NAPFA names new chief executive officer

Among the challenges facing new NAPFA CEO Geoffrey Brown is making the trade association relevant to larger firms. Nearly half of the membership is comprised of sole practioners.

Geoffrey Brown will take over as the chief executive of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors on July 1, the group announced on Monday.

Mr. Brown will replace Ellen Turf, who has served as NAPFA chief executive since 1999 and has worked at the organization since 1992. The association, which is comprised of about 2,500 fee-only investment advisers, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Most recently, Mr. Brown managed daily operations for several associations as an account executive at Sentergroup, a consulting firm specializing in non-profit management. He also was an association manager for SmithBucklin Corp., an association management company.

Among the challenges that face Mr. Brown is determining how NAPFA can better serve large advisory firms, according to Jon Yankee, a NAPFA member and a partner at Fox, Joss & Yankee LLC. He notes that 47% of NAPFA’s members are solo practitioners.

“Addressing larger-firm issues is important for NAPFA,” said Mr. Yankee, whose company has 10 employees and $375 million in assets under management. “They run the risk of not being relevant to bigger firms.”

Another area that Mr. Brown will have to tackle is sorting out where the organization can make the biggest impact without duplicating other efforts elsewhere in the industry, according to Mr. Yankee.

For instance, NAPFA sponsors a program called NAPFA Genesis to support advisers under the age of 33. The Financial Planning Association has a similar program called NextGen.

“I don’t want to diminish either initiative,” Mr. Yankee said. “The question is, how much of [the NAPFA effort] is recreating the wheel and how much is new ground being broken?”

Mr. Brown also faces the pressure of meeting the high bar set by Ms. Turf, who increased NAPFA membership by about 1,500 advisers during her tenure.

“Ellen is such a tough act to follow,” said David O’Brien, a NAPFA member and owner of O’Brien Financial Planning Inc. “She did so much for NAPFA.”

Late last year, NAPFA made the decision only to allow into the organization new members who hold the Certified Financial Planner designation.