#newbridge securities problems

[rexsecuritieslaw]

Dean Nowak- Former Newbridge Securities Broker -Has Multiple Pending Customer Disputes- Winter Park, FL

Dean Nowak Investigation March 2023- Winter Park, FL According to publicly available records Dean Nowak, a broker previously employed by  Newbridge Securities Corporation,  discloses 5 pending customer disputes. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the agency that licenses and regulates stockbrokers and brokerage firms. FINRA requires brokers and brokerage firms to report…

[buzzblend]

Widow loses life savings after ‘firetrap’ developer fails to repay €150k loan

A controversial developer who asked to borrow the life savings of an 81-year-old widow has failed to repay the money after half a decade of broken promises.

In 2017, the widow gave €160,000 in cash to developer Paddy Byrne, who built the Millfield Manor estate in Co. Kildare where six houses burnt to the ground in under 30 minutes in 2015.

The cash was for a penthouse apartment in Dublin she planned to move into.

The development was built by Victoria Homes, a company that was established by Mr Byrne’s sister Joan just before Mr Byrne was precluded from acting as a company director in Ireland for five years.

After viewing plans for the €630,000 property, in a development called Greygates in Mount Merrion, the pensioner withdrew the cash from her bank and gave it to Mr Byrne.

Some €10,000 of this was a deposit, with the remaining €150,000 provided on the advice of a third party who was known to Mr Byrne and the widow, who said the cash would secure a good price.

According to a handwritten receipt, signed by Mr Byrne, the money was provided on May 29, 2017.

But in November 2017 the widow, a retired primary school teacher, found a more suitable home and asked for her money back.

Mr Byrne agreed to this, saying he would have no problem selling the penthouse and promptly refunded the €10,000 deposit.

However, he asked that the remaining €150,000 be treated as a 14-month loan and promised to pay a 10% annual interest rate.

This effectively turned the widow into an unwitting creditor of Victoria Homes.

According to a handwritten agreement, signed by Mr Byrne, the loan was to be ‘paid back from the sales proceeds’ of the penthouse at his Greygates development.

More than half a decade later, the loan remains unpaid – even after the widow made a criminal complaint to gardaí and took legal action to secure a judgement.

As it is a civil matter, the Garda investigation faltered. And because various other unpaid creditors had previously secured judgements against Victoria Homes, the widow is now unlikely to get her savings back. During the Celtic Tiger years, Paddy Byrne was renowned for his €2.4m Sikorsky helicopter and sponsorship of the Irish National Hunt festival.

But in 2011 his then-firm, Barrack Homes, went bust and Mr Byrne declared bankruptcy in Britain with debts of €100m.

He was banned from acting as a UK director for 10 years in 2012.

This ban was scheduled to end in 2022 – and ran the full course – but it only applied in the UK and Wales.

According to the UK insolvency register today, Mr Byrne’s discharge from UK bankruptcy is ‘suspended indefinitely’ until the fulfilment of conditions made in a 2012 court order.

Separately, in Ireland, he was also restricted from acting as a director for a period of five years – which ended in January 2018.

Mr Byrne is also known for building the Millfield Manor estate in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, where half a dozen houses were razed to the ground within 30 minutes in 2015.

A report into the blaze found ‘major and life-threatening serious shortfalls and discrepancies and deviations from the minimum requirements of the national mandatory building regulations’ at Mr Byrne’s development.

Today, having exited bankruptcy, Mr Byrne is best known as the figurehead behind Victoria Homes and associated businesses, which was set up by his sister and her husband in December 2012, while he was bankrupt.

Mr Byrne was not a director or owner of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy. But, in 2017, Mr Byrne’s sister and her husband stepped back from Victoria Homes, transferring their shares to an offshore entity in Belize city called Victoria Holdings.

In November 2022, the main lenders to Victoria Homes – the Lotus Development Group – forced the firm into receivership for the second time.

In 2020, Lotus had forced a previous short-lived receivership before agreeing a deal that saw Victoria Homes begin trading normally once more.

Today, Mr Byrne appears to have left Victoria Homes behind and seems to be focusing on a new firm instead.

Set up in the summer of 2020, Branach Developments is entirely owned by Mr Byrne and is not encumbered by any bank debt or mortgages as Victoria Homes was.

According to the latest filed accounts, for the year ended 2021, Branach Developments held ‘tangible assets’ of €210,000 and ‘stocks’ of €600,000.

The accounts also show that, in 2021, Mr Byrne provided the company with an interest-free loan of €1,024,438.

Just last week Mr Byrne’s new firm was one of the winners at the National Property Awards sponsored by the Business Post and Deloitte, among others.

At the award ceremony, Branach Developments took home the prize for best sustainability initiative of the year.

However, Mr Byrne, who shuns publicity and is rarely photographed, does not appear to have attended the ceremony and the award was accepted by a colleague.

This week the Irish Mail on Sunday sent queries to Mr Byrne via his mobile phone, his email at Victoria Homes and his email at Branach Developments, without response.

Queries to his solicitor and the separate accountancy firms representing Victoria Homes and Branach Developments also went unanswered as did calls to the numbers on the websites of these firms.

Mr Byrne also previously declined to respond to questions from the MoS relating to the establishment of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy.

At the time, Mr Byrne appeared to be living at Ballinrahin House, close to Rathangan on the border of Offaly and Kildare.

The home is a luxury build on 26 acres of stud-railed paddocks with six stables and a 1.3km tree-lined avenue behind electric gates.

