Who we are
Jeff formed Financial Planners Assistance Corporation in 1982 during the boom years of new Financial Planners, and wanted to provide support and assistance specifically geared toward the needs of Registered Investment Advisers.
Jeff has been a member of the Pennsylvania Bar since 1973 and is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association and The American Bar Association. He has served as an expert witness in over twenty cases since 1982.
Jeff has written dozens of books and articles on regulatory compliance. The first, The Financial Planner’s Handbook to Regulation and Successful Practice, Dearborn Publishing, has become a staple in the investment advisory and broker/dealer firm. Also among his publications are “The Registered Investment Adviser’s Guide to Surviving an SEC Audit” and “The Registered Investment Adviser’s Guide to the Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988”. Jeff has written in excess of eighty articles for professional journals and magazines. He currently writes a monthly column on registered investment adviser liability for the Journal of Financial Services Professionals and has had articles published in CCH’s Practical Estate Planning. He has also been quoted several times in The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, Financial Planning Magazine and Investment Adviser Magazine, as well as other publications.
Prior to forming FPA, Jeff was a full time professor at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and prior to that time, he was employed by The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, Philadelphia, PA. He is an attorney, member of the Pennsylvania Bar as well as the various national, state and local bar associations.
Jeffrey Kelvin
Founder and Compliance Consultant
Jim joined Financial Planners Assistance in 2013. He started his compliance career at Raymond James & Associates in their Asset Management Services division where he worked as a Compliance Advisor to their SMA Wrap Programs and earned his Series 7, 24, and 66 licenses. More recently, he served as the Senior Compliance Manager for Roosevelt Investments, a $5Billion Registered Investment Adviser whose activities include serving as Adviser to multiple mutual funds, Sub-Adviser on wire house Wrap and UMA Programs, institutional research publication, and quantitative, fundamental, and hedged investment strategies. Jim has served as an expert panelist and has been featured in IA Weekly.
Jim earned a BA in Political Science, with a minor in Economics, from the University of South Florida and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
Jim Cullen
President and Senior Compliance Consultant
Vadim Archipov
IA and ERISA Compliance Consultant
Vadim Archipov has worked in the financial services industry since 1999. He specialized in compliance in 2005 while at Raymond James Financial Services. As a Compliance Specialist he reviewed, edited, and approved marketing materials for independent contractor branch offices.
Most recently, Vadim worked as a Compliance Supervisor in Raymond James & Associates Asset Management Services division (with assets under management exceeding $75 billion). He supervised a team responsible for advertising review; policy and control development and testing; annual compliance review and documentation; new product and marketing initiatives, and regulatory exam preparation and response.
Vadim also served on Raymond James Financial's ERISA working group. This group created and reviewed company policies in light of existing and pending ERISA regulations.