The Kentucky PFM Challenge

Kentucky PFM Challenge 2026 · All times are U.S. Eastern Time.

1. The challenge

   The Kentucky PFM Challenge (the “Challenge”) is a skills-based competition organized and administered by Globefin (“Globefin,” “we,” “us”) and presented by the University of Kentucky Online Undergraduate Certificate in Financial Planning. Entrants build a personal financial management web page for people in Kentucky. Winners are chosen by judges on the merits of their entries. Chance plays no part.

   No entry fee and no purchase are required to enter or win.

2. Who can enter

   The Challenge is open to individuals who, at the time they register and at the time a prize is awarded, are:

   • currently enrolled students of the University of Kentucky, undergraduate or graduate, in any major; and
   • 18 years of age or older.

   Not eligible: employees and contractors of Globefin; anyone serving as a judge or helping administer the Challenge; and the immediate family members and household members of any of them. Void where prohibited by law.

3. Key dates

   Registration opens	Now, on this page
   Challenge launches	October 12, 2026
   Registration closes	November 6, 2026, 11:59 p.m.
   Submissions due	November 20, 2026, 11:59 p.m.
   Winners announced	On or about December 4, 2026

   We may extend any of these dates. Any change will be posted on this page and emailed to registered entrants.

4. How to enter

   • Register using the form on this page by the registration deadline. Only registered entrants may submit a web page. Registration requires a University of Kentucky email address ending in uky.edu. One registration per person.
   • Build your web page, meeting the requirements in Rule 5.
   • Submit it by the submission deadline using the submission page at globefin.org/ky-pfm-submit.php, with the web page published in Globefin's Demos gallery and tagged ky-pfm. If your web page uses a service that needs a key, send the judges a key privately with your submission, never inside the file. Use a key with a low spending limit, and cancel it after judging. Each submission must include a link to the web page published in Globefin's Demos gallery, the category it is entered in, and one or two sentences on who in Kentucky it is built for.

   Choosing a category when you register is optional, and you can change it until you submit. You may resubmit an improved version of your web page before the deadline, and the last version received is the one judged. You may enter more than one web page only if they are genuinely different, and each is entered in one category.

   Teams. Teams of up to 3 people may enter together. Only one member registers, on behalf of the whole team, and every member must be eligible. At submission, the team names its members and says how any prize is to be split. If it doesn't, the prize is split equally.

5. Web page requirements

   To qualify, a web page must:

   • be a single HTML file that opens by double-clicking, with nothing to install;
   • let users save their work to a file and open it again;
   • warn before closing with unsaved changes, and reject an invalid file without losing the user's work;
   • credit any code taken from someone else, which must be under a license compatible with the MIT License (Rule 10);
   • display an educational-use disclaimer; and
   • open and explain what it does without any API key, and do everything it can without one.

   A web page must not:

   • send the user's financial or personal information anywhere, except as allowed below;
   • ask for a password, a bank login, or an account;
   • recommend specific securities or give personalized investment advice — including anything an AI feature in the web page says;
   • contain an API key, password, or other secret anywhere in the file; or
   • be someone else's work presented as the entrant's own.

   Outside services and API keys. A web page may call outside services, including paid services and AI models, under these conditions:

   • Say what it calls. The page names each service it uses, in plain words.
   • The user brings their own key. Where a service needs a key, the user pastes it into the page while using it. The key is kept only in the user's own browser and is never written into the published file or sent anywhere except to that service.
   • Reference requests send no personal data. A lookup such as a share price, a rate, or a tax table may send only what the lookup needs (a ticker symbol, a ZIP code), never the user's balances, income, or personal details.
   • AI features ask first. A web page may send the user's information to an AI service only using the user's own key, only after telling the user plainly what will be sent and to which company, and only once the user agrees. Nothing is sent anywhere else.
   • It keeps working without the service. No key, no connection, service down, or a rate limit hit: the page says so plainly and still does everything it can.
   • Following the service's terms is the entrant's job. That includes any limits on showing a provider's data publicly or calling it from a browser.

   The full technical brief is at globefin.org/webapp-requirements. Every entry gets a pass/fail technical check before judging, and entrants who fail it are told what to fix.

