San Diego, CA. In May of 1982, the founding father of the financial planning profession, Loren Dunton, established the Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE) as a 501c3, non profit public education organization, headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Loren Dunton was the creator of the prestigious CFP – Certified Financial Planner designation, which is now recognized around the world. He also founded The College for Financial Planning in Denver in 1969, he was the founding publisher of “Financial Planning Magazine” and the author of “How to sell Mutual Funds to Women,” a book published in five other languages.

The ICFE was always part of the original business plan when Loren formed the College and the CFP group. He was a great forward thinker; realizing consumers would soon have to be educated as to what this new profession was all about. Loren thought financial education was the learning part and financial planning was the doing part.

Loren dedicated the ICFE to “Helping people improve their spending practices, increase their savings accumulation and use credit more wisely. President Reagan’s Private Sector Initiative program presented the ICFE with its “C-Flag” Award in May of 1987.

The ICFE began publishing the Do-It-Yourself Credit File Correction Guide in 1989, created Credit Card Warning Labels in 1990 and Credit Card Sleeves, a/k/a credit card condoms in 1993. The ICFE’s first web site was unveiled in 1996.

June 2004, the ICFE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Defense (DOD) and became an official partner in the DOD’s Financial Readiness Campaign, making ICFE free resources and other low cost publications available to US military counselors all over the world.

The ICFE has Certified Credit Report Reviewer (CCRR) and Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist (CITRMS) programs in place and over 7,000 individual professionals have been trained, examined and certified by the ICFE as Personal Finance Instructors for the Money Instruction Book, or as CCRRs and/or CITRMS.

The ICFE proudly dedicates its 25th anniversary year to its Chairwoman Emeritus, Marta Benko Dunton of San Francisco. A plaque honoring the occasion was presented to Mrs. Dunton at a luncheon in her honor in San Francisco. You may contact Mrs. Dunton at: marta@icfe.info

Paul Richard presents plaque to Marta Benko Dunton dedicating the ICFE's 25th anniversary
year to our Chairwoman Emeritus at a recent luncheon in San Francisco in May 2007.