CFP Board taps Merrill Lynch exec to run biz development

Aiming to extend its outreach to large financial services firms, the CFP Board has hired Joseph V. Maugeri as its director of business development. Mr. Maugeri comes to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was vice president for managed solutions and head of the firm's Professional Alliance referral program. In his new position, Mr. Maugeri — himself a CFP — will encourage financial planning officers at major financial services firms, including wirehouses, to use and understand the CFP certification and to turn to the organization for professional education. The CFP Board's spokesman, Dan Drummond, would not divulge who Mr. Maugeri's predecessor was, per the organization's policy. “Mr. Maugeri will be responsible for raising the visibility of the CFP designation within the financial services industry, irrespective of a specific field.” In 2009, the CFP Board drafted ethical standards that clashed with the business models at some broker-dealers, insurers and other companies. In one example, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. told some of its independent agents to give up their CFP designations so that they didn't violate the fiduciary standard of care within the company's ethical code. Later that year, the tiff with insurers and other companies with CFP designees prompted the CFP Board to create a business model working group, made up of representatives from those firms, in the hope of drafting guidelines to help broker-dealers, carriers and others comply with the standards. Mr. Maugeri’s hire isn’t related to the CFP Board’s previous clash with financial services firms, Mr. Drummond said. "This is a long-standing position that, taking one form or another, even pre-dates CFP Board’s move to Washington, D.C.,” he said. “Raising the visibility and building relationships within the financial services industry is, and will continue to be, a priority."