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George Kinder
Nationally recognized as the father of the Life Planning movement, the Harvard-educated Kinder is the Founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning. He has been a practicing financial planner and tax advisor for over 30 years.
His book, The Seven Stages of Money Maturity: Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life
In 2006, Kinder won the first-ever "Heart of Financial Planning Distinguished Service Award" from the 30,000-member Financial Planning Association for his work as an 'innovator and influencer' in the profession. Among his other accomplishments, in 1975 Kinder earned the Bronze Medal (third place) on the National Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam in Massachusetts. In 1995 he co-founded “The Nazrudin Project,” an influential think tank of national financial advisors dedicated to exploring the human and spiritual aspects of money and personal finance. In 2000, Investment Advisor Magazine, the largest circulation magazine for financial advisors, awarded Kinder its Portfolio Management Award given to those who have “contributed significantly to the art and science of portfolio management.”
In 2002, Mutual Funds magazine listed Kinder as one of the “Top 100 Planners” in the country. In 2003 and again in 2005, Investment Advisor magazine named Mr. Kinder as “one of the 25 most influential people in financial services in America.” In January 2005, based on a poll of their readership, Financial Planning magazine named Kinder one of the 6 “most influential” financial planners in America; the other 5 planners named had all studied with Mr. Kinder. Financial Planning magazine also named him to their 2005 “Hall of Fame” – Kinder was one of only 3 financial planners whose name appeared next to John Bogle, Alan Greenspan, Burton Malkiel, Charles Schwab and Suze Orman. Lee Eisenberg, author of the best-selling The Number, devotes 20% of his book to Kinder and the Life Planning movement. He writes about him as “…a dynamic, captivating presenter of ideas…dazzles a crowd.”
Kinder has appeared on radio and television programs across the country, including Marketplace on NPR, Sound Money with Kai Ryssdal, and the Boomers television series on PBS. He has been profiled in the Boston Globe, TIME, Business Week, MSN MoneyCentral, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, O Magazine, New York Magazine, the LA Times and more. His investment strategies have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune Magazine, and other national publications. He is a columnist for Advising Boomers and Worthwhile magazines.
He has spoken at many national conferences including Charles Schwab, the International Association of Financial Planners, the Social Investment Forum, the Institute of Certified Financial Planners, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, the Institute of Financial Planning and The Financial Planning Association. At the 2004 FPA National Conference, Kinder shared the stage with Ross Levin and Dick Wagner in a popular Super Session called “Life Planning and Interior Finance: 10 Years and Still Running Strong”. In 2005, Fidelity sponsored a 7-City United Kingdom tour, with Mr. Kinder as a keynote presenter in London, Edinburgh and other key cities. He has presented numerous times across Europe, including presentations at AXA and Allianz.
His two-day Seven Stages of Money Maturity® seminars have been widely attended by financial advisors and the general public. The Kinder Institute’s 5-day EVOKE®Training in Life Planning has attracted many of the leaders of the financial planning industry. His website www.kinderinstitute.com provides a searchable database for the general public of nearly 1000 advisors who have studied with him and do Life Planning all across the globe.
In 2007 Kinder released a new title, A Song for Hana & the Spirit of Lehoula, a love story told in lyric prose and poetry with over 100 scans and photographs of a mile of the Hana, Hawaii coast. Threatened by development, Kinder is dedicating 50% of the book’s profits to saving the land and preserving traditional Hawaiian culture. The book represents Kinder’s life-long dream to create a work of beauty, spiritual depth, artistry and literary quality.
Kinder currently divides his time between his offices in Massachusetts and Hawaii.