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American Academy of Financial Management

Abbreviation	AAFM
Formation	1996
Type	Certifying and accreditation body
Purpose	professional certifications
Headquarters	1670-F East Cheyenne Mtn. Blvd.; Box #293; Colorado Springs, CO 80906 USA
Region served	United States and overseas
Leader	George Mentz
Website	AAFM

The American Academy of Financial Management is a USA-based board of standards, certifying body, and accreditation council dedicated to the finance sector and management professionals. It is a diploma mill, its founder being a peddler of sympathic animism titles.

History

The AAFM was founded in 1996 through a merger of the American Academy of Financial Management & Analysts (AAFMA) and the Founders Advisory Committee of the Original Tax and Estate Planning Law Review. AAFM is a registered trademark.

Activities

The AAFM offers multiple professional membership, certifications, and designations. Members must either have come through one of the AAFM-recognized university programs or through a government-recognized executive educational program, although the board may waive these requirements in some cases. The AAFM board has never directly provided training, but has recognized hundreds of approved providers.

Certifications/Designations

The AAFM awards a number of designations, including chartered asset manager (CAM), chartered market analyst (CMA), chartered portfolio manager (CPM), chartered trust and estate planner (CTEP), chartered wealth manager (CWM), and master financial professional (MFP).

Some of these designations are available to anyone with an accredited degree or license in finance, investments, securities, economics, or accounting upon payment of a fee. The CWM certification normally involves about 80 hours of online study, although holders of certain professional designations, such as a CFA or CPA, need only take a test and pay a fee; although anyone with sufficient professional experience can skip the test and get the designation by only paying fees. Those with a degree that has involved at least some business coursework may also take an AAFM certification course, pay a fee, and receive an MFP.

Criticism

In October 2010, the Wall Street Journal published an article detailing the use of questionable credentials by financial advisors that discussed the AAFM extensively. The article noted that the AAFM included among its Global Board of Academic Advisors & Professors several individuals who had never given their permission to be listed as board members. The article criticized the practice of many standards boards, AAFM included, of awarding credentials without requiring applicants to undergo any sort of assessment or examination, quoting the AAFM's founder, George Mentz, as evidence of this practice. A claim on the AAFM website that it had a special affiliation with both the CFA Institute and the CFP Board, which administer Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Financial Planner certificate programs, respectively, was rebutted by representatives of both organizations in the article.

The AAFM has shrilly countered that individuals listed on its board of advisors did consent to be listed, posting emails from two individuals on its website. The organization also posted to its website part of the signature page of a document agreeing that the Association for Investment Management Research (the precursor to the CFA Institute) would not contest the AAFM's trademarks, with the signature itself blanked and replaced with the type-written statement, "Signed by Sharon Glover, who must have been Jeannie Andersons Boss at the time" (sic).

