Bill Fender, CPA, J.D., MBA, AIFA®
Principal
Bill is a Principal and Senior Consultant. He has more than 40 years of experience in financial services.
In 2018 Innovest established the “William Fender Mentorship Award.” This recognition is awarded annually to the Innovest employee that has demonstrated exceptional contributions as a mentor to all employees, family, and the community at large.
Bill is responsible for Innovest’s expert witness services. His expertise and experience focuses on litigation involving fiduciary duties associated with trusts and estates, retirement plans, foundations, and financial advisers. For more information on Bill’s expert witness experience, see https://expert-fiduciary.com/
Bill was selected to be an Innovest Culture Leader. This select group leads a small employee team to help refine and solidify personal characteristics that successfully creates the Innovest stewardship culture.
As a Certified Public Accountant, Bill is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and The Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants. In addition, Bill is an attorney (inactive).
He is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst (AIFA), a professional designation awarded to him in October 2004 by the Center for Fiduciary Studies, an educational organization associated with the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. Additionally, Bill is a Registered Fiduciary (RF), a professional designation that identifies financial professionals as competent fiduciaries. Dalbar, Inc., a leading financial services market research firm, holds a license for training and certification from the Foundation for Fiduciary Studies (FFS) and has created the RF designation. The RF designation is restricted to actual fiduciaries and prepares a candidate to comply with all regulatory requirements for a fiduciary under current laws.
Bill is a voting member of the Securities Experts Roundtable (SER). SER is a group of professionals with significant experience as testifying and consulting experts in investment related litigation and arbitration. SER promotes ethics and integrity among its members and encourages them to adopt its “Best Ethical Practices for Experts.”
Bill earned his Juris Doctor, “With Honors,” from George Washington University Law School, and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Dayton. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from Ohio University, graduating “cum laude” from the Honors College.
Throughout his career, Bill has conducted numerous continuing legal education presentations for attorneys and continuing professional education presentations for Certified Public Accountants on the topic of duties of fiduciaries with responsibility for investment management. Seminars have been conducted for, among others, the Colorado Bar Association Elder Law Section, the Denver Estate Planning Council, the Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council, the Centennial Estate Planning Council, the Southeast Denver Estate Planning Council, the Northern Colorado Estate Planning Council, the National Jewish Center Estate Planning Conference, the Colorado Society of CPAs Investment Conference, and the Colorado Society of CPAs Nonprofit Organization Conference.
Bill's Personal Code of Ethics
Commit to continuous and never-ending improvement • Work constantly to understand people • Take personal responsibility • Nobody said it would be easy, they said it would be worth it • If it’s important, you’ll find time for it • Share your knowledge, experience and wisdom • Put more fun in your work and more work in your fun • Be considerate of others • Most people are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.
bfender@innovestinc.com
