Tag Archives: Board of directors

GAFM Global Academy of Finance and Management ® Press Release about Certification Accreditation – ACBSP and CHEA

GAFM  Global Academy of Finance and Management ®  Press Release about Certification Accreditation – ACBSP and CHEA

ACBSP Accreditation News – Winter Update 2016 – our GAFM continues its global alliance with Nationally Accredited Business Programs Worldwide.   Thanks and Regards, George

For more than a decade, the GAFM Global Academy of Finance and Management® has been the leading certifying body for business school graduates in the world. Through a 2004 articulation agreement with ACBSP, GAFM certifications such as:  MFP®, CIPM® and CWM® are awarded and conferred to graduates of ACBSP programs in the areas of:  Finance, Accounting, Management, Economics, Tax, Project Management, Risk, and more.

The GAFM® International Board of Standards is the first certification body in the world to offer certification eligibility to students and faculty of double-accredited business schools where ACBSP has been the leader in honoring accredited education and exams as a path to GAFM® board certification and professional designations. While the accredited degree and exam path to certification is more strenuous than what other certifications require, the GAFM and ACBSP are proud to have the highest standards and to have accredited business school education as a direct path to credentialing.

GAFM® is a USA-based NGO/company led by Counselor George Mentz, JD, MBA, CWM®, with offices and chapters in the USA, Europe, Asia, Russia, Africa, Latin America and India. The GAFM® has government recognitions from esteemed international countries such as: China, India, Bahamas, Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai/UAE. ** The GAFM® Board of Standards Certification Body is TUV-OE European Accredited. The GAFM® is ISO 9001 Certified for Quality Assurance, and the GAFM® Certification Body is first  U.S.-credentialing organization to become ISO 29990 Certified for Educational Standards. Further, the GAFM® certifications are sanctioned by the Arab League’s Arab Academy, which enhances credential portability for more than 20 Arab Nations. The GAFM® also works directly with ABA accredited law schools to provide certification and training programs online and globally.

Further, the GAFM is a member of the CHEA Quality Group and is one of the founding organizations to sign the quality assurance Memorandum with the CHEA IA for global skills and educational standards.

The GAFM® top certifications are available to successful graduates of ACBSP programs including the: AFA Accredited Financial Analyst®, AMA Accredited Management Accountant®, AMC Accredited Management Consultant®, MMC Master Management Consultant®, ChE Chartered Economist®, CIPM Certified International Project Manager®, MFP Master Financial Planner®, CRA Certified Risk Analyst®, CTEP Chartered Trust and Estate Planner®, and the world recognized CWM Chartered Wealth Manager ®.

GAFM® Professional Certification
helps applicants:

• Compete for jobs
• Enhance their résumé with relevant credentials
• Achieve promotions and increases in salary
• Complete continuing education requirements
• With immigration and global jobs
• GAFM® certification also provides a way for employers to screen and hire certified employees.

George Mentz, The CEO of the GAFM® stated, “It
is great to continue this 10 year accredited education relationship which raises certification standards globally.”
Go Global Every Day ™ with GAFM® Professional Certifications for your faculty and students! Learn more about the GAFM Board of Standards at www.GAFM.com
https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.acbsp.org/resource/collection/E7A38B83-0738-4C82-8DFB-250EF0DE8423/ACBSP_Update.pdf

Leveraging your skills in a tight financial services and wealth management jobs market

Leveraging your skills in a tight financial services and wealth management jobs market

The one constant in financial markets is change. The same could be said for jobs within the financial markets sector. Not only are specific jobs changing in terms of what skills you need in order to perform them, but job availability is continually shifting among financial job categories. For example, there may be fewer opportunities for securities analysts now than in the past, but there is an overwhelming need for wealth managers and financial advisors.

What if I told you that the same skills needed to be a successful financial analyst also apply to being a successful financial advisor? Financial analysts assess the performance of stocks, bonds, commodities, and other types of investments, skills generally employed by financial advisors.

