Dec 01, 2025
Doctoral student Ravisha Chutani (Co-authors: Drs. Kimberly Watkins, John Grable, and Laura Lu (college of education)) received the CFP Board Best Paper Award at the 2025 CFP Board-AFS Annual meeting, Chicago, IL for their paper “Understanding the Impact of Family Financial Socialization and Financial Capability on Financial Wellbeing Across Generations: Practical Insights for Financial Planners.”
Doctoral students Mary Akinde (Co-Major Professors: Drs. Patryk Babiarz and Diann Moorman) and Catherine Asiimwe (Major Professor: Dr. Lance Palmer) received the UGA Graduate School Graduate Degree Accelerator Awards.
Doctoral student Yeqi Zhu (Co-author and Mentor: Dr. Lu Fan) also received her best paper award at the 2025 AFCPE Conference, Phoenix-Glendale AZ for their paper entitled “Buy now, pay later: A roadblock to financial well-being”
The Financial Resilience Education Center (FRC) Renovation Celebration event this past November was a huge success. Over 80 attendees participated in this event, including Provost Ben Ayers, FACS Dean Dr. Anisa Zvonkovic, Associate Dean of Extension Dr. Allisen Penn, Financial Planning Legacy Leaders Charles Schwab Foundation, Signature FD, Schorn Wealth, HB Wealth, and Bluerock Wealth Management among others. Congratulations to Dr. Lance Palmer, Melissa McBride, Jessica Mangum, Sonja Halder, Casey Cane, Suzanne Griffeth, Dr. Michael Thomas and the Student Financial Planning Association (SFPA) student leaders for helping put together this tremendous event. Huge thank you to our FHCE faculty including Drs. Effie Antonoudi, Megan Ford, Joe Goetz, Wil Golden, Deborah Lacey, Travis Mountain, Anne Sweaney, Pamela Turner, and Kimberly Watkins, for participating in this celebration along with several of our amazing doctoral, Master’s, and undergraduate students, alumni, and other supporters and stakeholders at this event.
Doctoral student Juan S (Sebastian) Sandoval published his co-authored paper in the International Journal of Bank Marketing.
In the news…
Dr. Dee Warmath helped develop the Georgia Health Landscape Dashboard, a tool to identify local health gaps, and connect regional health professionals or policymakers with researchers along with Dr. Alsion Berg of Nutritional Sciences and Jon Duke (Ga Tech). Dr. Warmath’s work was featured in the Gatech News and @UGAResearch:
Other news…
Dr. Michael Thomas led the Financial Planning Quiz Bowl team to the 2025 AFCPE Conference held at Phoenix-Glendale, AZ this past November.
Several graduate students including Nayeon Kim, Francisco Diaz, and Katrina Goudelock presented their research at the 2025 HERA Conference, Blacksburg, VA this past November. Several FHCE Faculty including Prof. Sherle Brown, Drs. Andy Carswell, Sharon Kane, Diann Moorman, and Kim Skobba also presented their papers at the HERA conference.
Several graduate students including Yeqi Zhu (paper award winner; Mentor/Co-author Dr. Lu Fan), Kiana Drummond, Charlotte Ingram, and Lindsay Mapes) also presented their papers at the 2025 AFCPE Symposium, Phoenix-Glendale, AZ this past November. Financial Planning faculty members including Drs. Effie Antonoudi, and Lu Fan also presented their research at the AFCPE symposium.
Doctoral student Lin Sun (Major prof. Dr. Patryk Babiarz) presented her paper at the 2025 Southern Economic Association (SEA) Annual conference in Tampa Florida last month.
Doctoral student Lindsay Mapes (co-author: Dr. Patryk Babiarz) presented her paper at the 72nd North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International in Denver, CO last month.
Doctoral student Kiana Drummond (Major prof. Dr. Lance Palmer) was invited to present her co-authored paper at the 2025 Personal Finance and Investment Symposium, Perth, Australia.
Doctoral students Lindsay Mapes and Yeqi Zhu also presented their papers in the Graduate Seminar class in November.
The inaugural meeting of the Financial Planning Advisory Council was held following the FRC Renovation Center launch. The inaugural committee members include alumni Richard Zulick (Morgan Stanley), Tom Schorn (Schorn Wealth), and Raj Chokshi (Bluerock Wealth). The meeting was also attended by FACS Dean Dr. Anisa Zvonkovic and FACS Senior Director of Development Suzanne Griffeth.