The property was on sale for €2.8m in 2009, but land registry records confirm that, in November 2014, it was sold to Victoria Homes for a knockdown price of €484,000.

Ownership of Ballinrahin House was transferred offshore to Victoria Holdings in Belize on April 10, 2018, just weeks before Mr Byrne was due to repay the €150,000 back to the widow.

[flat-roof-edinburgh]

HOW METAL ROOFING BENEFITS YOUR HOME DURING THE WINTER

Winters can be rough. Making sure that your home is prepared for winter is very important and could mean investing in a new roof. But what’s the best choice for your home? There are many benefits to metal roofing, and it could be the extra help that your home needs to thrive this winter.

 EASY AND FAST INSTALLATION

One of the great things about metal roofing is that it can be easily installed in the winter. While shingles can also be installed in winter, it is more difficult. Metal roofing materials don’t become brittle in the extreme cold like shingles or other materials can, and this type of roofing is also quickly installed. A speedy installation can be very important, especially if you need your roof replaced or repaired in the middle of winter with snow storms approaching. You want your home to be exposed to the elements for the least amount of time possible.

 ENERGY EFFICIENT

All homes need proper insulation, and part of that means maintaining a good roof. A metal roof is an insulator itself and naturally reflects UV radiation, making your home warmer in the harsh winter months and cooler in the summer. Other roofing materials, such as shingles, absorb UV rays, making it more difficult to warm and cool your home. You’ll save money and energy with a metal roof while also keeping your home secure and insulated.   

 DRAINAGE

Ice dams and the weight of snow can potentially cause major issues for your home during the summer months. Metal roofing has excellent drainage, which allows both rain and snow to quickly drain off of the roof, rather than potentially freezing on the roof and causing larger problems. Metal roofing is also one of the lightest materials, which means the additional weight of snow won’t cause any structural problems for your home.

 LOW MAINTENANCE AND HIGH ENDURANCE

Metal roofing is known for its high endurance in any weather condition. It is designed to withstand snow, ice, and high winds at a much higher capacity than other roofing materials; this results in relatively low maintenance. Repairs for leaks, termites, and other pests are also rare occurrences. The lifespan of a metal roof is 40 to 70 years, while traditional roofs have a lifespan of 15 to 30.

If you’re considering replacing your roof for the winter months, a metal roof may be the best option for your home.

Source:

No.1 Recommended Roofing Services In Edinburgh:

 Ronald G Graham Roofing & Building Ltd

Name: Ronald Graham

Web: https://www.ronaldgrahamroofing.com/

Address: 20 Gordon St, Edinburgh EH6 8NA, United Kingdom

Tel .: +441315555121

Email: enquiries@ronaldgrahamgroup.co.uk

 Opens at 9:00 AM

 ·         Sunday: Closed

·         Monday: 9AM–5PM

·         Tuesday: 9AM–5PM

·         Wednesday: 9AM–5PM

·         Thursday: 9AM–5PM

·         Friday: 9AM–5PM

·         Saturday: Closed

 "If you are looking for "roofing services in edinburgh" Contact RGR now!

https://www.ronaldgrahamroofing.com/

 Ronald G Graham Roofing & Building Ltd serve Roofing by location in Edinburgh:

