UA Board of Trustees Approves Establishment of Financial Institute in Walton College

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees approved the creation on the Garrison Financial Institute in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at its April 22 meeting.

Start-up funding for the institute will be provided by six members of the Garrison family, who have pledged $2 million to help build a comprehensive and nationally competitive financial services industry in the state of Arkansas. 

Thomas and Natalie Garrison, William Garrison and his fiancée, Joana Heimel, and Daniel and Julianna Garrison have pledged combined resources of $2 million to fund the Garrison Chair in Finance. Their gift will be matched by $2 million from funds available through the University of Arkansas Matching Gift Program to create a $4 million endowment.

The earnings from the Garrison Chair endowment will be used to create the Garrison Finance Institute, pending approval by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education on May 29. The proposed institute will house three new centers in the Walton College: the Investment and Research Center, the Trading Center and the Personal and Family Finance Center. All of the centers will provide opportunities for scholarship and research for the faculty and students as well as for individuals and businesses in the state of Arkansas.

The Investment and Research Center will provide fee-based investment advisory and research services to industry. The center will act as a consultant — conceptualizing, developing and simulating investment strategies, which may be used in actual fund management.

The Personal and Family Finance Center is being created in response to a growing concern about the level of knowledge needed to manage personal finances resulting from the confluence of three factors: an expansion of credit availability, changed in retirement funding that makes consumers more responsible for their long-term security, and a marked increase in the number of financial services providers and complexity of products they provide. These trends directly affect the quality of life in Arkansas households.

The Trading Center will manage the operations of a special trading floor facility for the educational activities involved in the student-managed funds. It will be housed in the new Graduate School of Business building, Willard J. Walker Hall, scheduled to be completed in 2007.

More information about the institute, the gift and the Garrison family members participating in the creation of the Garrison Financial Institute will be provided at a public announcement at 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in the Donald W. Reynolds Center.