The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has appointed Edward Mora chairman of its Disciplinary and Ethics Commission, which polices the behavior of CFP designees.
Mora, who is vice president and senior relationship manager on the trust side of Bank of the West’s wealth management operation in Newport Beach, Calif., will act as chairman of the board for one year.
Mora’s primary responsibility at the CFP Board will be to preside over the three disciplinary hearings it holds per year. At each hearing, three-member panels weight up around 40 different cases, making recommendations to the commission on how it should adjudicate the case. Mora, in the immortal words of President George W. Bush, is the decider.
He doesn’t do so at whim—the commission has each prior case on file and applies their findings to the case at hand. The first hearing this year is Feb. 24 to Feb. 25. Mora expects more bankruptcy cases this year: They now represent 20% of all cases, which is a “very unique situation,” he says.
Going forward, Mora also plans to expand the CFP Board’s educational outreach in order to help members avoid possible rule violations before they happen. “My two goals are protecting the public and providing fair process,” he says. “I want the public to recognize that we have rigorous standards and that we rigorously enforce them.”