1.      Abbeyhill

2.      Alnwickhill

3.      Ardmillan

4.      Baberton

5.      Balerno

6.      Balgreen

7.      Bankhead

8.      Barnton

9.      Beechmount

10. Bingham

11. Blackford

12. Blackhall

13. Bonaly

14. Bonnington

15. Braepark

16. Braid Hills

17. Broomhouse

18. Broughton

19. Brunstane

20. Bruntsfield

21. Calton Hill

22. Cammo

23. The Canongate

24. Canonmills

25. Chesser

26. Church Hill

27. Clermiston

28. Clovenstone

29. Colinton

30. Comely Bank

31. Comiston

32. Costorphine

33. Craigcook

34. Craigentinny

35. Craigleigh

36. Craiglockhart

37. Craigmillar

38. Craigour

39. Crewe Toll

40. Currie

41. Curriehill

42. Dalmeny

43. Dalry

44. Dean Village

45. Drumbrae

46. Drylaw

47. Duddingston

48. Dumbiedykes

49. East Craigs

50. Easter Road

51. Edinburgh Park

52. Ferniehill

53. Fernieside

54. Firrhill

55. Fountainbridge

56. Gilmerton

57. Gogarloch

58. Goldenacre

59. Gorgie

60. Grassmarket

61. Greenback

62. Greendykes

63. Greenhill

64. Haymarket

65. Hermiston

66. Holyroof

67. Ingilston

68. Inverleith

69. Junipers Green

70. Kaimes

71. Kingsknowe

72. Lauriston

73. Liberton

74. Little France

75. Lochend

76. Löchrig

77. Longstone

78. Marchmont

79. Maybury

80. Mayfield

81. Meadowbank

82. Merchiston

83. Moray Estate

84. Moredum

85. Morningside

86. Mortonhall

87. Mountcastle

88. Muirhouse

89. Murrayfield

90. Newtown

91. Newbridge

92. Newcraighall

93. Newington

94. Niddrie Mains

95. Northfield

96. Old Town

97. Oxgangs

98. Parkgrove

99. Parkhead

100.                     Piershill

101.                     Pilrig

102.                     Pilton

103.                     Polwarth

104.                     Portobello

105.                     Portsburgh

106.                     Powderhall

107.                     Prestonfield

108.                     Quartermile

109.                     Raeburn Place

110.                     Ravelston

111.                     Redford

112.                     Restalrig

113.                     Riccarton

114.                     Roseburn

115.                     Saughton

116.                     Sciennes

117.                     Seafield

118.                     Shandon

119.                     Sighthill

120.                     Silverknowes

121.                     Silvermill

122.                     Slateford

123.                     South Gyle

124.                     Stenhouse

125.                     Stockbridge

126.                     Swanston

127.                     Tolcross

128.                     Trinity

129.                     Victoria Park

130.                     Warriston

131.           ��         Waterfront

132.                     West Coates

133.                     West Craigs

134.                     West End

135.                     West Pilton

136.                     Wester Broom

137.                     Wester Hailes

138.                     Western Harbour

About Author- Sam Cole

[mccartneynathxzw83]

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

Not all CFPs may be comfortable with cryptocurrencies. But, like it or not, CFPs themselves are now part of the disruptive blockchain technology on which crytocurrencies are based, thanks to a new offering from the CFP Board.

The board has placed information about all 83,000 CFPs onto a publicly accessible blockchain distributed ledger to give members a new way to rapidly verify their certification status via a digital link. CFPs can send clients or prospects the link, which also can be embedded on websites, social media accounts and in documents. Click on it, and a certificate appears on screen. (View one CFP’s certificate.)

Digital technologies have “raised our service expectations,” the board’s CEO Kevin Keller wrote in an August newsletter announcing the offering, which launched this week. “We want to find information with a click or two, or a brief exchange with Alexa or Siri. If we can’t find what we’re looking for with minimal effort, there’s no limit to the other pressing — or not-so-pressing — things that want our attention.”

Portion of an email the CFP Board sent announcing the digital certificate — which confused some CFP veterans.

The initiative is an important consumer protection, the board told Financial Planning this week, adding that it “provides a 21st century solution to an age-old problem of certificate verification.”

CFP Kristin Fang said she’s likely to use the signature. “It’s very nice to have a quicker and more effective and efficient way to verify certifications,” says Fang, an advisor with Evensky & Katz/Foldes Financial Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida. “That’s impressive.”

Blockchain ledgers, which can be public or private, are managed by a distributed network of users. One of the technology’s main value propositions is that its data, once created, supposedly cannot be altered, theoretically assuring its legitimacy. That also makes the board’s decision to publish data a functionally permanent one.

The digital certificate belonging to CFP Morgan McGovern, of FJY Financial, with offices in Midland, Texas, and Reston, Virginia.

Each advisor’s certificate is verified via the blockchain-based credential verification firm Accredible, which claims clients like Google, Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The company, headquartered in San Francisco, did not respond to requests for comment.

Although CFPs’ data is stored on a public blockchain, they can configure their accounts to make it private, according to the board.

Even for those who don’t opt for privacy, the board says it has ensured that their data is protected. No highly sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or dates of birth, have been publicized. The only information used for verification purposes is a CFP’s name and date of certification, both of which are already publicly available on the board’s website, the board says.

That information is encrypted in the form of a secure multi-character code called a hash, according to the board.

“A recipient’s information cannot be reverse-engineered or exposed using the blockchain,” the board said in its statement. And while the “hash is used to verify whether the information on a certificate has been changed, [it] does not allow anyone to see what the personal information was.”

None of this information was included in the board’s four-paragraph announcement about the signature this week, which may have raised more questions than it answered.

“I am struggling to reconcile what problem the CFP Board is trying to solve,” says Bill Winterberg, a CFP and tech consultant to other advisors through his company, FPPad.

“Is there rampant widespread CFP credentialing fraud? Are thousands of people claiming they have a CFP certification and winning business through nefarious tactics and is CFP Board failing to find them and failing to bring legal action against them?”

Winterberg, along with CFP Adam Cmejla of Integrated Planning & Wealth Management in Carmel, Indiana, wondered why the board is duplicating a system that already works on its own website for verifying CFP status.

“Did the board spend money on a solution to a problem that didn’t exist just so it could look ‘forward thinking’ by using blockchain?” Cmejla asked in a tweet over the summer, following Keller’s August newsletter on the subject.

Winterberg questions the cost, saying “Maybe they are overpaying for this outside agency.”

The Accredible website says it charges $160 a month to certify from 1,000 to 2,000 people a year. In 2018 the board certified 1,061 new CFPs.

In advertising its ease of use, the tech company also offers to create certificates for all of an organization’s credential holders with just a few clicks.

In response to critics, the board pointed out to Financial Planning that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant, uses digital certificates and Linkedin says they will become increasingly important in online profiles, to establish credibility.

Although Fang says she is likely to use the certificate, she adds that she understands why other CFPs might not.

“They may be concerned about the technology itself. They may be thinking it may not be as mature as they thought it would be,” Fang says. “It seems that blockchain is decentralized, so [the board] could lose control over that.”

Vincent Barbera, a CFP and managing partner of Newbridge Wealth Management in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, says having his information up on the blockchain doesn’t concern him.

“It’s easy to be scared of it since we don’t understand it, but I think it’s fine,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to use the certificate.

“As a CFP, this offers me no value,” he says. “I really have no interest in sharing this in my email signature. I have never seen this as a pain point.”

Delia Fernandez, founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos, California, says she’s deleted several emails the board has sent her about the offering because, at first glance, they looked like scams.

