Desi G Berry

Michael Hoffman is a CFP® with 18 years of industry experience, currently serving as Co-Managing Director of Forty W Advisors. He previously worked at Verdence Capital Advisors and held roles at Hightower Securities and Hightower Advisors. Forty W Advisors delivers comprehensive wealth management across three critical areas: financial administration, proactive tax-aware planning, and investment management with institutional access. Together, these services help align your personal wealth, family priorities, and business strategy into one coordinated plan, with the goal of reducing complexity and maximizing post-tax wealth.

Raymond Gazelle Jr. is a CFP® professional with 19 years of experience, operating as the sole advisor at his independent firm, Raymond L. Gazelle Jr., since 2005. His background includes providing consulting services to small banks on internal operations and data processing. The firm offers comprehensive financial and investment planning services to individuals as well as corporate and nonprofit clients, frequently collaborating with financial officers or committees. It uses a long-term, strategic portfolio allocation approach focused on asset allocation, diversification, and mutual fund and ETF selection, delivering advice on a consultative, non-discretionary basis without managing client assets.

Kathleen McQuade is a Certified Financial Planner® with three years of industry experience, operating as the sole advisor at her independent firm in Laurel, MD. She has been managing her practice since 2010 and holds a Series 65 license. Her firm provides fee-only financial planning and consulting services to individual clients, focusing on investment, retirement, insurance, education, and estate planning. The practice employs a long-term, buy-and-hold investment approach, primarily recommending no-load, low-cost, tax-efficient mutual funds with asset allocation as the key factor in portfolio returns.

Katrina Riddick is the sole advisor at People First Financial Advisors in Landover, MD, holding Series 63 and Series 66 licenses with 30 years of industry experience. She has served as a financial advisor consultant to state and local governments on debt issuances and leads a related minority business advisory effort. Riddick previously worked at Percival Financial Partners, Ltd and has longstanding ties to Faim Group Strategic Solutions Center, LLC. People First Financial Advisors is an independent firm specializing in municipal financial advisory services, primarily for Maryland state and local government issuers. The firm focuses on structuring bond transactions, reviewing documentation, and acting as a bidding agent for bond proceeds investments, typically providing non-discretionary advisory support rather than primary asset management.

Robert Clark is a CFP® professional with 26 years of experience in the financial advisory industry. He founded Clark Company in 2017 after 12 years at National Planning Corporation. Clark also provides tax preparation and fixed insurance services as part of his practice. Clark Company advises individual clients as well as pension and profit-sharing plans, offering portfolio management and financial planning services. The firm primarily manages client accounts on a non-discretionary basis, focusing on client-approved strategies, and combines advisory and insurance brokerage services.

Hi, I’m Matt. My job as a financial planner is to make your life simpler. To help you efficiently and effectively narrow down your options, so you can make the right decisions. And be confident in those decisions for the long-term. Financial planning and investment management are often muddied by unnecessary complexity (usually in an effort to sell you something). It doesn’t need to be this way. I began my career in the financial services industry in 2003 as an analyst with the due diligence law firm Snyder Kearney, LLC (Columbia, MD). At Snyder Kearney, I reviewed public and private securities offerings and evaluated national securities sponsoring companies, focusing on real estate investments and non-traditional investment products. It was there that I realized that I wanted to know more about the practice of law and a lot more about the pretty co-worker in the cubicle next to me, Sylvie. I earned my law degree in 2007 from the University of Baltimore School of Law and married Sylvie in 2008; further proof that education and personal relationships are the investments that produce the best returns. After law school, I practiced law with the firm David Albert & Associates, LLC (Bethesda, MD), focusing in estate planning and administration, guardianship administration, taxation of estates and trusts, and business formations. There, I recognized that helping clients through complicated and often stressful issues was intellectually stimulating and emotionally fulfilling. In 2010, I opened Patuxent Financial Partners, LLC, registered as an Investment Adviser with the State of Maryland in 2017. Here, I leverage my legal background to provide clients with value-added insight in the overlapping areas of estate and financial planning. More importantly, as a personal financial planner and small business owner, I can build lasting relationships with clients and their families; these connections make my work fulfilling, because client success becomes intertwined with my own. I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner and hold the FINRA Series 65 securities registration. Raised in Columbia, Maryland, I graduated from McDaniel College with a bachelor's degree in English. Outside of the office, I enjoy running, reading, and hiking with my wife, son, and our mutt hound, Kodi.