Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) has awarded $74,060 to Dr. Victor Puleo, CFP?, Dr. John Bratton, and Dr. Mike Casey in the University of Central Arkansas College of Business, and to Dr. Sherry J. Roberts, an assistant professor in the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University.
With the grant award, the UCA College of Business will establish a Personal Finance Institute and introduce in Spring 2008 a graduate-level training course for high school teachers in Arkansas to help them educate high school youth to create wealth, set financial goals and make informed financial choices.
Puleo, CFP?, Assistant Professor of Insurance and Risk Management and Director of the CFP Board Certified Financial Planning Program at UCA, explained the motivation behind the Grant. “The Personal Finance Institute is designed to meet the criteria set forth in Arkansas Act 42, legislation that recommended adding a required financial education course to state high schools,” Puleo said. Act 42 was passed in 2004, but no funding was allocated to its support. The CFP Board grant funds a graduate course in Personal Finance designed for high school teachers who teach or would like to teach a course in personal finance. Its purpose is to enable teachers to become more effective in teaching personal finance by providing the tools needed for understanding personal finance, with an emphasis on the relevance to high school students and their families. The ultimate goal of this program is to improve the financial literacy of high school students in Arkansas.”
“CFP Board believes this project will reach individuals who may not otherwise have access to financial planning assistance,” said Tim Stifel, CFP Board’s Manager of External Relations. “We expect UCA’s College of Business project will not only help individuals in the immediate community, but also become a model to help others across the country reach similar communities.”
“The Financial Planning Association of Arkansas is excited about the CFP Board’s committment to increasing financial planning awareness and education in Arkansas Public Schools,? said Lester P. Matlock, President of the Arkansas Chapter of FPA.
The grant awards further CFP Board’s mission to help Americans benefit from competent and ethical financial planning by giving financial support to projects that provide underserved populations with financial planning services and information. CFP Board is a non-profit professional regulatory body that awards CFP? certification to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. CFP Board currently authorizes more than 55,000 individuals to use the marks CFP?, Certified Financial Planner? and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the United States.