Indeed, the board’s January 15 email to Fernandez begins, “Congratulations! You are now a Certified Financial Planner professional!”

Fernandez got her CFP in 2007.

“Doesn’t that sound weird if you took the exam years ago?” she says. “That’s why I ignored it.”

Setting aside questions about the privacy of her data, which she assumes the board has handled responsibly, Fernandez says she’s not sure if she’ll use the signature either.

“It’s one more layer of computer technology that I have to think about,” she says, “and I don’t know if it’s relevant.”

Ann Marsh

Ann Marsh is a senior editor and the West Coast bureau chief of Financial Planning. Follow her on Twitter at @Ann_Marsh.

Source link http://bit.ly/2GfHBfr

[adrianjenkins952wblr]

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

Not all CFPs may be comfortable with cryptocurrencies. But, like it or not, CFPs themselves are now part of the disruptive blockchain technology on which crytocurrencies are based, thanks to a new offering from the CFP Board.

The board has placed information about all 83,000 CFPs onto a publicly accessible blockchain distributed ledger to give members a new way to rapidly verify their certification status via a digital link. CFPs can send clients or prospects the link, which also can be embedded on websites, social media accounts and in documents. Click on it, and a certificate appears on screen. (View one CFP’s certificate.)

Digital technologies have “raised our service expectations,” the board’s CEO Kevin Keller wrote in an August newsletter announcing the offering, which launched this week. “We want to find information with a click or two, or a brief exchange with Alexa or Siri. If we can’t find what we’re looking for with minimal effort, there’s no limit to the other pressing — or not-so-pressing — things that want our attention.”

Portion of an email the CFP Board sent announcing the digital certificate — which confused some CFP veterans.

The initiative is an important consumer protection, the board told Financial Planning this week, adding that it “provides a 21st century solution to an age-old problem of certificate verification.”

CFP Kristin Fang said she’s likely to use the signature. “It’s very nice to have a quicker and more effective and efficient way to verify certifications,” says Fang, an advisor with Evensky & Katz/Foldes Financial Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida. “That’s impressive.”

Blockchain ledgers, which can be public or private, are managed by a distributed network of users. One of the technology’s main value propositions is that its data, once created, supposedly cannot be altered, theoretically assuring its legitimacy. That also makes the board’s decision to publish data a functionally permanent one.

The digital certificate belonging to CFP Morgan McGovern, of FJY Financial, with offices in Midland, Texas, and Reston, Virginia.

Each advisor’s certificate is verified via the blockchain-based credential verification firm Accredible, which claims clients like Google, Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The company, headquartered in San Francisco, did not respond to requests for comment.

Although CFPs’ data is stored on a public blockchain, they can configure their accounts to make it private, according to the board.

Even for those who don’t opt for privacy, the board says it has ensured that their data is protected. No highly sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or dates of birth, have been publicized. The only information used for verification purposes is a CFP’s name and date of certification, both of which are already publicly available on the board’s website, the board says.

That information is encrypted in the form of a secure multi-character code called a hash, according to the board.

“A recipient’s information cannot be reverse-engineered or exposed using the blockchain,” the board said in its statement. And while the “hash is used to verify whether the information on a certificate has been changed, [it] does not allow anyone to see what the personal information was.”

None of this information was included in the board’s four-paragraph announcement about the signature this week, which may have raised more questions than it answered.

“I am struggling to reconcile what problem the CFP Board is trying to solve,” says Bill Winterberg, a CFP and tech consultant to other advisors through his company, FPPad.

“Is there rampant widespread CFP credentialing fraud? Are thousands of people claiming they have a CFP certification and winning business through nefarious tactics and is CFP Board failing to find them and failing to bring legal action against them?”

Winterberg, along with CFP Adam Cmejla of Integrated Planning & Wealth Management in Carmel, Indiana, wondered why the board is duplicating a system that already works on its own website for verifying CFP status.

“Did the board spend money on a solution to a problem that didn’t exist just so it could look ‘forward thinking’ by using blockchain?” Cmejla asked in a tweet over the summer, following Keller’s August newsletter on the subject.

Winterberg questions the cost, saying “Maybe they are overpaying for this outside agency.”

The Accredible website says it charges $160 a month to certify from 1,000 to 2,000 people a year. In 2018 the board certified 1,061 new CFPs.

In advertising its ease of use, the tech company also offers to create certificates for all of an organization’s credential holders with just a few clicks.

In response to critics, the board pointed out to Financial Planning that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant, uses digital certificates and Linkedin says they will become increasingly important in online profiles, to establish credibility.

Although Fang says she is likely to use the certificate, she adds that she understands why other CFPs might not.

“They may be concerned about the technology itself. They may be thinking it may not be as mature as they thought it would be,” Fang says. “It seems that blockchain is decentralized, so [the board] could lose control over that.”

Vincent Barbera, a CFP and managing partner of Newbridge Wealth Management in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, says having his information up on the blockchain doesn’t concern him.

“It’s easy to be scared of it since we don’t understand it, but I think it’s fine,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to use the certificate.

“As a CFP, this offers me no value,” he says. “I really have no interest in sharing this in my email signature. I have never seen this as a pain point.”

Delia Fernandez, founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos, California, says she’s deleted several emails the board has sent her about the offering because, at first glance, they looked like scams.

Indeed, the board’s January 15 email to Fernandez begins, “Congratulations! You are now a Certified Financial Planner professional!”

Fernandez got her CFP in 2007.

