Testimonials

“CEFEX certification is the gold standard for fiduciary best practices.”
Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors, LLC, Long Beach, CA

"Savant Capital has integrated CEFEX into our market positioning and our company culture since original certification. Fiduciary excellence is essential to our clients and the CEFEX mark has helped us win new business."
Brent Brodeski, CEO Savant Capital, Rockford, IL

“Plancorp is proud of our adherence to a fiduciary standard. Everyone in our firm understands our fiduciary responsibility and we require that all of our Wealth Managers individually hold the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation. Corporately, we undertake the annual CEFEX certification to continuously verify our process and to demonstrate our commitment to clients and prospects. CEFEX certification is required for membership in the Zero-Alpha Group and is integral to our ‘Fiduciary First’ positioning.”
Jeff Buckner, CEO Plancorp, St. Louis, MO

“The Ingham Group uses our CEFEX certification to articulate our fundamental belief in total disclosure and best fiduciary practices. We go out of our way to educate our clients and prospects on the importance of sound fiduciary practices. We believe this certification should be a standard requirement in the selection of Investment Advisors, much like how SAS70 has become required in the recordkeeping industry. CEFEX certification has been instrumental to Ingham Group maintaining its client base and opening many new opportunities. Ingham group has experienced a 30% growth in AUM in the past year, thanks to our positioning, and proven track record.”
Ken Ingham, AIFA, President and CEO, Ingham Group, Miami, FL

“Our CEFEX Certification is proudly used throughout our sales and marketing materials including brochures, presentations and our web-site. InterServ actively promotes our adherence to the Prudent Practices for Investment Advisors.
Recently we won a $28 Million case over an incumbent RIA and 2 additional competitors. Our new client described one of the primary reasons for our selection was our CEFEX certification and our independence. In this day and age, technological superiority is not enough. A certification to the fiduciary best practices, using the ISO audit process, will undoubtedly carry increasing weight with many decision-makers.”
Chief Investment Officer, InterServ, LLC, Mobile AL

“Slavic Mutual Funds Management Corporation has won many RFQ’s recently, and we can attribute our success to be due in part to our CEFEX certification. Since Slavic operates as a broker/dealer, an investment manager, a TPA and an advisor, we also believe the CEFEX process has helped improve the accountabilities within our organization. The better delineations between our disciplines have helped sustain improved corporate performance.”
John Slavic, President, Slavic Mutual Funds Management Corporation, Boca Raton, FL

“Unified Trust Company, NA became CEFEX registered in October 2006. Unified sought registration as an important independent assessment of our commitment to follow a prudent, consistent and standardized process based on Fiduciary Best Practices for Investment Advisors as promulgated by CEFEX. This independent verification means our clients, and those considering our services, can be confident that critical components of an investment strategy have been properly implemented. This can be especially important for retirement plan sponsors in today’s environment of increasing complaints and/or lawsuits alleging fiduciary misconduct. Being able to show adherence to this independent standard has given Unified a distinct advantage when competing with other investment advisors.

Successful retirement outcome is the cornerstone of Unified’s philosophy. As a fully discretionary trustee, we believe a prudent best practices approach improves investment outcomes for our clients and increases their financial goal success probability. Progress towards success can and should be measured. We have done extensive research on success probabilities and have been able to show that implementing the prudent best practices necessary for CEFEX registration improves the probability of success. Unified believes registration is more than a differentiator in the sales process; rather it will make a true positive difference in the most important consideration, successful outcome.

In the five months since Unified became CEFEX registered, assets under management have grown by 12.5%. In that same period, the S&P has added just over 5%. While the difference is likely due to many factors, we feel that our outcomes based approach based on prudent best practices is the overarching reason. The CEFEX registration is the distinctive sign to the marketplace that Unified Trust Co., N.A. unquestionably follows the highest fiduciary best practices standards.”
Dr. Gregory Kasten, MD, MBA, CFP, CPC, AIFA, CEO Unified Trust Company, NA.

“CEFEX certification has been an important milestone in the history of our firm as we now have independent verification that we have aligned our investment advice with the industry’s best fiduciary practices. Allodium decided at our inception to adopt the Prudent Practices for Investment Advisors as the foundation for our investment decision-making process. CEFEX certification ultimately provides assurance to our clients that our firm’s interests are in alignment with theirs. We are pleased to report that our CEFEX certification is helping us to connect with investors searching for a fiduciary standard of care from their financial advisor.”
David J. Bromelkamp, President and CEO, Allodium Investment Consultants, Minneapolis, MN

“...thank you for your help introducing us to CEFEX and moving us along the process to certification. We have been overwhelmed by the positive response, especially among our existing clients.

We really appreciate your efforts and the whole CEFEX organization. Keep up the good work!”
Chris Doll, Executive Vice President, Wabash Capital, Terre Haute, Indiana

“At Richardson GMP, we believe in trust, integrity and setting high standards for our firm. That’s why obtaining the CEFEX certification was critical to our business model. This independent certification allows us to stand out in a complicated and crowded marketplace as a true leader of doing what is best for our clients.”
Andrew Marsh, President and CEO, Richardson GMP Limited, Toronto Canada

“The board has fiduciary responsibility to the trust, and we take it very seriously. CEFEX certification is a way to assure the public that we’re maintaining our fiduciary responsibility.”
Tom Kinnison, President, Whitney Benefits Board of Trustees

“Earning the CEFEX certification represents another step toward building public trust, especially in these financially and ethically challenged times. The certification is an independent recognition that our organization is fostering a culture of fiduciary responsibility. By implementing best practices and maintaining fiduciary standards of excellence, the Clerk & Comptroller’s office is able to offer a world-class investment program to the Palm Beach County taxpayers.
Felicia Landerman, Investment Manager, Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller, West Palm Beach, Florida

“We found the CEFEX Certification to be extremely beneficial in re-assuring our members, trustees, and employers that our union is demonstrating adherence to the industry’s best fiduciary practices. We were pleased that this annual certification process involved a rigorous, detailed review of plan documents, investments, and procedures followed by interviews with key personnel. In addition, we appreciated the fact that the CEFEX Certification reviewed our investment management practices using the ISO 19011 audit standard, an internationally recognized standard for testing process management systems. We found (the CEFEX Analyst) to have a high level of expertise and experience when performing our CEFEX audit. In fact, your firm was very helpful in working with us through the entire certification process in the most thorough and expedient way possible.
George Truicko Jr., Business Manager, Laborers Local 1298, Hempstead, New York

“We found the CEFEX process to be very thorough and helpful in assuring that we are following a prudent process while managing the Fund. The CEFEX Analyst was outstanding. The CEFEX Certification also enabled us to save 20% on our Fiduciary Liability Insurance premiums. Overall, the CEFEX Certification process was a very helpful experience.”
Investment Steward

“Even though it was a lot of work, our senior management team benefitted substantially from going through the Certification process. It motivated us to gather and refine the documentation of virtually everything we do.”
TPA

“Our CEFEX Analyst was professional, knowledgeable, patient, and helpful in our desire to create a superior service model.”
Investment Advisor

“The value for us is the validation / personal satisfaction that we're adhering to best practices.”
Investment Advisor

“I appreciated the on-line assessment data entry. Our Analyst is knowledgeable, helpful, and personable.”
Record Keeper