6. Use of AI

   Using AI assistants to write code is permitted and expected. Entrants are responsible for their web page's accuracy and for meeting these rules, however the code was produced. Finalists must submit a short video showing how they built their web page: what they asked for, what came back, and what they changed. A finalist who doesn't provide the video, or can't show the web page is their own work, may be disqualified.

7. Judging

   Entries that pass the technical check are judged by a panel chosen by Globefin, which may include University of Kentucky faculty and financial planning professionals. Judges score each entry on three equally weighted criteria:

   • Clarity of the need: who the web page is for and what problem it solves for them;
   • Value provided: how big the problem is, and how much the web page helps; and
   • Differentiation: what the web page does that existing tools don't.

   Where an entry uses a service that needs a key, judges use the key the entrant provides (or one supplied by Globefin) and score the full experience. An entry whose key doesn't work during judging is scored on what it does without one.

   The judges' decisions are final. Ties are broken by the judges' scores on Value provided. We may decline to award a category prize if no entry in that category passes the technical check.

8. Prizes

   Grand prize (1)	$5,000
   Category prizes (5)	$400 each — Budgeting, Debt, Savings & Investment, Full Planning, Education
   Total	$7,000

   • One prize per entry. The grand prize winner is not eligible for a category prize, and that category's prize goes to the next-highest-scoring entry in it.
   • Prizes are paid in U.S. dollars to the winner, or to each team member in the agreed split, within 30 days of verification.
   • Prizes are not transferable, and no substitutes are offered.
   • Winners are responsible for any taxes. Any winner receiving $600 or more must provide a completed Form W-9, and the prize will be reported on Form 1099-MISC.
   • Prize money may affect a student's financial aid. Winners should check with their financial aid office.

9. Winner verification

   Potential winners are notified by email and must provide proof of current UK enrollment and age, and any required tax forms, within 14 days. A potential winner who doesn't respond, can't be verified, or is found ineligible forfeits the prize, and it may be awarded to the next-highest-scoring eligible entry.

10. Ownership, license, and display

    You keep the copyright. Entrants keep the copyright in their web pages, to the extent the law grants it. (Material produced entirely by an AI may not be protected by copyright; your own choices, edits, and writing are.)

    Your web page is released under the MIT License. By submitting, you license your web page — its code, text, and images you created — under the MIT License. Anyone may use, copy, change, and share it, provided they keep your copyright notice and the license with it. Put this line at the top of your file:
    <!-- Copyright (c) 2026 Your Name. Released under the MIT License. -->

    Credit stays visible. Anyone who publishes a copy or changed version of an entry must also credit the original author by name on the page itself, for example “Based on [title] by [name].”

    Globefin may always display entries. Each entrant also gives Globefin a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free right to host, display, and describe their entry, with their name on it, during and after the Challenge.

    Taking your page down. You may unpublish your web page from your own Demos page at any time. Globefin may keep displaying the entries of winners and finalists in its record of the Challenge, and copies others have already made under the MIT License stay available under that license.

    Publicity. By entering, entrants allow Globefin and the Challenge's presenting and supporting organizations to publish winners' names, schools, majors, and web page titles in connection with the Challenge, without further payment.

11. Conduct and disqualification

    We may disqualify any entrant or entry that breaks these rules; submits work that isn't theirs; includes harmful, deceptive, or offensive content or code; registers more than once; or interferes with the Challenge or other entrants.

12. Your information

    Registration details (name, email, major, year, and category) are used to run the Challenge: to contact entrants, check eligibility, and award prizes. They are not sold. Any API key sent for judging is used only to judge that entry and is not shared or kept.

13. Educational use

    Web pages entered in the Challenge are educational tools. They are not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, and neither Globefin nor the University of Kentucky endorses any entry's calculations or conclusions.

14. Changes and limitation of liability

    We may change, suspend, or cancel the Challenge if something beyond our reasonable control prevents it from running as planned. Any change will be posted on this page. To the extent the law allows, entrants release Globefin, the University of Kentucky, and the Challenge's supporting organizations from liability arising from participation in the Challenge or from any prize.

15. Governing law and contact

    These rules are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. For questions, email Keanu Kawata at ktka228@uky.edu.