“Doesn’t that sound weird if you took the exam years ago?” she says. “That’s why I ignored it.”

Setting aside questions about the privacy of her data, which she assumes the board has handled responsibly, Fernandez says she’s not sure if she’ll use the signature either.

“It’s one more layer of computer technology that I have to think about,” she says, “and I don’t know if it’s relevant.”

Ann Marsh

Ann Marsh is a senior editor and the West Coast bureau chief of Financial Planning. Follow her on Twitter at @Ann_Marsh.

Source link http://bit.ly/2GfHBfr

[vanessawestwcrtr5]

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

Not all CFPs may be comfortable with cryptocurrencies. But, like it or not, CFPs themselves are now part of the disruptive blockchain technology on which crytocurrencies are based, thanks to a new offering from the CFP Board.

The board has placed information about all 83,000 CFPs onto a publicly accessible blockchain distributed ledger to give members a new way to rapidly verify their certification status via a digital link. CFPs can send clients or prospects the link, which also can be embedded on websites, social media accounts and in documents. Click on it, and a certificate appears on screen. (View one CFP’s certificate.)

Digital technologies have “raised our service expectations,” the board’s CEO Kevin Keller wrote in an August newsletter announcing the offering, which launched this week. “We want to find information with a click or two, or a brief exchange with Alexa or Siri. If we can’t find what we’re looking for with minimal effort, there’s no limit to the other pressing — or not-so-pressing — things that want our attention.”

Portion of an email the CFP Board sent announcing the digital certificate — which confused some CFP veterans.

The initiative is an important consumer protection, the board told Financial Planning this week, adding that it “provides a 21st century solution to an age-old problem of certificate verification.”

CFP Kristin Fang said she’s likely to use the signature. “It’s very nice to have a quicker and more effective and efficient way to verify certifications,” says Fang, an advisor with Evensky & Katz/Foldes Financial Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida. “That’s impressive.”

Blockchain ledgers, which can be public or private, are managed by a distributed network of users. One of the technology’s main value propositions is that its data, once created, supposedly cannot be altered, theoretically assuring its legitimacy. That also makes the board’s decision to publish data a functionally permanent one.

The digital certificate belonging to CFP Morgan McGovern, of FJY Financial, with offices in Midland, Texas, and Reston, Virginia.

Each advisor’s certificate is verified via the blockchain-based credential verification firm Accredible, which claims clients like Google, Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The company, headquartered in San Francisco, did not respond to requests for comment.

Although CFPs’ data is stored on a public blockchain, they can configure their accounts to make it private, according to the board.

Even for those who don’t opt for privacy, the board says it has ensured that their data is protected. No highly sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or dates of birth, have been publicized. The only information used for verification purposes is a CFP’s name and date of certification, both of which are already publicly available on the board’s website, the board says.

That information is encrypted in the form of a secure multi-character code called a hash, according to the board.

“A recipient’s information cannot be reverse-engineered or exposed using the blockchain,” the board said in its statement. And while the “hash is used to verify whether the information on a certificate has been changed, [it] does not allow anyone to see what the personal information was.”

None of this information was included in the board’s four-paragraph announcement about the signature this week, which may have raised more questions than it answered.

“I am struggling to reconcile what problem the CFP Board is trying to solve,” says Bill Winterberg, a CFP and tech consultant to other advisors through his company, FPPad.

“Is there rampant widespread CFP credentialing fraud? Are thousands of people claiming they have a CFP certification and winning business through nefarious tactics and is CFP Board failing to find them and failing to bring legal action against them?”

Winterberg, along with CFP Adam Cmejla of Integrated Planning & Wealth Management in Carmel, Indiana, wondered why the board is duplicating a system that already works on its own website for verifying CFP status.

“Did the board spend money on a solution to a problem that didn’t exist just so it could look ‘forward thinking’ by using blockchain?” Cmejla asked in a tweet over the summer, following Keller’s August newsletter on the subject.

Winterberg questions the cost, saying “Maybe they are overpaying for this outside agency.”

The Accredible website says it charges $160 a month to certify from 1,000 to 2,000 people a year. In 2018 the board certified 1,061 new CFPs.

In advertising its ease of use, the tech company also offers to create certificates for all of an organization’s credential holders with just a few clicks.

In response to critics, the board pointed out to Financial Planning that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant, uses digital certificates and Linkedin says they will become increasingly important in online profiles, to establish credibility.

Although Fang says she is likely to use the certificate, she adds that she understands why other CFPs might not.

“They may be concerned about the technology itself. They may be thinking it may not be as mature as they thought it would be,” Fang says. “It seems that blockchain is decentralized, so [the board] could lose control over that.”

Vincent Barbera, a CFP and managing partner of Newbridge Wealth Management in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, says having his information up on the blockchain doesn’t concern him.

“It’s easy to be scared of it since we don’t understand it, but I think it’s fine,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to use the certificate.

“As a CFP, this offers me no value,” he says. “I really have no interest in sharing this in my email signature. I have never seen this as a pain point.”

Delia Fernandez, founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos, California, says she’s deleted several emails the board has sent her about the offering because, at first glance, they looked like scams.

Indeed, the board’s January 15 email to Fernandez begins, “Congratulations! You are now a Certified Financial Planner professional!”

Fernandez got her CFP in 2007.

“Doesn’t that sound weird if you took the exam years ago?” she says. “That’s why I ignored it.”

Setting aside questions about the privacy of her data, which she assumes the board has handled responsibly, Fernandez says she’s not sure if she’ll use the signature either.

