Jack Brod, a retired executive of Vanguard, where he was most recently head of U.S. sales and distribution for RIAs, broker-dealers and banks, will serve as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in 2020.
Brod will serve as chair-elect in 2019. In this position he will help provide strategic direction for the organization, which recently issued a new Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct that will take effect at the end of 2019.
“This is a pivotal time for CFP professionals and the entire profession,” Brod said in a statement. “CFP Board has always been known for having high standards for the delivery of competent and ethical financial planning and advice. We are now setting the bar even higher with the requirement that all CFP professionals be held to a fiduciary standard when providing financial advice. The public can be confident that working with a CFP professional on a financial plan and providing advice will help them prepare for both their present and future financial situation.”
In recent years, Vanguard has emerged as perhaps the nation's largest employer of new CFP licensees as the no-load fund giant has moved into the advisory business
In addition to the implementation of the new standards, Brod takes office at a time when questions are swirling around who should be considered a financial advisor or financial planner. Some inside the industry want specific definitions for people to use those designations, which are now only vaguely defined.
The CFP Board has consistently set itself up as the arbiter of standards for its 81,000 mark holders. It has maintained that all CFP licensees should be held to a fiduciary standard, which requires advisors to place the interests of their clients first.
Under the Obama administration, the Department of Labor took the stance that it had the authority to regulate how advisors manage retirement savings accounts, and held they should be subject to a fiduciary standard. The agency's proposed fiduciary rule was announced in 2016 and was subsequently terminated earlier this year after intense lobbying from the securities and insurance industries.
Many believe The Securities and Exchange Commission is the appropriate regulatory agency to regulate both brokers and registered investment advisors.
Brod has held the CFP designation since 1991 and has served on CFP Board’s Board of Directors since 2017. Retired from Vanguard, he now teaches, consults, mentors, serves on the Board of Directors of Savant Capital Management, headquartered in Rockford, Ill., and advises financial technology companies.
Brod began his career as a financial planner in the late 1980s, becoming a regional leader of Price Waterhouse’s RIA executive wealth advisory practice. In 1995,he joined Vanguard to launch the company’s first advice offering for high-net-worth retail clients, ultimately leading a $20 billion wealth advisory business. He later led the company’s Corporate Strategy group, and spearheaded a major investment and business transformation in Vanguard’s Financial Advisor Services division, helping to increase the business from $300 billion to over $1.2 trillion.