Edward Bell III has been elected to Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida’s (www.cbswf.com) board of directors.

Bell is a certified financial planner professional and principal of Cornerstone Financial Planning Inc., a financial planning firm in Fort Myers.

A resident of Fort Myers, Bell co-founded Cornerstone Financial Planning with his father Edward Bell Jr. in 2004.

Before that, he was a capital markets officer with First Union National Bank -- now known as Wachovia -- in Charlotte, N.C., where he worked on the interest rate swaps and credit derivatives desks.

Bell is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics and German. He holds the Series 7, 24 and 63 securities licenses and the Florida insurance license.