The 2025 Fall RPM Career Night was a huge success. Thank you professor Sherle Brown, and Melissa McBride for making this happen. And thank you to Drs. Kim Skobba, Anne Sweaney, and Suzanne Griffeth for being there. Many thanks to Aimee Dowd from the FACS SSAC for promoting the major at this event. Huge thanks to the H.O.U.S.E student officers for their participation and help with this event, and thank you to our amazing Housing Management and Policy-Residential Property Management students for their participation.
Alumna Dr. Yu (Yulia) Zhang of Kansas State University presented her work (virtually) to the students in the Graduate Seminar Class last month.
Research
Ming, S., Maietta, J. E., Ranum, R. M., Hermann, G., Murriel, E. C., Block, C.,
Watkins, K., & Kiselica, A. M. (2025). Practical considerations for job application, interview, and negotiation in clinical neuropsychology.
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 1–19.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2025.2565213“This manuscript developed a narrative review of considerations for prospective employment in neuropsychology. This study provides a summary of factors to consider in job selection and negotiation in clinical neuropsychology in multiple settings, including the topics of compensation, benefits, and productivity expectations. Overall, the manuscript provides an overview of critical topics for early career success in clinical neuropsychology that could be incorporated into graduate and post-doctoral training curricula.”
“Curriculum design in programs to build life skills often focuses on explicit learning methods that aim to increase declarative knowledge. However, this type of education has been shown to have minimal impact on behavior. We introduce a continuum of knowledge and argue that more flexible forms of knowledge are required to impact behavior, especially for novices. Using a randomized controlled trial conducted over several sessions, this study explores the ability of semi-flexible and flexible knowledge to promote optimal behaviors in the context of personal finances. We found that as knowledge became more flexible, desired changes in actual behavior became more likely. Our results provide evidence that life skills education programs, such as collegiate financial education, may be “barking up the wrong tree” with the focus on explicit learning. Expanding program design to incorporate a focus on flexible knowledge may improve the impact of such programs on desired behavior.”
Sandoval, J. S., Collazos-Ortiz, M. A., Sarmiento-Sabogal, J., & Cayon-Fallon, E. (2025). Financial knowledge and financial behavior: evidence from five Latin American countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1-22.
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-09-2024-0567
“This study finds an association between financial knowledge and comparing financial products before acquiring them, and a negative relationship with overspending. Regarding seeking financial advice, the association was negative for the objective measure and positive for the subjective measure. The results also indicate that COVID-19 led to more precautionary behaviors among those with higher financial knowledge. However, there is considerable variation by country, both before and during the pandemic, suggesting that structural factors influence these relationships.”
Nov 25, 2025
Congratulations
Doctoral student Lin Sun (mentor: Dr. Patryk Babiarz) received the 2025 Jan M. Hathcote Social Science Academic Support Award for her project entitled: “Trust in the Machine: Decoding Consumer Acceptance of AI-Generated Financial Advice from LLMs”
Doctoral student Xiaoyuan Sun (co-author: Dr. Swarn Chatterjee) on receiving a best poster award at the 2025 AFS CFP Board CFPConnections25 Conference in Chicago, IL.
Doctoral student Kiana Drummond on being invited to present her paper entitled “Beyond the refund: Modeling client experience, satisfaction, and financial well-being changes in a VITA program” (co-authors: USDA Higher Education Challenge grant team led by Drs. Lance Palmer, Travis Mountain, Wil Golden, and Swarn Chatterjee; and doctoral students Catherine Asiimwe and Ruchika Bansal) at the AFS Australia New Zealand Chapter Personal Finance and Investment Symposium in Perth Australia. Kiana’s paper was selected based on her poster presentation on the same topic at the 2025 CFP Connections conference in Chicago, Illinois this past October.
Dr. Kimberly Watkins has been accepted as a faculty affiliate of the UGA Love and Money Center
Dr. Joseph Goetz on receiving the Distinguished Leadership Award from Texas Tech University School of Financial Planning
Dr. John Grable was recognized for his service at the Academy of Financial Services Awards ceremony in the 2025 CFP Board Connections Conference, Chicago, IL.
Drs. Lance Palmer, Travis Mountain, and Wil Golden on receiving the Gifted Savings funding to evaluate financial literacy and investment behavior of high school students.
Dr. Dee Warmath has been selected to be one of the inaugural
UGA faculty innovation fellows. Dr. Warmath’s and Inaugural Faculty Innovation Fellows’ works were featured on
UGA TODAY.
In the news…
Nearly 100 students signed up for the Evening with Caleb Silver event. Caleb Silver is the editor-in-chief of Investopedia and shared his insights on AI and the future opportunities for Financial Planning, and the tremendous opportunities for students graduating from our program. Thank you Dr. Michael Thomas for hosting the Q&A panel and Dr. Kimberly Watkins for leading this event!