References

1. ^ "Is Your Wealth Manager Certifiable?", The Wall Street Journal: D1, October 27, 2004.
2. "Premier college Ireland", Bogus courses in Dublin, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, …the American Academy of Project Management (AAPM) and the American Academy of Financial Management (AAFM); both of them 'certification mills' that offer impressive-sounding, but non-academic titles designed to lure unsuspecting and gullible applicants into parting with their money for a worthless piece of paper. {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help).
3. Post nominals, CMA, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, use of the ICMA post-nominals with awards from unaccredited universities or from businesses posing as professional associations, such as Joe Citizen PhD (Degree Mill U), AAFM, CMA will not be permitted. {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help).
4. "Threat week: Graduate Academy Management", General distance learning discussions, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, The same mill runs another mill called "American Academy of Financial Management" (http://www.financialcertified.com/mba.html) AAFM {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |quote= (help).
5. "American Academy of Financial Management George S Mentz Certificate Mill Scam: Fake qualification mill, Colorado Springs, Colorado", Ripoff report, 2010‐4‐23, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, I am a victim of Mr. Mentz's fake certificate mill. I recently applied for US citizenship and as part of my process of approval I produced the AAFM certificates supplied by Mr. Mentz and the AAFM as a professional certificate. Unfortunately, these pieces of paper are absolutely worthless. Mentz claims recognition by various bodies and a global "Board of Standards", but this is all a false facade for a sophisticated web Diploma Mill. I wrote to the following authorities that Mentz says recognizes AAFM only to learn there is no such recognition because Mentz' business is simply a private business which supplies pieces of papers to gullible consumers like myself, I'm obliged to admit. Authorities that DON'T recognize AAFM as Mentz suggests: - US Department of Labor - US Department of Education - FINRA - SEC - Dubai Government - Singapore Government - AACSB and ACBSP business school associations, etc None of these authorities recognize AAFM or the certificates Mr. Mentz prints. I have investigated further and have found that Mentz's Yahoo store, where he offers graduate professional certificates backed by a international board of standards, simply processes orders without review by sending them to a printer in the Boston, MA area run by a Mr. Rubin & Company, where they are hence forth shipped by DHL. The only academic rigor applied is whether or not you are literate enough to put in your credit card details into Mentz's online website. Additionally, I have contacted at least 30 of the so-called Board of Standards and these individuals have never heard of Mentz and have never given permission for their names to appear. This guy is a scam artist of the highest order. Please do not fall prey to his ruthless marketing methods which are a smokescreen for an online diploma and certificate mill. {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 290 (help).
6. Thomas, John J (2010-02-12), AAFM Complaints & Reviews — Certification Fraud, Complaints board, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, This organisation is an offshoot of a series of well known US scam organisations. {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help).
7. Franklin, Jean, Council for Higher Education Accreditation http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hSR7t9wvyiUJ:www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/aafm-c310009.html, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, None of the information we have indicates that either the American Academy of Financial Management, or the European Academy of Financial Managemnet is accredited by an accrediting organization recognized by either the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the United States Department of Education (USDE). Please feel free to utilize the CHEA website and database at: www.chea.org to research institutions that have accreditors that have been recognized either by CHEA or the U.S. Department of Education. In addition, please feel free to review the CHEA informational brochure entitled "Ask Before You Decide," http://www.chea.org/pdf/accreditation_matters_trifold_4_straight.pdf. Although the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have worked together in the past on joint projects and will continue to do, CHEA and UNESCO are entirely separate organizations. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |quote= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 321 (help).
8. Degree discussion, 2010‐1‐5, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, it is a private company owned by one George Mentz. This is only one of the websites that he owns and which offer exactly the same "certification" although in different areas. Refer to the discussions on http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=32498 you will see a similar vein of discussion although in this instance they are discussing the "Graduate Academy of Management " and then later the "American Academy of Financial Management" and then the Royal Society of Fellows. The common theme of all of these websites is that they are asking people to send cash for accreditation. The other common theme is "The... Global Board of Standards is headed by its CEO and Chair in the United States: Prof. Dr. George Mentz, JD, MBA, CWM - Attorney at Law". The title of "professor" was conferred by the AAFM, or alternatively stated — by himself. {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); External link in |quote= (help).
9. Scam, 2009‐2‐5, retrieved 2013‐2‐4, There are many online "professional" organisations that advertise. One of these is an organisation called the American Academy of Financial Management or AAFM. If you have some academic qualification in accounting or finance you can "apply" for membership which consists of filling out an application form together with a credit card payment of US$450.00. In return you get a membership certificate of the AAFM and the right to use certain designations after your name. However, that is it. Nothing more. After investigating I discovered that the "CEO and Chair" (read owner) of this organisation makes claims that there is a "Board of Standards" that oversees the operations of the AAFM. However, it does not in fact exist and the sole decision maker is the owner. This scam has been going on for a number of years and I shudder to think how many people have wasted their money thinking they will actually be members of a professional body that gives them something for their money. It does not {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help).
10. George Mentz (author page), Amazon, The Master Key System Summary — The Secrets of Charles Haanel — Laws of Attraction Powers of Subconscious and… Masters of the Secrets — The Science of Getting Rich and Master Key System Expanded Bestseller Version How to Promote Yourself — The Lost Book of Wallace Wattles and The Science of Getting Rich Secret Chapters Spiritual Wealth Management: The Abundance Bible & Prosperity Manifesto The Science of Getting Rich Part II — The Last — Lost Teachings of Wallace Wattles (The Science of Getting Rich — Financial Success and Creative Thought) Spiritual Wealth Management: The Abundance Bible & Prosperity Manifesto Masters of the Secrets Expanded — The Science of Getting Rich and The Master Key System Bestseller Version — Think and Grow Rich with The Powers of the Subconcious Mind and The Laws of Success The Master Key System Summarized & The Science of Getting Rich Decoded — Executive Summary of The Success Wisdom of Charles Haanel and Wallace Wattles {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help).
11. "American Academy of Financial Management FAQ". Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
12. "AAFM US Government Trademark Reference". US: PTO. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
13. "Requirements". American Academy of Financial Management. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
14. ^ "Is Your Advisor Pumping Up His Credentials?", The Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2010.
15. Recognized by Wall Street Journal Again, American Academy of Financial Management.
16. CFA Contract (JPEG), AAFM.

External links

• AAFM US Board of Standards.
• Global Professional Society.

• Business and finance professional associations
• Professional certification in finance
• Personal finance
• Professional associations based in the United States