Martin Kurtz will take the reins as president of the Financial Planning Association on Jan 1, 2011, the Denver-based organization announced today.
Regulation will be on the top of Kurtz’s list over the course of his term, as he expects to see a fiduciary standard pushed through by lawmakers. “How many professions do you see going to Washington and saying, ‘Raise our standards?’ That just doesn’t happen, but yet that’s exactly the position we’re taking,” Kurtz says. “We’re certainly hoping for the highest standard—the higher, the better.”
Kurtz is president of The Planning Center, an independent, fee-only financial planning firm in Moline, Ill. He has been an FPA member for 15 years and was elected to the FPA’s board last November to serve a three-year term.
In addition, Kurtz served on the board of directors for the FPA of Quad Cities, a chapter of the FPA that includes several communities in Iowa and Illinois, including Moline. He has also served as chair of the Board of Professional Review for the CFP Board and as a board member of Money Quotient, a non-profit organization focused on education and research within the financial planning industry.
Tom Potts, named FPA president-elect this year, takes office as president Jan. 1, 2010. Kurtz is looking forward to observing Potts, whom he calls a mentor, over the next year. “I have a year to listen and watch and observe and really try to pick up the ball and keep running when his term slow downs, it will be a learning year for me,” Kurtz says.
Potts is a professor of finance and director of the financial services program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He is the former president of the Academy of Financial Services and former chair of the CFP Board of Governors. In 2007, Potts notably received the first Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in financial planning education from the Personal Financial Association of Texas Tech.