Dr. John Grable was invited to speak at the Financial Planning Association meeting in Spokane, Washington.
Dr. Michael Thomas was invited to be present on a panel of experts discussing Real World Assets (RWAs) at the 3rd Annual Lehman College Digital Assets Conference in NYC, NY.
Other news…
First year doctoral student Marty Sowards represented UGA at the 2025 Utah Valley University Financial Planning Career Fair in Orem Utah this past October.
Over 238 students attended the 2025 FHCE Fall Career Fair setting a new record! 30 firms participated in this event! Huge thanks to prof. Sherle Brown for helping us plan this event!
The Financial Planning Alumni Group event that followed the Career Fair was also well attended. Thank you Drs. Effie Antonoudi, Joseph Goetz, Lance Palmer, Megan Ford Michael Thomas, Kimberly Watkins and other faculty members whose names I may have missed for all your support.
The RPM Board meeting that followed in the evening of the FHCE Career Fair was another success. Thank you professor Sherle Brown making this happen. And thank you to Drs. Andy Carswell and Pamela Turner and other faculty members whose name I may have missed for being there.
Thank you Melissa Mcbride, Jessica Mangum, and Sonja Halder for all your help with these events!
Dr. Brenda Cude has been busy! Currently, she is consulting with Healthy DC, the District of Columbia's Health Insurance Marketplace, to improve their consumer communications, including their website. Next week, she will speak at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors in Tirana, Albania, on the topic of keeping insurance affordable and valued by customers. And, in December Dr. Cude will attend the Consumer Federation of America's Financial Services Conference, participating in a panel discussion. The topic is "Tech Comes to the Insurance Market: The Opportunities and Pitfalls Facing Industry, Regulators, and Consumers." In September, Dr. Cude presented “Words that work: Clearer consumer messaging” to 200 participants at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Insurance Summit in Kansas City, MO. She also chaired a panel on Aging and Long-Term Care at the same conference and presented a paper with Sharon Tennyson of Cornell University titled “Consumer insurance literacy: Evidence from a survey of homeowners insurance purchasers” at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Center for Insurance Policy and Research Regulatory Research Symposium, also in Kansas City, MO.
Drs. Effie Antonoudi, John Grable, Joseph Goetz, Kimberly Watkins, Kristy Archuleta, Lance Palmer, Lu Fan, and Travis Mountain participated in the panel for our doctoral students in the seminar class this past October.
Dr. Yunhee Chang, University of Mississippi, presented her research on natural disasters and credit use to the doctoral students in the Seminar class in October.
Research
Daniels, I. M., Hollar, D. L., McCoy, M., & Watkins, K. (2025). Relationships between financial well-being and resiliency: evidence from law enforcement. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1-21.
“This study investigates how ego-resiliency (ER) and bounce-back resilience (BBR) relate to financial well-being/distress (FWBD) among law enforcement officers. Results show that both ego-resilience and bounce-back resilience are positively and additively associated with financial well-being, suggesting that the capacity to recover from adversity and the proclivity for context-appropriate behavioral impulse control are related to perceived financial health. The law enforcement context enhances the relevance of this study to society, as officers operate under high-stress conditions and are authorized by governments to engage the public in consequential ways. Identifying financial well-being as a correlate of stress-coping resources has implications for the psychological well-being of officers and the health of their interactions with the broader public. This study contributes to the literature of financial well-being by establishing relationships to previously underexplored psychological correlates. Furthermore, this study examines financial well-being in an occupational sample. Such samples are underexplored in the literature.”
Reiter, M., Jurgenson, J. B., McCoy, M., Watkins, K., White, K., & Warmath, D. (2025). Evaluating the Klontz Money Script Inventory-Revised (KMSI-R): Factorial Validity, Internal Consistency, and Measurement Invariance with a Diverse Sample. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-13.
“The Klontz Money Script Inventory-Revised (KMSI-R) is a widely used scale that assesses individuals’ money scripts or beliefs. This study examines the factorial validity, internal consistency (i.e., reliability), and measurement invariance of the KMSI-R using a diverse sample of respondents. Using a proprietary dataset with a final sample of 2686 respondents, the authors found that the measurement’s internal consistency was reasonable for all items. However, factorial validity was not supported, with poor fit indices for the four-factor model (X2(458) = 3912.96, RMSEA = .053, CFI = .762, TLI = .742). Improvements in fit were observed after removing items with low loadings and applying theoretically relevant modifications (X2(96) = 610.249, RMSEA = .045, CFI = .930, TLI = .912). Measurement invariance across racial and ethnic groups was not supported. The findings suggest that the KMSI-R needs significant revision before it can be used with diverse populations.”