“It’s one more layer of computer technology that I have to think about,” she says, “and I don’t know if it’s relevant.”

Ann Marsh

Ann Marsh is a senior editor and the West Coast bureau chief of Financial Planning. Follow her on Twitter at @Ann_Marsh.

Source link http://bit.ly/2GfHBfr

[courtneyvbrooks87]

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

Not all CFPs may be comfortable with cryptocurrencies. But, like it or not, CFPs themselves are now part of the disruptive blockchain technology on which crytocurrencies are based, thanks to a new offering from the CFP Board.

The board has placed information about all 83,000 CFPs onto a publicly accessible blockchain distributed ledger to give members a new way to rapidly verify their certification status via a digital link. CFPs can send clients or prospects the link, which also can be embedded on websites, social media accounts and in documents. Click on it, and a certificate appears on screen. (View one CFP’s certificate.)

Digital technologies have “raised our service expectations,” the board’s CEO Kevin Keller wrote in an August newsletter announcing the offering, which launched this week. “We want to find information with a click or two, or a brief exchange with Alexa or Siri. If we can’t find what we’re looking for with minimal effort, there’s no limit to the other pressing — or not-so-pressing — things that want our attention.”

Portion of an email the CFP Board sent announcing the digital certificate — which confused some CFP veterans.

The initiative is an important consumer protection, the board told Financial Planning this week, adding that it “provides a 21st century solution to an age-old problem of certificate verification.”

CFP Kristin Fang said she’s likely to use the signature. “It’s very nice to have a quicker and more effective and efficient way to verify certifications,” says Fang, an advisor with Evensky & Katz/Foldes Financial Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida. “That’s impressive.”

Blockchain ledgers, which can be public or private, are managed by a distributed network of users. One of the technology’s main value propositions is that its data, once created, supposedly cannot be altered, theoretically assuring its legitimacy. That also makes the board’s decision to publish data a functionally permanent one.

The digital certificate belonging to CFP Morgan McGovern, of FJY Financial, with offices in Midland, Texas, and Reston, Virginia.

Each advisor’s certificate is verified via the blockchain-based credential verification firm Accredible, which claims clients like Google, Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The company, headquartered in San Francisco, did not respond to requests for comment.

Although CFPs’ data is stored on a public blockchain, they can configure their accounts to make it private, according to the board.

Even for those who don’t opt for privacy, the board says it has ensured that their data is protected. No highly sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or dates of birth, have been publicized. The only information used for verification purposes is a CFP’s name and date of certification, both of which are already publicly available on the board’s website, the board says.

That information is encrypted in the form of a secure multi-character code called a hash, according to the board.

“A recipient’s information cannot be reverse-engineered or exposed using the blockchain,” the board said in its statement. And while the “hash is used to verify whether the information on a certificate has been changed, [it] does not allow anyone to see what the personal information was.”

None of this information was included in the board’s four-paragraph announcement about the signature this week, which may have raised more questions than it answered.

“I am struggling to reconcile what problem the CFP Board is trying to solve,” says Bill Winterberg, a CFP and tech consultant to other advisors through his company, FPPad.

“Is there rampant widespread CFP credentialing fraud? Are thousands of people claiming they have a CFP certification and winning business through nefarious tactics and is CFP Board failing to find them and failing to bring legal action against them?”

Winterberg, along with CFP Adam Cmejla of Integrated Planning & Wealth Management in Carmel, Indiana, wondered why the board is duplicating a system that already works on its own website for verifying CFP status.

“Did the board spend money on a solution to a problem that didn’t exist just so it could look ‘forward thinking’ by using blockchain?” Cmejla asked in a tweet over the summer, following Keller’s August newsletter on the subject.

Winterberg questions the cost, saying “Maybe they are overpaying for this outside agency.”

The Accredible website says it charges $160 a month to certify from 1,000 to 2,000 people a year. In 2018 the board certified 1,061 new CFPs.

In advertising its ease of use, the tech company also offers to create certificates for all of an organization’s credential holders with just a few clicks.

In response to critics, the board pointed out to Financial Planning that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant, uses digital certificates and Linkedin says they will become increasingly important in online profiles, to establish credibility.

Although Fang says she is likely to use the certificate, she adds that she understands why other CFPs might not.

“They may be concerned about the technology itself. They may be thinking it may not be as mature as they thought it would be,” Fang says. “It seems that blockchain is decentralized, so [the board] could lose control over that.”

Vincent Barbera, a CFP and managing partner of Newbridge Wealth Management in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, says having his information up on the blockchain doesn’t concern him.

“It’s easy to be scared of it since we don’t understand it, but I think it’s fine,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to use the certificate.

“As a CFP, this offers me no value,” he says. “I really have no interest in sharing this in my email signature. I have never seen this as a pain point.”

Delia Fernandez, founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos, California, says she’s deleted several emails the board has sent her about the offering because, at first glance, they looked like scams.

Indeed, the board’s January 15 email to Fernandez begins, “Congratulations! You are now a Certified Financial Planner professional!”

Fernandez got her CFP in 2007.

“Doesn’t that sound weird if you took the exam years ago?” she says. “That’s why I ignored it.”

Setting aside questions about the privacy of her data, which she assumes the board has handled responsibly, Fernandez says she’s not sure if she’ll use the signature either.

“It’s one more layer of computer technology that I have to think about,” she says, “and I don’t know if it’s relevant.”

