Griffin elected chairman of international planning body

FormerFinancial Planning Association(FPA) chairman Ray Griffin has become the first non-American financial planner to be elected chairman of the International Certfied Financial Planner (CFP) Council, following a landside election victory in Tokyo earlier this month.

The election, the first of its kind, comes almost six months after America’s CFP board stated it would relinquish some of its control to the new ruling world board.

“I’m very excited, and very honoured,” Griffin says. “It means that 17 member nations believed we [Australia] have a lot to contribute.”

“It made me think there is a recognised distinction, which people all across the world realise, not just in a few countries,” he says.

Griffin will officially take up his position on January 1, 2003. The date will also mark a milestone for the current US CFP Board, which will shrink in board members from 16 to nine. Of this nine, five will be elected from the US and four elected from outside the US.

As chairman, Griffin says he will automatically sit on the transformed board, which is yet to be given a new name, and will help transform the boards thinking outside financial planning towards a more broader financial services theme.

Despite Griffin accepting his new role, he says he will still be based out of Australia, and will continue with his planning practice, Gunter Doyle Griffin.

In November last year the US CFP board announced it would surrender some of its control to a new ruling world board, leaving the final say on global CFP matters to the new multi-national body.

Until January next year the Denver-based non-profit association reserves the decision making power for all domestic and international issues involving the CFP designation.

In 1990, Australia became the first country to join the International CFP Council, followed by Japan, which joined in 1992.

The council now includes members from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Austria, Brazil, Bermuda and Belgium are associate members, which means they intend to become full members with voting rights.