Zhang, Y., & Chatterjee, S. (2025). Overconfidence and portfolio return expectations: The mediating role of option trading behavior. Economics Bulletin, 45(3), 1283-1296.
“This paper investigates the role of overconfidence in investment knowledge on higher investment portfolio return expectations, with a focus on the mediating role of option trading behavior among individual American investors. The findings show that overconfidence was consistently associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in option trading behavior and holding the belief that one's investment portfolio returns were superior to the market average. The mediation analysis further reveals that overconfidence mediated by actively participating in options trading, may result in investors' positive perception of their portfolio performance.”
Oct 30, 2025
October 2025 Just So You Know…
Congratulations
Doctoral student Mary Akinde (co-chairs: Drs. Diann Moorman and Patryk Babiarz) successfully defended her portfolio.
Master’s student Sonika Chan passed Part 1 of her IRS Enrolled Agent exam.
Drs. Effie Antonoudi and Travis Mountain were investigators in the $6.2 million “Elevating Couple Relationships Across Georgia” grant that was recently funded by the HHS. The project is led by Dr. Ted Futris from HDFS department.
Dr. Dee Warmath was part of an inter-disciplinary team that was recently awarded the UGA Engineering and Computing Convergence Collaboration (EC3) Innovations internal grant for $10,000.
Dr. Michael Thomas has been accepted as a faculty affiliate of the UGA Love and Money Center
In the news…
Dr. Yilang Peng and his research was featured on
UGA TODAY.
Other news…
Drs. Kristy Archuleta, John Grable, Kimberly Watkins, and Megan Ford along with several of our graduate students volunteered in providing financial education sessions for the Virtual Pro Bono Financial Planning Day.
Dr. Olivia Valdes of FINRA presented to our doctoral students and faculty about the new 2024 wave of the FINRA National Financial Capability Study that was launched earlier this year.
Drs. Daehwan Ahn, Patryk Babiarz, Jermaine Durham, Sharon Kane, Yilang Peng, and Dee Warmath discussed research with graduate students in the doctoral seminar class in September.
In the past few months Dr. Brenda Cude was invited to make presentations and share her expertise on topics that ranged from consumer interest literacy, aging and long-term care, to homeowners insurance:
- Tennyson, S., & Cude, B. J. (2025, September). Consumer insurance literacy: Evidence from a survey of homeowners insurance purchasers. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Center for Insurance Policy and Research Regulatory Research Symposium. Kansas City, MO.
- Cude, B. (2025, September 16). Words that work: Clearer consumer messaging. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Insurance Summit. Kansas City, MO.
- Cude, B., Burns, B., & Weber, D. (2025, September 17). Aging and long-term care. Panel chair. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Insurance Summit. Kansas City, MO.
- Cude, B., Bach, A., Eversman, E., Walker, B., & Weber, D. (2025, August 10). Don’t tell me to read my policy!. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Consumer Liaison Committee, Minneapolis, MN.
- Schwartz, D., & Cude, B. (2025, August 13). Consumer comprehension in homeowners insurance. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Property and Casualty Committee, Minneapolis, MN.
- Czajkowski, J., Cude, B., & Rourke, B. (2025, March). LTCI rate increase letters and choice. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Senior Issues Task Force, Indianapolis, IN.
The Fall 2025 edition of the UGA Financial Planning Connections Event took place this past September.
Research
Jeong, D., & Babiarz, P. (2025). Willingness to Take Financial Risks and Portfolio Choice: The Moderating Role of Financial Planners' Advice. Financial Planning Review, 8(3), e70007.
“Individuals with the lowest self-reported risk tolerance were significantly more likely to invest in stocks and allocate a larger share of their financial assets to equities when they received advice from a financial planner. But, for individuals with high risk tolerance, the use of a financial planner was associated with a reduction in the proportion of financial wealth allocated to directly held stocks. However, for households with moderate to high risk tolerance, financial planner use still increased risky asset allocation.’’
Sep 05, 2025
Congratulations
Dr. Sharon Kane has been accepted as an affiliate at the Owens Institute of Behavioral Research (OIBR).
FHCE alumna Stacy Jones became UGA’s fifth Vice President for Public Service and Outreach (PSO).
Dr. John Grable has been accepted as a faculty affiliate of the UGA Love and Money Center
In the news…
Dr. Brenda Cude’s research on insurance fraud was featured in UGA TODAY.
https://www.wuga.org/local-news/2025-09-02/young-adults-more-likely-to-tolerate-insurance-fraud
Dr. Cude has also published recently on this topic with her co-author Hanchun Zhang in the Journal of Consumer Affairs.
