CFP Board Inducts Davis, Fain & Kochis Into Financial Planning Hall of Fame
The CFP Board honors Susan Davis, David Fain, and Tim Kochis for lifetime contributions to financial planning. Here's why their induction matters in 2026.
In brief
The CFP Board of Standards has named Susan Davis, David Fain, and Tim Kochis as its newest Financial Planning Hall of Fame inductees. The three honorees are recognized for decades of work that shaped how Americans access, trust, and benefit from certified financial planning — earning the profession's most prestigious lifetime distinction.
⚡ KEY TAKEAWAYS
The CFP Board selected Susan Davis, David Fain, and Tim Kochis for the 2026 Financial Planning Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame is the profession's highest lifetime honor, reserved for CFP® professionals who have materially advanced the field.
All three inductees built careers spanning multiple decades, influencing policy, education, and client-service standards in financial planning.
The Washington, DC-based CFP Board oversees more than 100,000 CFP® professionals nationwide, making this recognition highly selective.
Their induction signals the profession's ongoing effort to codify a legacy of fiduciary accountability as retirement planning demands accelerate in 2026.
Who Are Susan Davis, David Fain, and Tim Kochis?
Susan Davis, David Fain, and Tim Kochis each arrived at financial planning through different paths — but all three leave behind infrastructures that outlast their individual careers. Davis built a reputation as a connector and advocate, helping bring financial planning services to underserved communities and working to professionalize the field's credentialing standards. Fain's contributions are deeply tied to the technical side of the practice — developing frameworks that practitioners across the country use to structure complex client engagements.
Tim Kochis is perhaps the most publicly recognized of the three. The San Francisco-based planner and author spent decades at Deloitte and later co-founded Aspiriant, one of the country's most respected fee-only wealth management firms. Kochis also authored Wealth Management: A Concise Guide for Financial Advisers, a text that shaped a generation of practitioners. His work connecting high-net-worth planning with fiduciary ethics became a template the broader profession followed.
Together, the three represent what the CFP Board calls the "builder generation" — professionals who didn't just practice financial planning but constructed the scaffolding that made it a legitimate, regulated, and trusted discipline.
What Is the CFP Board Financial Planning Hall of Fame?
Established to recognize extraordinary lifetime contributions to financial planning, the Financial Planning Hall of Fame is administered by the CFP Board of Standards, headquartered at 1425 K Street NW in Washington, DC. Nominees must hold the CFP® designation and must have spent their careers actively advancing the profession — through client service, academic research, policy advocacy, or institutional leadership.
The selection process is rigorous. A dedicated committee reviews nominations against criteria that include measurable impact on the profession, ethical conduct, and demonstrated public benefit. Previous inductees include some of the most recognized names in American personal finance, and the class size is deliberately kept small to preserve the honor's weight.
With more than 100,000 CFP® professionals currently certified nationwide, according to CFP Board data, earning Hall of Fame recognition places Davis, Fain, and Kochis in an extraordinarily small group. Fewer than 100 professionals have ever been inducted since the program's inception.
Why This Class Matters for Financial Planning in 2026
The timing of this induction carries real weight. American households face an accelerating retirement savings crisis: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances data shows that nearly half of families near retirement age have less than $100,000 saved. Demand for credentialed, fiduciary financial planners has surged — and the CFP Board's Hall of Fame recognition lands at a moment when the profession is actively recruiting the next generation of practitioners.
Inductees like Davis, Fain, and Kochis modeled what ethical, comprehensive financial planning looks like in practice. Their elevation sends a clear message to younger CFP® professionals: longevity, integrity, and institution-building are valued as highly as revenue generation. That signal matters as the financial services industry navigates a wave of consolidation among RIAs (registered investment advisers) and increasing scrutiny of fiduciary standards from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Why This Matters in Washington
The CFP Board isn't just a credentialing body — it's a Washington power player in its own right. Operating from K Street, the Board actively engages Congress on financial literacy legislation, fiduciary rule debates, and retirement security policy. Its Hall of Fame serves a dual purpose: honoring the past while reinforcing the Board's credibility on Capitol Hill as the authoritative voice for financial planning standards.
For Washington's financial services community — a sector that runs deep from Bethesda and McLean to the corridors of the Senate Banking Committee — the Hall of Fame announcement carries professional and political resonance. Lobbyists, policy staffers, and wealth managers all operate in the same regulatory orbit the CFP Board helps shape. When the Board elevates its legends, it's also reminding lawmakers and regulators who the trusted stewards of the profession are. For more on DC's financial power structure, see the WDCM DC Power Players Index.
