Elizabeth Miller, the founder and president of the New York-based RIA Summit Place Financial Advisors, is the 2024 chair-elect of the CFP Board.
The Board of Directors elected Miller during its July meeting.
“Our profession is needed now more than ever, and I am thrilled to collaborate with my fellow board members and the staff at CFP Board to foster a growing and diverse community of CFP professionals, ensuring that more Americans receive competent, ethical financial planning,” Miller said.
Miller first entered the industry as a mergers & acquisition analyst for The First Boston Corporation, before becoming an associate portfolio manager for Oppenheimer Mutual Funds. In 1996, she became the principal owner of Trevor Stewart Burton & Jacobsen, an investment management services firm in New York, according to her IAPD profile.
Miller founded Summit Place in 2008 in order to focus on multigenerational family clients. According to the firm’s website, Summit Place advisors specialize in clients with portfolios ranging from $5 million to $25 million; in addition to families, the firm also focuses on corporate executives, entrepreneurs and recent inheritors, and also helps clients who are trying to reach $5 million in assets.
Miller attained her CFP certification in 2008 and joined the CFP Board of Directors in 2020; she is currently a member of the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning’s Campaign Development Committee.
She’s also a member of the CFA Institute, the Financial Planning Association, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, the National Speakers Association and the Women Presidents Organization. Miller sits on the editorial advisory board for Trusts & Estates (a sister publication to WealthManagement.com) and is the author of Clutter-Free Wealth: A Goal-oriented Guide to Gaining Control of Your Affluence.
Miller’s election comes several months after the CFP Board announced it would split into two organizations, bifurcating the Board’s duties. The Board created a 501(c)(3) that would be named CFP Board Center for Financial Planning, which would focus on research, and the Board’s scholarship and pro bono work, while a 501(c)(6) named the CFP Board of Standards would focus on credentialing advisors with the CFP certification.
In an interview about the change, current Board Chair Dan Moisand said the organization’s prior designation as a 501(c)(3) limited its ability to market the benefits of a financial planning career; due to the designation, the Board could previously tout the profession’s benefits for the public, but couldn’t focus on the benefits for advisors in its marketing materials.
“We couldn't even run an ad saying ‘you can better your career,’” Moisand said.
The CFP Board followed up the split by unveiling a new ad campaign that ran from March through May 21 highlighting how the CFP certification could significantly impact someone’s financial future.
The 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) share the same Board of Directors, so Miller will oversee both entities beginning in 2025. She will succeed current Chair-elect Matt Boersen, who will take over as Board Chair in 2024.