Richard J. Polimeni

Richard J. Polimeni is Chair of the College Savings Foundation (CSF), a leading nonprofit helping American families save for higher education. Previously, he served in other leadership roles on the CSF Executive Committee as both Vice Chair and Secretary. Additionally, Richard has contributed to the organization over the years as Co-Chair of the Membership Committee, the Conference Committee, and the Media Committee.

Richard is Director of Education Savings Programs for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In this role, Richard is responsible for managing Merrill Lynch’s $12 billion 529 College Savings business. Merrill Lynch is one of the largest distributors of 529 plans to consumers and is the program manager for one of the country’s largest 529 plans, Maine’s NextGen College Investing Plan, as well as the distributor of 19 other state 529 programs.

Prior to joining Bank of America in 2002, Richard spent 15 years with Smith Barney/Citigroup where he helped launch two of the country’s first 529 college savings programs for the states of Colorado (Scholars Choice in 1999) and Illinois (Bright Start in 2000).

During his 30 years of financial services industry experience, Richard has held various sales, marketing, operational, and management positions supporting retirement and education savings products.

Richard is Series 7, 63, 66 and 53 registered (Municipal Securities Principal) and earned a degree in Business Management from Brookdale College.