Traditionally, there has been very little overlap between the two professions. In fact, relatively few financial analysts become financial advisors. Generally speaking, financial advisors and financial analysts are not required to hold a nationally accredited degree or diploma; thus, there has been a recent transition toward job seekers to earn accredited business school program exams and education that leads to degree and certification eligibility.

Interestingly it is convenient that the financial advisor and financial analysis jobs would start to merge as somebody who has completed a financial analyst designation will already have learned much of the material related to private banking or wealth management.

However, graduate professional designations such as the CWM Chartered Wealth Manager ®  certification which is from the Global Academy of Financial Management ® International Board of Standards USA and EU, require further graduate education in extra areas beyond investments, finance or planning including: economics, trusts, estates, global tax, macro forces, private banking, wealth strategy, money and banking, hedge funds, global risk management, and other.

For example, financial advisors may provide guidance to individuals making personal financial decisions. In contrast, the financial analysts role or profession began with a focus on financial bookkeeping and reporting skills, but has morphed over the recent years into a financial research job with a focus on fundamentals.

These skills are similar to those that financial advisors use when consulting with clients, but advisors and planners by default have been trained more on the issues of FINRA rules, retirement planning, tax, estates, personal finance, insurance sales, and education planning. Moreover, financial analysts now tend to focus on assessing the performance of stocks, bonds, commodities, sectors, and other types of securities in relation to portfolio management. These skills also are employed by the financial advisor.

What’s more, some experienced managers, generally portfolio managers, supervise a team of analysts and select the mix of products, industries, and regions for their company’s investment portfolio. These managers or directors are not only responsible for the overall portfolio, but are also expected to explain investment decisions and strategies in meetings with investors.

An accredited bachelor’s or graduate degree is normally required for entry level or higher financial related positions. Most employers require a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as finance, business, accounting, statistics, or economics.  The business schools that are ACBSP or AACSB accredited represent the top business programs that have met the requirements of double accreditation.  An understanding of statistics, economics, and business may be essential, and knowledge of accounting policies and procedures, corporate budgeting, and financial analysis methods is recommended.

Since both financial advisors and analysts require similar qualifications, those individuals who have the proper accredited education can easily transition between the two functions providing more value to clients.

All entry level persons should be prepared to study for and take relevant regulatory licensing exams such as: Insurance License, Series 6, Series 7, Series 65, 66 or other licensing exams that are offered or regulated by the SEC, Individual States, The AICPA, the respective Insurance Commissioners or FINRA.

Capitalism & Free Markets for Thought Leaders – What They Don’t Teach in Business or Law School

Capitalism &  Free Markets for Thought Leaders  – What They Don’t Teach in  Business or Law School

The Michael Jordan Theory of Laissez -Faire Economics by Counselor George Mentz, JD, MBA

Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to discuss the power and challenges of global capitalism and laissez-faire philosophy to the average student.  Here is a quick sports analysis of international business and some bullet points to help you think about team performance, team players, capitalism and fair trade.

