CFP Board Picks Ameriprise Exec as Chairman-Elect

After an earlier stumble this year, the CFP Board has elected a new chair for its board of directors.

Mike Greene, senior vice president of financial planning and advisor business development at Ameriprise Financial, was elected 2015 chair-elect of the board, becoming the third person to hold the post in the past three years.

Greene has served on the CFP board of directors since 2012, overseeing the firm’s financial planning business. He will become chair of CFP Board in 2016, after serving out the term of Joe Votava, who resigned as chair-elect earlier this year due to personal and business reasons.

RECENT CONFLICTS

Votava's surprise resignation followed a series of conflicts that have ensnared the board over the last few years.

In late 2012, it pressured then-sitting chairman Alan Goldfarb to step down from the board over his use of the term "fee-only." Shortly after Goldfarb's departure, married planners Jeffrey and Kimberly Camarda, of Fleming Island, Fla., followed through on a threat to sue. The board and the Camardas remain locked in an ongoing legal battle, which also centers on the couple's use of the fee-only term.

Several key figures have also left the board over the same period. Rex Staples left his job as director of investigations, a position the board had created for him, shortly after Goldfarb stepped down and news of the Camardas' lawsuit emerged. And Michael Shaw, one of board CEO Kevin Keller's closest longtime associates, left his position as the board's director of legal affairs last year.

"If the CFP Board is really so certain it will prevail in its lawsuit, why does it seem like all the leadership associated with the case is fleeing the organization?" Michael Kitces, a well-known industry blogger and Financial Planning contributor asked earlier this year in an interview. Kitces is director of planning research and partner at Pinnacle Advisory Group.

At the time of Votava's resignation, CFP Board spokesman Dan Drummond said there was "no connection"  between  the resignation and the Camarda litigation.

Before joining Ameriprise in 2002, Greene worked at McKinsey & Company, CNH Global N.V. and served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He received his Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and his Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

“Mike is a passionate leader who represents the best of the profession," CFP Board of Directors Chair Richard Rojeck said in a statement. "He is a vocal advocate for the financial planning profession, the CFP certification and the need for more advisors to obtain the certification so that they can help Americans with their most important financial decisions.”

Additional reporting by Ann Marsh.

Read more:

• CFP Board Loses Second Chairman in 3 Years
• CFP Board Aims to Fix Fee-Only "Mistake"
• $600,000 Legal Tab in CFP Board Lawsuit
• CFP Brand Awareness Up, Board Says