Russell James, J.D., Ph.D., CFP® is a professor in the School of Financial Planning at Texas Tech University where he directs the graduate program in Charitable Financial Planning (planned giving). He graduated, cum laude, from the University of Missouri School of Law where he was a member of the Missouri Law Review and received the United Missouri Bank Award for Most Outstanding Work in Gift and Estate Taxation and Planning. He also holds a Ph.D. in consumer economics from the University of Missouri, where his dissertation was on charitable giving. He is a member of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners (CGP) Hall of Fame and an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estates Counsel (ACTEC).