The induction also reflects a broader cultural shift: financial planning is no longer seen as a Wall Street export but as a Main Street necessity. That repositioning has been decades in the making — and Davis, Fain, and Kochis helped make it happen. Follow ongoing coverage of DC's financial influence ecosystem at WDCM Political Influence Rankings.
The Financial Planning Profession's Long Game
One underreported trend embedded in this announcement: the Hall of Fame's inductee pipeline skews heavily toward practitioners who built independent firms or nonprofit institutions rather than climbing the ladder at bulge-bracket banks. Kochis co-founded Aspiriant. Davis shaped organizations outside the traditional Wall Street hierarchy. Fain's legacy is similarly rooted in practice development rather than corporate ascent.
That pattern reflects a deliberate values statement by the CFP Board about what kind of financial planning it wants to celebrate — and recruit. As the RIA sector continues growing faster than wirehouse employment, the Hall of Fame's inductee profile functions as a de facto career roadmap for aspiring CFP® professionals. Independence, integrity, and institution-building are the markers of greatness the Board is choosing to amplify in 2026.
For readers tracking the intersection of money, power, and Washington, this announcement is more than a ceremonial press release. It's a signal about where the $30 trillion American wealth management industry is heading — and who the profession trusts to define its moral compass. Track more stories like this at the WDCM DC Power Index and Power Moves.
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FAQ: CFP Board Financial Planning Hall of Fame 2026
Q: Who was inducted into the Financial Planning Hall of Fame in 2026? A: The CFP Board selected Susan Davis, David Fain, and Tim Kochis as its 2026 Financial Planning Hall of Fame inductees, honoring their foundational contributions to the certified financial planning profession.
Q: What is the CFP Board Financial Planning Hall of Fame? A: It is the highest lifetime honor in the financial planning profession, administered by the Washington, DC-based CFP Board of Standards. Inductees must hold the CFP® designation and must have made measurable, lasting contributions to advancing financial planning as a discipline.
Q: How many CFP® professionals are there in the United States? A: As of 2026, the CFP Board reports more than 100,000 active CFP® professionals nationwide, making Hall of Fame induction an extraordinarily selective distinction.
Q: Who is Tim Kochis? A: Tim Kochis is a veteran financial planner who spent years at Deloitte before co-founding Aspiriant, a leading fee-only wealth management firm. He also authored widely used educational texts on wealth management and is a recognized voice on fiduciary financial planning standards.
Q: Why does the CFP Board operate out of Washington, DC? A: The CFP Board is headquartered at 1425 K Street NW in Washington, DC, because its work includes active engagement with Congress, federal regulators including the SEC, and policymakers on financial literacy, fiduciary standards, and retirement security legislation.
Q: What does CFP® certification mean for consumers? A: A CFP® (Certified Financial Planner) designation signals that a financial advisor has met rigorous education, examination, experience, and ethics requirements set by the CFP Board. CFP® professionals are held to a fiduciary standard, meaning they are legally and ethically required to act in the client's best interest.
The bottom line: The CFP Board's decision to honor Susan Davis, David Fain, and Tim Kochis in its Financial Planning Hall of Fame recognizes three professionals who didn't just practice financial planning — they helped invent the modern version of it. Operating from its Washington, DC base on K Street, the CFP Board uses this annual recognition to both celebrate legacy and signal the profession's values to its 100,000-plus certified practitioners. In a year when retirement security, fiduciary regulation, and wealth inequality are all live political issues on Capitol Hill, the timing of this induction is anything but ceremonial.
What to watch next: Monitor whether the CFP Board leverages this Hall of Fame class to advance specific fiduciary legislation in the current Congressional session. With the Senate Banking Committee actively debating retirement savings rules and the SEC revisiting investment adviser standards, the Board's Washington presence — and the credibility its Hall of Fame builds — could directly shape the policy outcomes that affect every American investor.
Reporting drawn from: Business Insider Markets / CFP Board. Washington DC Magazine provides original analysis, DC-specific context, and editorial perspective beyond the source material.This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by WDCM editorial staff. Washington DC Magazine is committed to accuracy, transparency, and editorial integrity. If you believe any information in this article requires correction, please contact editor@washingtondcmagazine.com.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
