Trust is pivotal to a successful relationship, especially when it comes to money.
That’s why the Florida United Methodist Foundation worked hard to maintain its Investment Steward Certification from the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence (CEFEX). Renewed this month for a second year, the distinction marks the foundation as a trusted fiduciary that puts clients’ best interests first.
“Being certified by an independent organization as a fiduciary makes us uniquely able to tell customers that we put their interests above our own,” the Rev. Mark Becker said. “Clients can be assured that we will act as their fiduciary.”
The certification applies to the foundation’s investment funds for churches, as well as its charitable gift annuity fund.
During the certification process, CEFEX assessed the foundation based on 100 criteria related to 21 best practices. CEFEX auditors also examined the fiduciary status of all service providers — those who manage foundation funds — to ensure they are acting solely for the benefit of clients.
Pam Hicks, the foundation’s vice president of finance and administration, spearheaded this year’s new improvements to maintain the mark of distinction. Hicks says the certification allows the foundation to stay at the cutting edge in its business practices.
Since the last certification process, Hicks worked to implement new cybersecurity software, ensure foundation investment products remain socially responsible and streamline the foundation’s internal organization by adding a new central fiduciary file for board members to review.
“We want to make sure we are doing the best practices,” Hicks said. “This gives some additional comfort to those who have invested with us, given us that role as a fiduciary.”
Each year, the foundation is assigned a new set of goals to continue improving. This is on top of ongoing, yearly processes, such as completing conflict-of-interest disclosures for all employees and board members and providing fiduciary training to new board members.
“Being certified by an independent organization as a fiduciary makes us uniquely able to tell customers that we put their interests above our own.” — Rev. Mark Becker
Maintaining the best cybersecurity to ensure the safety of foundation information was a particular focus.
“You need to always anticipate threats,” Hicks said. “It’s one of those things that isn’t going to go away. … We have been very fortunate at the foundation to be able to stay as close to state-of-the-art. Not all nonprofits have the abilities as far as finances to do that.”
Most importantly, Becker says, CEFEX certification says the foundation is committed to meeting the needs of individuals and ministry partners first.
“We have always believed that we behaved as a fiduciary should,” Becker said. “And this certification allows us to say that we have been acknowledged as such.”