Harold Evensky will receive the 2018 Frankel Fiduciary Prize on Sept. 21.
Harold Evensky, a professor of practice in the Texas Tech University Department of Personal Financial Planning and chairman of Evensky & Katz Wealth Management, will receive the 2018 Frankel Fiduciary Prize next week from the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard.
The Financial Planning Association of West Texas will honor Evensky during its program – “Is the SEC's Proposed Regulation Best Interest a Suitable Best Interest Standard?” – from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 21 in the Texas Tech College of Human Sciences building, room 111. The event will feature panel discussions by financial advisers and law professors, then conclude with a lunch and Evensky's award presentation.
“I'm honored to receive this amazing award and humbled by the past winners I share it with,” Evensky said.
The Frankel Fiduciary Prize, named for Professor Tamar Frankel of the Boston University School of Law, acknowledges individuals who have made significant contributions to the preservation and advancement of fiduciary principles in public life.
“Harold Evensky, regarded as the Dean of Financial Planning, was a compelling choice as the recipient of this year's Frankel Fiduciary Prize,” said Deborah A. DeMott, David F. Cavers Professor of Law at Duke University, chair of the Frankel Fiduciary Prize selection committee and one of the speakers during the program. “Harold has emphasized the central importance of the fiduciary standard in his own practice and ensured an influential legacy through his guiding role with numerous adviser organizations, his teaching and his authorship of widely read books and journal articles.”
The fiduciary standard requires that a financial adviser act solely in the client's best interest when offering personalized financial advice. In the last few years, the U.S. Department of Labor tried to enact a “fiduciary rule,” requiring financial advisers to give conflict-free advice on retirement accounts, putting their clients' needs ahead of their own potential compensation, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed it in late June.
Anticipating that outcome, Evensky, a certified financial planner (CFP), in 2009 joined others in forming The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard, a group that spearheaded the development of a simple, one-page fiduciary oath for advisers to use with their clients – and for investors to distinguish fiduciary advisers from those operating under a sales standard.
“Harold has been a tireless champion and a passionate voice throughout his career
in helping to promulgate the need for professional, principle-based fiduciary standards
for the adviser community,” said program speaker Patricia Houlihan, president and
CEO of Houlihan Financial Resource Group in Ashburn, Virginia.
The Frankel Fiduciary Prize is the latest in a long line of recognitions from Evensky's
30-plus-year career in financial planning. In July, he was named as the recipient
of the 2018 P. Kemp Fain Jr. Award by the Financial Planning Association (FPA). The
award, the highest individual honor presented by FPA, recognizes an individual who
has made significant contributions to the advancement of the financial planning profession
and has realized outstanding achievements in the areas of service to society, academia,
government and professional activities.
Evensky has received the FPA's Heart of Financial Planning Award, the Investments & Wealth Institute's J. Richard Joyner Wealth Management Impact Award, Bob Veres' Insider's Forum Leaders Award, the Charles Schwab IMPACT Award and the Dow Jones Investment Advisor Portfolio Management Award for Lifetime Achievement.
He has served as chairman of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., the International CFP Council, the CFP Board of Examinations and the CFP Board's Appeals Committee. Evensky also has served on advisory boards for the TIAA-CREF Institute, the International Association of Financial Planners, Charles Schwab, the Journal of Financial Planning and the Journal of Retirement.
