Our Qualifications

A native of Baltimore, Howard has been involved in the financial services industry since 1988 centering his practice on advanced financial, estate and retirement planning from a NET perspective. Throughout his career, Howard has earned a number of awards, as well as the professional designations of:

•   Individuals authorized by CFP Board to call themselves CFP® professionals have completed the established and rigorous education, examination, experience and ethical requirements of the CFP® certification process. CFP Board takes seriously its enforcement of ethical requirements and recently adopted an updated and strengthened set of ethical standards designed to make sure the public has access to ethical financial planning services.   http://www.cfp.net/
• RFC (Registered Financial Consultant) - awarded by the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants to those financial advisors who can meet the high standards of education, experience and integrity that are required of all its members.           www.iarfc.org/
• CLU (Certified Life Underwriter) The Chartered Life Underwriter is widely recognized as the highest level of studies in the life insurance profession. Since 1927 individuals have earned this distinction, enabling them to present a wider range of solutions for the life insurance needs of individuals, business owners and professionals, including income replacement, estate planning, and wealth transfer, in addition to increasing their clients’ financial well being,  http://www.theamericancollege.edu/
• LUTCF (Life Underwriters Training Council Fellow)  Designation offered by the American College the courses focus on fundamental product and service concepts that are essential to your long-term success. Courses focus on  Life-cycle segmentation;  Examining the needs of the senior market;  Products and services such as:
  • Disability income insurance
  • Business insurance
  • Employee benefits policies
  • Long-term care insurance
  • Annuities
  • Retirement plans
  • Social insurance
  • Trust and estate planning
    http://www.theamericancollege.edu/
• ChFEBC (Chartered Federal Employee Benefits Consultant).  a prestigious designation provided to those who have successfully completed an intensive training course and rigorous examination covering all federal employee benefits. He is one of a handful of people in the country holding the designation.  The ChFEBC^sm course covers all federal employee benefits including:

• CSRS and FERS annuities (pensions)

• Thrift Savings Plan (401k-type account)

• Life Insurance

• Health Insurance

• Social Security

• and much more

All types of federal employees are covered (such as CSRS, FERS, CSRS Offset, FERS Transferees, Law Enforcement, fire fighters, air traffic controllers, etc. ) http://www.febsi.com

• MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table) Member -  A member-driven international network of leading insurance and investment financial services professionals/advisors whose mission statement is to serve their clients by exemplary performance and the highest standards of ethics, knowledge, service and productivity.  http://www.mdrt.org/wps/portal/
•  
• Howard has been Masters Certified with the H.S. Dent Foundation.   
• He has studied with Ed Slott, CPA, on advanced IRA Rollover and retirement plan distribution issues. 
• Howard is a Registered Representative and Investment Adviser Representative of ING Financial Partners, Inc.

Recently, a new book, The Art of Investing & Portfolio Management, was published by McGraw Hill providing valuable insight into the investment world.  The authors invited Howard to contribute the foreword to the book which describes in detail the investment approach used at the firm.
 
As a licensed instructor of Successful Money Management Seminars, Howard has spoken to or present financial seminars to employees/members of The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Northrup Grumman, Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield and the AME Church.  He has also been an instructor for the Community College of Baltimore County Adult Education.
 
Howard is a member of the Society of Financial Services Professionals, the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants,  the Financial Planning Association.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in the College of Business and Public Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park.