  1. In economic theory, the team or stakeholders are composed of: your company, your customers, your community, your employees, your suppliers, and your investing risk takers.
  2. If you have one top player who is excellent at what they do, and you have that person on your team, it changes the entire ability of your organization to excel, create or compete. Example: The Basketball Legend – Mr. Michael Jordan
  3. Major objectives and challenges to leaders are how to reward your top players, how to incentivize the rest of the team to support each other.  One might ask,  “Is it fair for Michael Jordan to get the ball more than others or shoot too much”. It is right and fair for other players to learn how to best feed the ball to the top player to score.
  4. If you can strategically recruit team members from diverse regions of the country and the world, you could secure the best talent based on skill and competency?
  5. Even when you have a superstar player who is an incredible at scoring against the other teams, you cannot succeed unless you have smart coaches, smart players, smart schedule, a great offensive line, smart defense, smart play calling strategy, and healthy players.  If the other team players do not maintain their health, skills, or continue to contribute, it will hurt the entire team and the community at large.
  6. If the team is effective, it puts food on the table for the: community, staff, coaches, players, families, and so forth in the form of: revenues, jobs, tourism, rights, ticket and merchandise sales and more.
  7. If your team is competing against 180 other teams, would it be smart to allow your team to complete without excessive regulation, toxic fees, debilitating taxes or penalties. If you don’t reward and compensate your producers, will they underperform?  Will they leave to go to another team? or take their technology offshore to another team? How much does the economic environment tax the team corporation, how do you tax the players, taxes tickets etc.  If taxes or regulations are too high, will players or owners go to another team, city, or country to play?
  8. Shouldn’t we applaud all those who contribute to the government in “FOR PROFIT” activities? Remember that big earners are the big contributors?  The average superstar only makes big money for just a few years and pays HUGE taxes when he or she earns big to both states and the federal governments. Without profits, no company survives. If every business was not-for profit, the government could not feed orphan and widows, encourage economic freedom,  or pay it’s employees. Without profits, the community fails, the company employees lose their jobs, the suppliers fail, the public schools fail, teachers lose their jobs, hospitals go broke, and the shareholders take their money elsewhere.
  9. If there are no investors or shall I say “contributing earners”, then the money all flows to the other 180 teams who have better business environments with names like:  Mexico, Japan, China, UAE, Kenya, India, or the Philippines.  There is nothing wrong with the other teams, but rather, your local team needs to build its own schools, fix it’s roads, build its hospitals, and feed local widows and orphans as a priority so that the team can produce and work in a sustainable environment . As a note, some innovators and inventors are creating services and products that DO NOT Compete but rather solve problems such as disease, suffering, disasters, or just mitigate regular problems. Thus, thus economic pie continues to expand with the internet, communications, medicine, technology, science, globalization and more.

These are just a few questions you must ask.  Yes we need BOTH team players and superstars to innovate and compete in this global economic environment, but we need to realize that a team must have a sustainable business environment conducive to success to compete on a global level. With 95% of the world’s population outside of the USA and 40% of the S&P revenues coming from offshore, the USA in particular must SELL to other nations to grow the economic pie for everyone around the world and increase global productivity, global health, and global prosperity. Moreover, US companies are routinely taking advantage of economic climates and jurisdictions offshore which are more business and employee friendly.

Technology and globalization has crushed the old ideas regarding taxation and free markets.  Given enough bureaucratic intervention, people and business will partially leave the USA and establish companies offshore to sell stuff to the rest of the world’s 95% of the global population.  Recently, even UBER set up offshore tax schemes just like Google and other big players to retain earnings offshore which limit payments of US Federal and State taxes.  This is the direction that global business is headed, and we must enhance laws and regulations to make sure that local workers have opportunities for the American Dream so that our local team players may create and innovate in an entrepreneurial friendly environment.

Here are some publicly traded Consulting Companies of Interest:

  • Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH)
  • Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN)
  • Cap Gemini SA (EPA:CAP)
  • Others include: McKinsey, Bain and Co., Price Waterhouse, Deloitte and many more.

Counselor George Mentz (Doctor of Jurisprudence/ JD and MBA)  is a world recognized author and self-help and wealth management commentator who has several professional development education companies which have trained over 10,000 professionals in over 40 countries. Mentz’s new book, Quantum Bliss,  is being released in January in the United Kingdom. www.quantumbliss.org Prof. Mentz, an international attorney, founder of the GAFM Global Academy of Finance and Management ® www.gafm.com , has been a keynote speaker globally in the USA, China, Asia, Arabia, USA, Mexico, Switzerland, and in the West Indies. Mentz has consulted with governments, world leaders and Fortune 500 companies. Mentz has published bestsellers in the following categories: Money and Monetary Policy,  Economics Money and Investing, Leadership , Education Training, Management Science, Mysticism, Psychology, and in Spirituality. Dr. Mentz can be contacted for speaking engagements at www.gmentz.com or http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgementz *No tax investment or legal advice provided herein. Please consult with a licensed professional in your jurisdiction before making any important financial or legal decision. Mentz is a licensed counselor of law LA USA.  http://gafm.com