In the 35th anniversary year for Investment Advisor, and the 13th year we've been naming the IA 25, we thought it proper to publish a special list honoring 35 people who have been most influential in and around the business of independent financial advice.
Listed by alphabetical order, we also thought it proper to include Five to Honor—investment theorists and practitioners who are in nearly every advisor's pantheon—and Five to Watch—younger influencers who we suggest are not only influential now but may well be on the 2050 IA 25.
We remind you that this is a subjective list, but one that has been through multiple iterations, proposed first by the editor-in-chief but modified significantly via input from the entire editorial staff of the Investment Advisor Group. Shorter profiles of our honorees are featured in the May issue of Investment Advisor. We invite you to read—and comment upon—the extended profiles of the IA 35 for 35 on ThinkAdvisor.com throughout the month of May. Congratulations to our honorees—you've been instrumental in making this industry what it is today and what it will be tomorrow.
May 4: Ben Bernanke, for bringing about QE and the end of the financial crisis, plus opening up the secretive Fed to the outside world.
May 5: Tom Bradley, for building TD Ameritrade into an innovator—and a fiduciary leader.
May 6: Warren Buffett, perhaps the greatest investor of our age and the voice of reason during the financial crisis.
May 7: Ken Dychtwald, the pioneer in the notion that boomers are redefining "retirement."
May 8: Harold Evensky, an early adopter of the fee-only model, a thinker and an educator who continues to give back to the profession.
May 9: Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, whose legislative reaction to fiscal crisis focused the nation, and advisors, on how to prevent another crisis.
May 10: Sheryl Garrett, an advisor who's built a network that embraces the lower-net-worth client.
May 11: Deena Katz, an advisor, business builder, educator and mentor whose brilliance is matched with candor and passion.
May 12: Joe Deitch, an independent broker-dealer leader who built a culture second to none.
May 13: Bill Gross, the brilliant but flawed bond manager, who brought fixed income investing out of the shadows.
May 14: Lou Harvey, for bringing objective analysis and measurement to standards and compliance in financial services.
May 15: Angie Herbers, who first shed light on a continuing issue—the generation gap between the pioneer planners and the next gen—whose work and writings help to bridge that gap.
