Rate My Professor Joseph Goetz

Joseph Goetz serves as the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Financial Planning in the Department of Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics within the University of Georgia's College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Holding a Ph.D. in Consumer Economics and Financial Planning (2006), M.S. in Personal Financial Planning (2003), and M.A. in Psychology and Financial Counseling (2003) from Texas Tech University, as well as a B.A. in Psychology and Statistics (1996) from the University of Missouri, Goetz joined UGA in 2006. There, he co-founded the master's and doctoral programs in financial planning, the multidisciplinary ASPIRE Clinic for financial planning, family therapy, and law students, and the Schwab Financial Planning Center. He pioneered the nation's first financial planning clinical practicum course and the first university course in financial therapy, and co-founded the Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group, significantly advancing experiential learning in the field.

Goetz's research focuses on the fiduciary standard's implications for investment advice, investment risk tolerance and perception in portfolio optimization, effectiveness of financial education programs, particularly for the US Air Force, and evidence-based financial planning interventions. Key publications include "Changes in household net financial assets after the Great Recession: Did financial planners make a difference?" (Goetz et al., Journal of Personal Finance, 2020), "The Impact of Family Economic Strain on Work-Family Conflict, Marital Support, Marital Quality, and Marital Stability During the Middle Years" (Ross et al., Journal of Personal Finance, 2020), "Ethical Considerations in Financial Therapy" (Ross, Gale, & Goetz, Journal of Financial Therapy, 2016), and contributions to books such as "Behavioral Finance" in Client Psychology (Chatterjee & Goetz, 2017) and chapters in Financial Planning Competency Handbook II (2015). His accolades encompass the University of Georgia's highest teaching honor, the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship (2021), Creative Teaching Award (2019), Bill & June Flatt Outstanding Teacher of the Year (2019), Service-Learning Research Excellence Award (2019), and Financial Counselor of the Year from AFCPE (2013). Under his leadership, UGA's financial planning program ranks among the top three nationally, impacting the discipline through innovative pedagogy and the establishment of financial therapy as a recognized field.