Ed Slott received the Sidney Kess Award for Excellence in Continuing Education, and Zach Thies received the P. Thomas Austin Personal Financial Planning Scholarship.
The Sidney Kess Award recognizes CPAs who have made significant and outstanding contributions in tax and financial planning and whose public service exemplifies the CPA profession's values and ethics. Slott is a past chairman of the New York State Society of CPAs Estate Planning Committee and editor of the IRA planning section of the CPA Journal. As president and founder of Ed Slott and Company LLC, he provides advanced IRA training to financial professionals.
The P. Thomas Austin Personal Financial Planning Scholarship, which was established to honor Austin, a CPA who chaired the AICPA's Advanced Estate Planning Conference for three decades and is currently chair emeritus, covers the cost of attending the Advanced Estate Planning Conference, as well as related travel expenses, for CPAs who have less than 10 years of experience. Thies is a financial planner with Creative Planning Inc. in Iowa City, Iowa, where he uses his tax expertise to design and implement planning strategies to reduce overall client income tax liabilities. He also received an AICPA PFP Standing Ovation Award in 2019.
