Financial industry thought leader David M. Blanchett has been selected to receive the 2019 Montgomery-Warschauer Award for an article he wrote for the Journal of Financial Planning, the journal announced Thursday.

Blanchett’s article, “The Impact of Retirement Age Uncertainty on Retirement Outcomes,” published in the journal in September 2018, explores the ways advisors can plan for clients who may retire earlier than expected.

The Montgomery-Warschauer Award is presented annually to the author of a journal article that provides “the most outstanding contribution to the betterment of the profession,” the journal said in the award announcement. The award will be presented at the annual Financial Planning Association conference in Minneapolis in October. Blanchett will present the paper at the conference.

Nineteen peer-reviewed research papers were contenders for this year’s award. The entries were judged by the journal’s editorial team.

In his article, Blanchett encourages planners to consider modeling early retirement to ensure their clients are prepared for situations that might affect their retirement date. “Blanchett’s research paper addresses the implications of retirement age assumptions and the impact on retirement savings for individuals who retire at earlier ages than expected,” the journal said.

David Yeske, practitioner editor of the Journal of Financial Planning, said, “In a paper that is both theoretically interesting and extremely practical, David Blanchett empirically identifies the factors that can be used to predict when a client is likely to retire earlier than planned. After demonstrating the financial impact of such early retirements, Blanchett suggests approaches to incorporating this risk into the retirement plan. These findings should become the basis for a new best practice among all financial planners.”

Barbara O’Neill, the journal’s academic editor, said the article “shows that actual retirement ages can differ significantly from retirement plans and that this disconnect needs to be anticipated in the financial planning process. Retirement planning is a key financial goal of clients, and all financial planners can benefit from Blanchett’s research and analysis.”

Blanchett is currently head of retirement research for Morningstar Investment Management, where he helps develop methodologies relating to wealth forecasting, general financial planning, automated investment selection and portfolio assignment.

He is also an adjunct professor of wealth management for the American College and is a contributor to the wealth management certified professional designation, which the college recently introduced. Blanchett is an expert panelist for The Wall Street Journal, a member of the executive committee for the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and a member of the ERISA Advisory Council.

Blanchett has received the Montgomery-Warschauer award in the past. He was presented with the award for an article he co-authored, “The 4 Percent Rule Is Not Safe in a Low-Yield World,” and an article he wrote, “Exploring the Retirement Consumption Puzzle.”

His research has also received awards from the Academy of Financial Services, the CFP Board and the Financial Analysts Journal.

The award is named after the late Henry Montgomery, who helped create the Journal of Financial Planning, and Tom Warschauer, the journal’s first academic editor.