Hi I'm John, a Certified Financial Planner®

Thanks for stopping by!  My name is John Bell, I am an advice-only financial planner helping families define their path to financial independence. As a Maryland registered investment advisor and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, I collaborate with families to answer financial questions and if needed create comprehensive financial plans to help them pursue their financial goals.    

I am a former industry executive who led TD Ameritrade Investment Mangement, one of the largest registered investment advisors in the country.  While that job was fulfilling, I was never really sure if I was helping families as much as I could, because I was only working on the investing side.  There is so much more to financial planning than investing.  I launched my own firm to help individual families that I could not do at a large financial services company.

As a CFP®, I am held to the fiduciary standard of care, legally and ethically required to act in your best interest when providing financial advice. I have simple, transparent and fair pricing with no other sources of compensation beyond my financial planning or hourly fee.

I am a proud Terp alumnus of The University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in Finance and live in Columbia, MD.  I completed the CFP® certification program by fulfilling the rigorous education, exam, experience, and ethics requirements to become a fiduciary financial planner. You can find out more about the CFP Board and CFP® certification here.

I also acquired a lifelong degree from the "School of Hard Knocks", with a specialization in "Individual Investing".  As a DIY investor who started investing in early 90's using mutual funds, then graduating to stocks, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and options, I have made many good and some bad decisions with my own investments and planning.  I would like to help you avoid the mistakes I made.  I have over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry.   I have served in various roles in a number of companies, but all of my experience had one overall mission: Helping individual investors on their path to financial independence. 

Most recently, I was the President & Chief Operating Officer of TD Ameritrade Investment Management, one of the largest managed investment account programs in the country.  TDAIM was a $23B registered investment advisor managing portfolios for over 150K individual investor clients using ETFs, Mutual Funds, and individual stocks. I also built and managed a number of DIY investor and advisor planning tools throughout my career for various financial services firms.

My favorite thing to do is spend time with my wife, daughters, family and friends at our lake house in Northeastern PA.  You will see some pictures of Paupackan Lake on my site.  It is truly a peaceful place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the DMV area.

I am lifelong Terps fan and attend as many games as I can and am a longtime supporter of the Terrapin Club.  

I also volunteer my time at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Fulton, MD as the Financial Secretary and a number of their important missions.  One is volunteering to cook and serve meals to less fortunate members of the community for the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.  They do important work and can be found here if you wish to volunteer time or donate money to their worthy cause.  

Finally, I enjoy playing golf as much as I can and I especially like playing at local, budget friendly courses.  I find golf very similar to life and money decisions that we make throughout our lives.   It’s a journey that requires patience, perseverance, and focus. Golfers of all levels must learn to deal with the unexpected, adapt to changing conditions, and make the most of what they have on the course that day.  

In the end, isn't that what life and money are really about?