For Release: August 9, 2010

The Financial Planning Association^® (FPA^®) today announcedannounced its 2010 Heart of Financial Planning Award winners. The Awards recognize individual professionals, financial planning firms, FPA chapters, or organizations who engage in extraordinary work, contributing and giving back to the financial planning community and public through financial planning. Recipients embody the spirit of financial planning and also represent FPA's Core Values: Competence, Integrity, Relationships and Stewardship. This year’s winners are:

• Don Blandin (FPA of the National Capital Area) – Blandin, president and CEO of the nonprofit Investor Protection Trust is recognized for his leadership in developing the How Can I Afford Retirement? investor education program, as well as his close work with securities regulators, FPA chapters, and libraries across the country. Blandin also gives investor education and protection presentations across the country in an effort to help all Americans make wise and safe investment decisions.
  
  
• Mark Clark (FPA of Silicon Valley) – Clark is honored for his commitment to teaching financial education and L.I.F.E. skills to hundreds of youth through many agencies and organizations in Northern California. In addition to co-developing financial education curriculum for foster youth, he also coordinates the delivery of the program and engages volunteers, many from within the FPA community. Clark founded Moneydawg Solutions and the MONEY Institute 4 L.I.F.E.
  
  
• Saundra Davis, MSFP (FPA of San Francisco) – Davis is honored for her passion in providing high-quality pro bono financial planning to the working poor. She has volunteered thousands of hours over the past five years by serving as a key leader for the FPA of San Francisco Pro Bono Committee; coordinating monthly financial planning workshops for The Earned Assets Resource Network (EARN); developing the Financial Education Network – San Francisco (FEN-SF) and continuing to support FEN-SF by teaching professional development classes on financial coaching and financial planning; and developing the financial coaching adult education program for Project Read.
  
  
• Michael Kitces, CFP^®, MTAX, MSFS, CLU, ChFC (FPA of Maryland) – Kitces is recognized for his extraordinary work and commitment to education in the financial planning industry. As an active FPA volunteer at the local and national levels, he is co-founder of the FPA NexGen community of interest and continues to support young planners through his company, NewPlannerRecruiting.com. Kitces publishes The Kitces Report on Kitces.com, a website dedicated to advancing knowledge in financial planning. He is a speaker, writer and researcher dedicated to ongoing learning and continues to explore new planning ideas as Director of Research for private wealth management firm Pinnacle Advisory Group.
  
  
• Keith Loveland, J.D., AIFA, CIDA (FPA of Minnesota) – Loveland is a practicing attorney in securities law and compliance, and is honored for his pro-bono and ethics work, and his passion for a fiduciary standard to ensure a client-centered, ethical financial planning process. He has created and taught CFP Ethics courses for many years, led knowledge café’s on the fiduciary standard, written a white paper on principles of the fiduciary duty, represented FPA before state legislators, and has volunteered to mentor new and experienced FPA members on various compliance issues. Loveland has served on the FPA Disciplinary Committee, FPA Fiduciary Task Force, and the Fiduciary Education Initiative.
  
  
• Brent Neiser, CFP^®, CAE (FPA of Colorado) – Neiser is honored for his enthusiasm and commitment to financial literacy to educate the public in all areas of personal finance. As Senior Director of Strategic Programs and Alliances for the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE^®), Neiser put financial literacy initiatives on the map for new audiences and leading national nonprofits. Neiser helped lead the development of CashCourse.org, a website that promotes financial literacy for college students, and MyRetirementPaycheck.org, a website helping people optimize their retirement decision-making. Additionally, Neiser leads public policy activities for NEFE.
  
  
• Don Pitti (FPA of New York) – As a pioneer of the financial planning profession, Pitti dedicated many years to help advance the financial planning profession. Pitti was one of the founding members of the International Association for Financial Planning, a predecessor organization of FPA, and also received FPA’s prestigious P. Kemp Fain, Jr. Award in 2008. Throughout the years, Pitti’s vision and leadership helped shape the financial planning community, including the development of the Foundation for Financial Planning. Sadly, Pitti passed away in late 2009.
  
  
• Karin Price Mueller – As a journalist, Price Mueller is dedicated to delivering timely and accurate financial planning information to the public through various media outlets. Price Mueller co-authored financial literacy guides to educate immigrants and the underserved about how they can improve their financial situation in the U.S. She also co-authored, “How to Fix Your Credit” and writes regular columns for The Star-Ledger including: Get With the Plan, a money-makeover series; Bamboozled, a consumer affairs feature; and Ask the Biz Brain, a write-in feature that answers questions from readers on various finance topics. She also hosts Money 911, a series for MSN Money that helps participants solve money emergencies.
  

The Heart of Financial Planning Awards will be presented at FPA Denver 2010, the annual conference of the financial planning community, to be held October 9-12 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colo.

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