Cude, B. J., & Zhang, H. (2025). Factors That Influence Willingness to Commit Insurance Fraud. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 59(2), e70015. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joca.70015
Other news…
Prof. Sherle Brown organized the UGA RPM alumni panel to come and talk to the students in her class. The panel comprised of the following alumni:
- Andy Reidel (Grad. 2025 - Service & Construction Associate - Gallery Residential)
- Garrett Stephenson (Grad. 2021 - Account Executive - Real Floors)
- Sarah Grace DiMarzo (Grad. 2025 - REALTOR, Corcoran)
- Victoria Horbulewicz (Grad. 2023 - Financial Analyst, Atlantic l Pacific)
- Grace Bryant (Grad. 2022 - Lease-up Community Manager, ECI)
- Anna Gronholm Bridgman (Grad. 2022 - Talent Development Programs Manager - Cortland)
- Parker Way (Grad. 2023 - Construction Superintendent - D.R. Horton)
As part of her 2025 UGA ASPIRE Leadership Program project Dr. Lu Fan has developed The Financial Health Laboratory. The goal of this laboratory is to advance interdisciplinary research on financial literacy, capability, decision-making, and well-being. Through research, education, and outreach, the lab seeks to empower individuals and families to improve financial health and well-being. https://www.fcs.uga.edu/fhce/financial-health-laboratory
Doctoral student Lin Sun’s paper was accepted for presentation at the 2025 Southern Economic Association’s conference.
Doctoral student Ravisha Chutani and co-authors Drs. John Grable, Kimberly Watkins, and Zhenqiu Lu will be presenting their paper at the 2025 CFP® Connections Conference in Chicago, IL in October, 2025. Ravisha also presented her her paper at the 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition in Montreal, Quebec, Canada this past summer:
Chutani, R., & Kathpalia, V., & Morelock, J. R. (2025, June), Impact of financial anxiety and financial stress on the financial well-being of engineering graduate students in the United States.
Drs. Kristy Archuleta and Kimberly Watkins will be presenting at the 2025 CFP® Connections conference, Chicago, IL in October, 2025.
Research
If you have any news items or current research you would like included in Just So You Know…. please email Swarn Chatterjee. Just So You Know…. is now available at https://www.fcs.uga.edu/fhce/just-so-you-know.
For more program updates, follow me on Linked In.
Cude, B. J., & Zhang, H. (2025). Factors That Influence Willingness to Commit Insurance Fraud. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 59(2), e70015. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joca.70015
Insurance fraud increases premiums for all U.S. households and undermines the insurer/insured relationship. This article examines willingness to commit insurance fraud using data from an online survey completed by 1505 U.S. adults and analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis. Roughly one-half of the sample would never commit any of the nine types of insurance fraud in the survey. Fewer than 20% (17.2%) of the respondents said they had committed at least one of the types of fraud. Both of the moral intensity variables were significant, but the signs were opposite. Moral Intensity PC1 (Magnitude of Consequences, Probability of Effect, Temporal Immediacy, and Concentration of Effect) was negatively related to willingness to commit insurance fraud, while Moral Intensity PC2 (Social Consensus and Proximity) was positively related. Peer acceptance was significantly and positively related to willingness to commit insurance fraud, while the relationship with the belief that insurance fraud is a crime was negative. Several control variables were significant, including age; older respondents were significantly less likely to be willing to commit insurance fraud than younger respondents. The article concludes by discussing future directions for research and practical implications for consumer educators.
Yang, T., Yang, X., Peng, Y., & Mukerjee, S. (2025). Are partisan, unreliable, digital-born, and mass-oriented media more likely to thrive on social media? Comparing four information ecosystems. Journal of Communication. https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqaf035/8246330
Abstract. Social media platforms form information ecosystems distinct from the Web and reconfigure power relationships, especially the distribution of visibilities, among news media. We developed a theoretical framework based on structuration theory to explain the differences between the Web and social media, and investigated four prominent factors: institutional legacy, information reliability, ideological differences, and news inequalities. This study collected social media data from three platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube; N = 8.4 million posts), web traffic data, and an information reliability index for 766 media outlets in the USA. We investigated how four factors explained differences between the platforms and the Web: media outlets that were digital-born (compared to newspapers), partisan, and mass-oriented gained greater visibilities on platforms relative to their web traffic. Meanwhile, the three platforms displayed differences. For example, only Twitter showed significantly increased visibilities of unreliable sources. Our multiplatform research design demonstrates the impact of platformization on journalism.
