Tuttle to Retire, Kitces to Join Journal of Financial Planning: FPA Town Hall Meeting

A town-hall-style meeting with FPA’s leadership on Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz. produced two interesting announcements, namely, the organization’s CEO and executive director Marv Tuttle will retire in mid-2014, and AdvisorOne contributor Michael Kitces will join the staff of the Journal for Financial Planning as practitioner editor.

The meeting featured comments from, and questions and answers with, Paul Auslander, the president; Marty Kurtz, the  chairman; Michael Branham, the president-elect; and Tuttle.

Auslander began by noting the association has existed for 12 years, and much of the first decade was spent integrating the two organizations from which it was formed; the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP) and the International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP), into a common mission.

“We now are well into our second decade, and as such, have a second-decade strategy, which is what happens when an organization begins to mature,” Auslander said.

He noted the organizational review recently undertaken by the association, which was done in order to “ensure the values of the board and leadership are aligned with those of our members.”

He said the results that came from the review included:

• A renewed commitment to actively promoting the CFP designation
• A realigned membership in which they are placed into categories; for example those with the CFP designation, those without the CFP who are financial services professionals, and allied members that might be psychologists and other professionals that work in a financial capacity.

Tuttle then took over, and described the recently released “long-term strategic vision” of the association, one that involves four key areas of focus: membership, organization, profession and society.

“States will become more and more important to our mission,” he said. “It will result in better coordination of advocacy between state chapters and the overall organization.”

Tuttle then announced that the FPA is developing a succession plan for his planned retirement in 2014.

“I’d like to continue with the organization, but from the outside looking in, rather than from the inside looking out,” he added.

Tuttle also said the well-known speaker, author and advisor Michael Kitces (left) will join the staff of the Journal of Financial Planning as a contributing editor.

“Michael will help us with the overall direction of the publication, specifically with practitioner issues,” Tuttle said.