CFP Board Promotes Public Trust With 4 Actions

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board), a nonprofit organization with more than 109,000 CFP® professionals, today announced actions taken to uphold its ethical standards, imposing sanctions on four individuals.

CFP Board is a professional body that has adopted a Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct (Code and Standards) that benefits and protects the public and advances financial planning as a distinct and valuable profession. The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® certification is the standard for financial planning. The Code and Standards requires that a CFP® professional meet certain duties when providing professional services to a client, and refrain from engaging in other misconduct that reflects adversely on their integrity or fitness as a certificant, on the CFP Board certification marks or on the profession. CFP® professionals make a commitment to CFP Board to abide by the Code and Standards, and their compliance reinforces the integrity of the CFP Board certification marks. CFP Board does not guarantee a CFP® professional's services, but it may sanction a CFP® professional who fails to uphold their commitment.

CFP Board's Fitness Standards for Candidates for CFP® Certification and Former CFP® Professionals Seeking Reinstatement ("Fitness Standards") sets the standards against which CFP Board evaluates the ethical fitness of those seeking CFP® certification. In some circumstances, CFP Board may determine an applicant is currently fit for CFP® certification and issue a public notice of their prior misconduct.

Information about how CFP Board addresses ethical issues involving CFP® professionals and those pursuing CFP® certification is available at CFP.net/enforcement.

At CFP.net/verify, the public can verify an individual's CFP® certification status. CFP Board also provides links to other sources of information about CFP® professionals that may be more recent or that may contain information that has not led to CFP Board discipline and does not appear on CFP Board's website, such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA's) BrokerCheck and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) Investment Adviser Public Disclosure databases for individuals who are subject to FINRA or SEC oversight. CFP Board is not a federal, state or self-regulatory organization, and it does not sanction financial services firms.

The Public Sanctions on Four Individuals

Suspension

Andrew T. Maynerich (Thayer, Illinois): In February 2026, the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (Commission) issued an order suspending Mr. Maynerich's CFP® certification and right to use the CFP Board certification marks for three months. The Commission's order describes a September 2023 letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) Mr. Maynerich entered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) in which he consented to a two-month suspension and $5,000 fine for violating FINRA Rules 2010 and 4511 by falsifying customer signatures and causing his firm to maintain inaccurate books and records. The FINRA AWC states that between April and August 2021, Mr. Maynerich electronically signed - with prior client permission - twenty documents on behalf of eight clients in violation of his firm's policies and procedures. The firm terminated Mr. Maynerich in March 2022. The Commission found that Mr. Maynerich violated several provisions of CFP Board's Code and Standards, including Standard A.8.a, requiring a CFP® professional to comply with the laws, rules and regulations governing professional services, and Standard D.2.a, governing a CFP® professional's obligation to follow their firm's policies and procedures. Because Mr. Maynerich failed to notify CFP Board of FINRA's investigation within 30 days and represented to CFP Board that he never had been terminated, he also was found to have violated Standards E.3.b and E.5. Mr. Maynerich's suspension is effective from March 26, 2026, to June 26, 2026. Read the Commission's order: Case History 45946.

Permanent Bar

California

Dean C. Tellone (Anaheim, California): In March 2026, CFP Board's Appeals Commission affirmed an August 2025 decision by the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (Commission) to permanently bar Mr. Tellone from CFP® certification based on violations of Rules 4.3 and 6.5 of CFP Board's Rules of Conduct. The August 2025 order describes a 2021 complaint the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed against Mr. Tellone in California federal court alleging that from 2015 to August 2021, Mr. Tellone engaged in fraud and breached his fiduciary duty to advisory clients and to investors in his firm's largest investment fund by withholding material information in order to hide a significant loss directly impacting the fund's performance. In 2023, Mr. Tellone consented to the court's entry of a final judgment enjoining him from violating federal securities laws, finding him jointly and severally liable for disgorgement of $110,000, and requiring that he pay a $200,000 civil penalty. In 2024, the SEC permanently barred Mr. Tellone from the securities industry. Rule 4.3 requires that a CFP® professional comply with applicable regulatory requirements governing professional services provided to clients, and Rule 6.5 prohibits a CFP® professional from engaging in conduct that reflects adversely on their integrity or fitness as a CFP® professional, on the CFP Board marks, or on the profession. Mr. Tellone's bar was effective on March 18, 2026. Read the Commission's order: Case History 43554.

Pennsylvania

Joshua Jenkins (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania): In March 2026, the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (Commission) issued an order denying Mr. Jenkins's petition for CFP® certification and permanently barring him from obtaining the CFP Board marks. Mr. Jenkins, who had relinquished his CFP® certification in April 2024, was required to petition the Commission after disclosing in his application the existence of eight client complaints, seven of them involving complex variable universal life insurance policies they had purchased through him. The high-commission, high-cost policies Mr. Jenkins recommended included substantial surrender charges and were not suitable for his clients, many of whom were young, financially unsophisticated, and lacking sufficient liquidity to address their future needs or to pay the ongoing premiums, according to the Commission's order. The order describes more than $350,000 in settlement payments from Mr. Jenkins's firm to clients who had purchased the policies. The Commission found that Mr. Jenkins breached the fiduciary duties he owed his clients by selling them insurance policies that were unsuitable for them, and by placing his own interest in advancing at his firm above their interests. Based on this conduct and Mr. Jenkins's apparent unwillingness to accept responsibility for his breaches, the Commission found that Mr. Jenkins is unfit for CFP® certification. Read the Commission's order: Case History 45270.

Texas

Kevin J. Herne (Rosenberg, Texas): In March 2026, counsel to CFP Board's Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (Commission) issued an order permanently barring Mr. Herne from CFP® certification after he failed to answer a complaint CFP Board filed against him in July 2025 alleging violations of its Code and Standards and Rules of Conduct. The complaint alleges that in August 2024, Mr. Herne entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and pleaded guilty to a 3rd degree felony in Texas state court. The complaint alleges that in May 2025, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) issued a default decision imposing a $5,000 fine and one-year suspension on Mr. Herne for willfully failing to disclose the felony on his Form U4, and that Mr. Herne also failed to timely disclose the felony to his employer and to CFP Board. According to the March 2026 order, Mr. Herne replied to CFP Board's complaint with insulting and vulgar emails rather than filing an answer as set out in its Procedural Rules, making clear his intention not to participate in CFP Board's disciplinary proceedings. Based on its determination of the seriousness, scope and harmfulness of Mr. Herne's conduct, CFP Board enforcement counsel filed a motion for an administrative order permanently barring Mr. Herne from CFP® certification, which counsel for the Commission granted on March 6, 2026. The order was effective April 6, 2026. Read the Commission's order: Case History 45451.