in Troy, Mich. and Faculty Chair at Oakland University’s Personal Financial Planning Program, and Jonathon T. Guyton, CFP®, Principal of Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn. At the end of the day, the team from Virginia Tech was judged the national winner and ranked first for best plan presentation.

(left to right) Patrick McGonigle, Christina Smith and Michael Kane comprised the winning team that earned Virginia Tech its second victory in four years. Dr. Ruth Lytton served as Team Advisor.

In addition to the trophy, Virginia Tech was awarded $10,000 in scholarship money to support their financial planning program and each winning team member received $450 in cash, a one-year membership to the Financial Planning Association, and a scholarship for continued professional study in financial planning from the College of Financial Planning. CFP Board, which has sponsored the competition for several years, provided lodging and transportation to all students and faculty participating in the Invitational.

The annual Invitational competition aims to challenge students to demonstrate a high level of understanding and appreciation for the financial planning process by offering them an opportunity to test their financial planning knowledge against their peers’ at a fully-engaged level. Participants gain first-hand experience in dealing with a real-life financial planning situation, and they are also able to interact with and hear from prominent financial planners employed by Ameriprise Financial and other firms.

2007 Financial Planning Clinic in Boston: Educational Workshops Added

CFP Board’s 2007 Financial Planning Clinic at the Boston Sheraton Hotel on August 4, 2007 will offer consumers an opportunity to meet one-on-one with CFP® professionals to ask their financial questions. We’ve also added three educational sessions: Vincent E. Bonazzoli, JD will provide information about estate planning, John Pallaria, CFP®, ChFC, CRPS® will present tips for planning college funding, and Michael Rubin, CFP® will share cash flow management strategies to help people make the most of their current income.

If you are involved with groups or organizations in the Boston area that might be interested in providing their members or constituents with brochures or information about the Financial Planning Clinic, please contact CFP Board at clinic@CFPBoard.org or 800-487-1497.

CFP Board welcomes inquiries from CFP® certificants interested in participating. To participate or learn more about the Financial Planning Clinic, visit CFP Board’s Web site at: www.CFP.net/clinic

Workshop on Hurricane Recovery for Financial Planners

Financial Planning Association (FPA) is holding a free half-day workshop on Friday, June 15, 2007 in New Orleans for planners in the Gulf Coast Area (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) who are still working to recover from the 2005 hurricane season, when storms led by Katrina and Rita devastated the region. It will be held at the Hilton New Orleans Airport from 8:30 a.m. to noon, before the start of the FPA Chapter Pro Bono Directors’ Forum.

The free workshop, titled Reenergize Your Business, Your Life, and Your Community, will include:

Session 1: Overcoming the Storm: a session about the emotional and psychological impact of natural disasters and ideas about how to reenergize yourself and accelerate your recovery, presented by Cynthia Lanza, LCSW, BCSAC, a clinical social worker and New Orleans resident with extensive experience in individual and family counseling.

Session 2: A Blueprint to Rebuild Your Business: a session that will offer systems and processes to help build the business you want, presented by Margo Spencer, Regional Vice President with AIG Financial Advisors and a business development expert and coach.

Session 3: Creating Order Out Of Chaos: a session that will introduce tools and techniques to help clients move through long-term recovery to the life they want, presented by Susan Bradley, CFP®, who has pioneered the practice of helping clients manage major life changes and helped advise pro bono planners on helping clients following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

To register, please contact Diana DeCharles, CFP® at 318-221-7527 or by e-mail. Registration is requested by June 11, 2007.

For those unable to attend in person, the workshop will be recorded and posted on the FPA Pro Bono Web site for later listening. This workshop is made possible by the support of the Foundation for Financial Planning.

Coming Soon: Employment Opportunities at CFP Board’s Washington Headquarters

CFP Board’s move to Washington, D.C. will open up unique employment opportunities for qualified individuals in the financial planning community. Some of the key positions for the 50-person Washington office will require the subject matter expertise of CFP® professionals and/or financial planning educators. As recruiting begins and job postings are made available, information about the employment opportunities will be posted on CFP Board’s Web site. The home page of www.CFP.net will include navigation options that take visitors directly to the position listings.