The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards today announced sanctions against 12 current or former certified financial planner professionals. Penalties can range from public censures, suspensions and temporary bars to permanent bars and revocations of the right to use the CFP marks.
The board said five of the public sanctions resulted from investigations it opened following background checks conducted on all CFP professionals to detect potential misconduct that previously had not been reported to the board. The violations can range from regulatory actions, firm terminations, customer complaints, arbitrations and civil court litigation that involve professional conduct, criminal matters, bankruptcies, civil judgments, and tax liens.
Of the sanctioned individuals, five were publicly censured, one received an administrative suspension, one was suspended, one was permanently barred, three received administrative revocations and one had his right to use the CFP marks revoked.
An administrative revocation is imposed by CFP Board counsel while a revocation is the termination of a respondent’s certification and trademark license, permanently barring a person from applying for or obtaining CFP certification.
Receiving the most severe sanction was Daniel G. Dillard of Austin, Texas, who had his right to use the CFP designation revoked for “a pattern of conduct that reflects adversely on his integrity or fitness as a certificant, upon the CFP marks,” and rules violations, according to the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission. Dillard was cited for misconduct that included failing to timely pay the Internal Revenue Service $271,682.69 for tax years 2012 through 2018, resulting in three IRS tax liens; failing to pay the Texas, resulting in a state tax lien filed against him in 2018; falling into arrears on court-ordered child support payments, resulting in a state court judgment exceeding $20,556; failing to monitor his bank account balances, resulting in overdraft fees each year between 2016 and 2020; and being sued over consumer credit card debts to recover more than $56,000 in outstanding debt, the board said.
The commission said Dillard also violated CFP Board's conduct rules by making misleading statements to the board when the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) cautioned him for failing to timely disclose the Texas state tax lien. Dillard was disciplined and suspended for six months by the board in 2017 after an incident in which he forged a signature, the board said.
Dean Perez Elmer of Greenville, S.C., was issued an administrative order permanently revoking his right to use the CFP certification marks, following his failure to file and answer to CFP Board’s complaint within the required timeframe. The board alleged that Elmer violated board rules and conduct when he filed for his second Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2019.
Robert M. Ryerson of Freehold, N.J. had his right to use the CFP certification marks suspended for one year and a day. The board said Ryerson had two outstanding federal tax liens by the IRS, totaling more than $76,000. The board said $31,000 of the debt will remain unpaid because Ryerson’s 2012 tax lien expired. “Mr. Ryerson had no plan in place to repay the remaining tax lien and the IRS listed the debt as ‘uncollectible,’” the board said. Ryerson also had more than $100,000 outstanding in additional unpaid federal taxes, at least two consumer debt judgments against him, and considerable student loan balances that were in collections, the board said.
James E. Stahel of Crystal Lake, Ill., was permanently barred from applying for or obtaining the CFP certification marks for refusing to cooperate with a CFP Board investigation. The board said it sought to investigate a January 2021 action against him by the Illinois Securities Department, but Stahel failed to answer to the board’s complaint on time.
Those receiving public censures included David B. MacLaren of Kernersville, N.C. The board said MacLaren consented to findings that he violated its rules of conduct by failing to pay his federal taxes, which resulted in a debt of $160,303. “This tax debt was the direct result of a failure to pay income taxes resulting from high-volume, short-term trading, funded with liquidated retirement accounts,” the board said. It added that MacLaren satisfied this debt in July of 2021.
Michael D. Hostetler of Marietta, Ga., was publicly censured for incurring tax liability for six tax years going back to 2010, resulting in the IRS filing five federal tax liens totaling $145,302 and Georgia filing two state tax liens totaling $4,788, the board said, adding that Hostetler satisfied all the liens. Also, Hostetler in January 2020 filed a petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy to halt foreclosure proceedings on his primary residence but then voluntarily dismissed the bankruptcy filing, the board said. “Mr. Hostetler subsequently made a false or misleading statement to CFP Board by failing to disclose the bankruptcy filing on his Ethics Declaration merely five months later, thus violating Rule 6.2 of the Rules of Conduct,” the board said.
