UPDATE -- CFP Board to Honor Three Who Built the Profession: Davis, Fain and Kochis Selected for Financial Planning Hall of Fame

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CFP Board today announced the 2026 inductees to the Financial Planning Hall of Fame, a recognition program honoring visionaries whose transformational contributions have shaped the profession.

The 2026 class includes LeCount R. Davis, CFP^®; P. Kemp Fain, Jr., who is being inducted posthumously; and S. Timothy Kochis, J.D., MBA, CFP^®. Their work has educated the public and generations of financial planners, established foundational frameworks and inspired practices that continue to define how financial planning serves the public.

"The Financial Planning Hall of Fame celebrates the people who have shaped financial planning into the trusted profession it is today," said Terri Kallsen, CFP^®, Chair of the Board of Directors of CFP Board. “The Hall of Fame honors more than career achievements. It recognizes the enduring impact of leadership. The legacy of these inductees will continue to guide and inspire the next generation of CFP^® professionals."

The Inductees

LeCount R. Davis, CFP^®, made history in 1978 as the first African American to earn CFP^® certification, breaking a significant racial barrier in the financial planning profession. He founded one of the earliest Black-owned financial planning firms in the U.S. and established the Association of African American Financial Advisors (Quad-A), a national organization dedicated to mentorship, professional development and advocacy for Black financial professionals. Davis advanced financial literacy through television programming, public speaking, newsletters and community-based financial education initiatives. He further shaped the profession's future through teaching roles at Howard University and the LeCount R. Davis, CFP^® Endowed Scholarship to support students pursuing CFP^® certification.

The late P. Kemp Fain, Jr. was a principal architect of the modern financial planning profession. He helped build foundational organizations—including the International Association for Financial Planning, the Institute of Certified Financial Planners and the International Board of Standards for Certified Financial Planners (now CFP Board)—that shaped its early standards and structure. As the first CFP^® certification program enrollee, he championed the field's evolution into a true profession, most notably through his 1988 "One Profession, One Designation" proposal advocating for a single credential backed by rigorous education, examination, ethics and continuing education standards. His vision of financial planners as client-centered professionals rather than product distributors shaped the industry.

S. Timothy Kochis, J.D., MBA, CFP^®, played a defining role in shaping the financial planning profession's standards and institutions, serving as CFP Board Chair (1995) and, as Chair of the Board of Examiners, leading the multi-year development of the first comprehensive CFP^® examination. He later drove the profession's global expansion as Chair of the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB). He has further supported the profession through founding a financial planning program at the University of California, Berkeley, advancing sophisticated wealth-management business models through leadership at firms including Bank of America, Deloitte and KochisFitz (later Aspiriant), and long-term backing of pro bono financial planning through the Foundation for Financial Planning.

"LeCount, Kemp and Tim represent what makes this profession great: a commitment to competence, ethical standards and serving others," CFP Board CEO K. Dane Snowden. “They built this profession through the organizations they founded, the standards they set and the countless individuals they educated along the way. Every CFP^® professional today stands on the foundation they laid.”

Eligibility and Selection Process

CFP Board invited Hall of Fame nominations through a transparent public process from March 4 through April 17, 2026.

Eligibility extended to anyone who has meaningfully advanced the financial planning profession for the benefit of the public, including financial planners, journalists, authors, academics and policymakers. Nominees did not need to hold CFP^® certification to be eligible.

In January 2026, Kallsen appointed a Selection Committee to review nominations and recommend inductees to the Board of Directors of CFP Board, which made the final selections. The Selection Committee included the following:

• Richard Salmen, CFP^®, Selection Committee Chair (2018 CFP Board Chair) 
• Alex Armstrong, CFP^®, 2025 Hall of Fame Inductee 
• Bill Carter, CFP^® (1994 CFP Board Chair) 
• Denny Crawford, Public Board Member (2017-2020), former Texas Securities Commissioner and former President of the North American Securities Administrators Association 
• Ray Ferrara, CFP^®, 2014 CFP Board Chair 
• Sue Meisinger, Public Board Member (2010-2013), former President and CEO of the
  Society for Human Resource Management 
• Liz Miller, CFP^®, CFA^®, 2025 CFP Board Chair 
• Tom Potts, Ph.D., CFP^®, 1993 CFP Board Chair 

CFP Board will celebrate this year’s Hall of Fame inductees at the 2026 CFP Board Connections Conference in Las Vegas, October 5-7, 2026.

ABOUT CFP BOARD
CFP Board is the professional body for personal financial planners in the U.S. CFP Board consists of two affiliated organizations focused on advancing the financial planning profession for the public’s benefit. CFP Board of Standards sets and upholds standards for financial planning and administers the prestigious CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^® certification — widely recognized by the public, advisors and firms as the standard for financial planners — so that the public has access to the benefits of competent and ethical financial planning. CFP^® certification is held by more than 109,000 people in the U.S. CFP Board Center for Financial Planning addresses diversity and workforce development challenges and conducts and publishes research that adds to the financial planning profession’s body of knowledge.

CONTACT: Jane Riley Jacobsen, Director of Public Relations, P: 202-379-2305, E: media@cfpboard.org

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