Ann Marsh

Ann Marsh is a senior editor and the West Coast bureau chief of Financial Planning. Follow her on Twitter at @Ann_Marsh.

Source link http://bit.ly/2GfHBfr

[bobbynolanios88]

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

Not all CFPs may be comfortable with cryptocurrencies. But, like it or not, CFPs themselves are now part of the disruptive blockchain technology on which crytocurrencies are based, thanks to a new offering from the CFP Board.

The board has placed information about all 83,000 CFPs onto a publicly accessible blockchain distributed ledger to give members a new way to rapidly verify their certification status via a digital link. CFPs can send clients or prospects the link, which also can be embedded on websites, social media accounts and in documents. Click on it, and a certificate appears on screen. (View one CFP’s certificate.)

Digital technologies have “raised our service expectations,” the board’s CEO Kevin Keller wrote in an August newsletter announcing the offering, which launched this week. “We want to find information with a click or two, or a brief exchange with Alexa or Siri. If we can’t find what we’re looking for with minimal effort, there’s no limit to the other pressing — or not-so-pressing — things that want our attention.”

Portion of an email the CFP Board sent announcing the digital certificate — which confused some CFP veterans.

The initiative is an important consumer protection, the board told Financial Planning this week, adding that it “provides a 21st century solution to an age-old problem of certificate verification.”

CFP Kristin Fang said she’s likely to use the signature. “It’s very nice to have a quicker and more effective and efficient way to verify certifications,” says Fang, an advisor with Evensky & Katz/Foldes Financial Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida. “That’s impressive.”

Blockchain ledgers, which can be public or private, are managed by a distributed network of users. One of the technology’s main value propositions is that its data, once created, supposedly cannot be altered, theoretically assuring its legitimacy. That also makes the board’s decision to publish data a functionally permanent one.

The digital certificate belonging to CFP Morgan McGovern, of FJY Financial, with offices in Midland, Texas, and Reston, Virginia.

Each advisor’s certificate is verified via the blockchain-based credential verification firm Accredible, which claims clients like Google, Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The company, headquartered in San Francisco, did not respond to requests for comment.

Although CFPs’ data is stored on a public blockchain, they can configure their accounts to make it private, according to the board.

Even for those who don’t opt for privacy, the board says it has ensured that their data is protected. No highly sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or dates of birth, have been publicized. The only information used for verification purposes is a CFP’s name and date of certification, both of which are already publicly available on the board’s website, the board says.

That information is encrypted in the form of a secure multi-character code called a hash, according to the board.

“A recipient’s information cannot be reverse-engineered or exposed using the blockchain,” the board said in its statement. And while the “hash is used to verify whether the information on a certificate has been changed, [it] does not allow anyone to see what the personal information was.”

None of this information was included in the board’s four-paragraph announcement about the signature this week, which may have raised more questions than it answered.

“I am struggling to reconcile what problem the CFP Board is trying to solve,” says Bill Winterberg, a CFP and tech consultant to other advisors through his company, FPPad.

“Is there rampant widespread CFP credentialing fraud? Are thousands of people claiming they have a CFP certification and winning business through nefarious tactics and is CFP Board failing to find them and failing to bring legal action against them?”

Winterberg, along with CFP Adam Cmejla of Integrated Planning & Wealth Management in Carmel, Indiana, wondered why the board is duplicating a system that already works on its own website for verifying CFP status.

“Did the board spend money on a solution to a problem that didn’t exist just so it could look ‘forward thinking’ by using blockchain?” Cmejla asked in a tweet over the summer, following Keller’s August newsletter on the subject.

Winterberg questions the cost, saying “Maybe they are overpaying for this outside agency.”

The Accredible website says it charges $160 a month to certify from 1,000 to 2,000 people a year. In 2018 the board certified 1,061 new CFPs.

In advertising its ease of use, the tech company also offers to create certificates for all of an organization’s credential holders with just a few clicks.

In response to critics, the board pointed out to Financial Planning that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant, uses digital certificates and Linkedin says they will become increasingly important in online profiles, to establish credibility.

Although Fang says she is likely to use the certificate, she adds that she understands why other CFPs might not.

“They may be concerned about the technology itself. They may be thinking it may not be as mature as they thought it would be,” Fang says. “It seems that blockchain is decentralized, so [the board] could lose control over that.”

Vincent Barbera, a CFP and managing partner of Newbridge Wealth Management in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, says having his information up on the blockchain doesn’t concern him.

“It’s easy to be scared of it since we don’t understand it, but I think it’s fine,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to use the certificate.

“As a CFP, this offers me no value,” he says. “I really have no interest in sharing this in my email signature. I have never seen this as a pain point.”

Delia Fernandez, founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos, California, says she’s deleted several emails the board has sent her about the offering because, at first glance, they looked like scams.

Indeed, the board’s January 15 email to Fernandez begins, “Congratulations! You are now a Certified Financial Planner professional!”

Fernandez got her CFP in 2007.

“Doesn’t that sound weird if you took the exam years ago?” she says. “That’s why I ignored it.”

Setting aside questions about the privacy of her data, which she assumes the board has handled responsibly, Fernandez says she’s not sure if she’ll use the signature either.

“It’s one more layer of computer technology that I have to think about,” she says, “and I don’t know if it’s relevant.”

Ann Marsh

Ann Marsh is a senior editor and the West Coast bureau chief of Financial Planning. Follow her on Twitter at @Ann_Marsh.

Source link http://bit.ly/2GfHBfr

[teiraymondmccoy78]

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

CFP Board releases advisors’ info via blockchain

Not all CFPs may be comfortable with cryptocurrencies. But, like it or not, CFPs themselves are now part of the disruptive blockchain technology on which crytocurrencies are based, thanks to a new offering from the CFP Board.

The board has placed information about all 83,000 CFPs onto a publicly accessible blockchain distributed ledger to give members a new way to rapidly verify their certification status via a digital link. CFPs can send clients or prospects the link, which also can be embedded on websites, social media accounts and in documents. Click on it, and a certificate appears on screen. (View one CFP’s certificate.)

Digital technologies have “raised our service expectations,” the board’s CEO Kevin Keller wrote in an August newsletter announcing the offering, which launched this week. “We want to find information with a click or two, or a brief exchange with Alexa or Siri. If we can’t find what we’re looking for with minimal effort, there’s no limit to the other pressing — or not-so-pressing — things that want our attention.”

Portion of an email the CFP Board sent announcing the digital certificate — which confused some CFP veterans.

The initiative is an important consumer protection, the board told Financial Planning this week, adding that it “provides a 21st century solution to an age-old problem of certificate verification.”

CFP Kristin Fang said she’s likely to use the signature. “It’s very nice to have a quicker and more effective and efficient way to verify certifications,” says Fang, an advisor with Evensky & Katz/Foldes Financial Wealth Management in Coral Gables, Florida. “That’s impressive.”

Blockchain ledgers, which can be public or private, are managed by a distributed network of users. One of the technology’s main value propositions is that its data, once created, supposedly cannot be altered, theoretically assuring its legitimacy. That also makes the board’s decision to publish data a functionally permanent one.

The digital certificate belonging to CFP Morgan McGovern, of FJY Financial, with offices in Midland, Texas, and Reston, Virginia.

Each advisor’s certificate is verified via the blockchain-based credential verification firm Accredible, which claims clients like Google, Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The company, headquartered in San Francisco, did not respond to requests for comment.

Although CFPs’ data is stored on a public blockchain, they can configure their accounts to make it private, according to the board.

Even for those who don’t opt for privacy, the board says it has ensured that their data is protected. No highly sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or dates of birth, have been publicized. The only information used for verification purposes is a CFP’s name and date of certification, both of which are already publicly available on the board’s website, the board says.

That information is encrypted in the form of a secure multi-character code called a hash, according to the board.

“A recipient’s information cannot be reverse-engineered or exposed using the blockchain,” the board said in its statement. And while the “hash is used to verify whether the information on a certificate has been changed, [it] does not allow anyone to see what the personal information was.”

None of this information was included in the board’s four-paragraph announcement about the signature this week, which may have raised more questions than it answered.

“I am struggling to reconcile what problem the CFP Board is trying to solve,” says Bill Winterberg, a CFP and tech consultant to other advisors through his company, FPPad.

“Is there rampant widespread CFP credentialing fraud? Are thousands of people claiming they have a CFP certification and winning business through nefarious tactics and is CFP Board failing to find them and failing to bring legal action against them?”

Winterberg, along with CFP Adam Cmejla of Integrated Planning & Wealth Management in Carmel, Indiana, wondered why the board is duplicating a system that already works on its own website for verifying CFP status.

“Did the board spend money on a solution to a problem that didn’t exist just so it could look ‘forward thinking’ by using blockchain?” Cmejla asked in a tweet over the summer, following Keller’s August newsletter on the subject.

Winterberg questions the cost, saying “Maybe they are overpaying for this outside agency.”

The Accredible website says it charges $160 a month to certify from 1,000 to 2,000 people a year. In 2018 the board certified 1,061 new CFPs.

In advertising its ease of use, the tech company also offers to create certificates for all of an organization’s credential holders with just a few clicks.

In response to critics, the board pointed out to Financial Planning that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant, uses digital certificates and Linkedin says they will become increasingly important in online profiles, to establish credibility.

Although Fang says she is likely to use the certificate, she adds that she understands why other CFPs might not.

“They may be concerned about the technology itself. They may be thinking it may not be as mature as they thought it would be,” Fang says. “It seems that blockchain is decentralized, so [the board] could lose control over that.”

Vincent Barbera, a CFP and managing partner of Newbridge Wealth Management in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, says having his information up on the blockchain doesn’t concern him.

“It’s easy to be scared of it since we don’t understand it, but I think it’s fine,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to use the certificate.

“As a CFP, this offers me no value,” he says. “I really have no interest in sharing this in my email signature. I have never seen this as a pain point.”

Delia Fernandez, founder of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos, California, says she’s deleted several emails the board has sent her about the offering because, at first glance, they looked like scams.

Indeed, the board’s January 15 email to Fernandez begins, “Congratulations! You are now a Certified Financial Planner professional!”

Fernandez got her CFP in 2007.

“Doesn’t that sound weird if you took the exam years ago?” she says. “That��s why I ignored it.”

Setting aside questions about the privacy of her data, which she assumes the board has handled responsibly, Fernandez says she’s not sure if she’ll use the signature either.

“It’s one more layer of computer technology that I have to think about,” she says, “and I don’t know if it’s relevant.”

Ann Marsh

Ann Marsh is a senior editor and the West Coast bureau chief of Financial Planning. Follow her on Twitter at @Ann_Marsh.

Source link http://bit.ly/2GfHBfr

[rexsecuritieslaw]

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