Three prominent financial planners, including the first African-American planner to receive the CFP designation, were honored by the Financial Planning Association of the National Capital Area Chapter at its Eighth Annual Charity Gala on June 12.
LeCount Davis, executive principal of LRD Management Group, won the FPA NCA's Lifetime Achievement Award for his nearly 40 years of financial planning service in and around the Washington, D.C. area. Davis, who founded his own consulting firm specializing in tax planning, small business management, financial planning and investment management in 1970, received the CFP designation in 1979 and become the National Capital Chapter's first African-American president and board member.
Richard E. Vodra, of Spire Investments in McLean, Va., won the Financial Planner of the Year award from the FPA NCA for his activism in the area of Peak Oil and Global Climate Change. Last year, Vodra presented his findings at the FPA's National Retreat in Galveston, Texas and is the first planner to ever speak before the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas.
Gary Altman, a principal and founder of the Maryland-based estate planning law firm of Altman & Associates, won the Norma Severns Leadership Award for his long-time work combining estate planning and philanthropy with financial planning. Washingtonian Magazine has recognized Altman as one of the region's best estate planners, most recently in December 2007.
The FPA NCA chapter also highlighted the good works of its long-time charity of choice, The Good Samaritans, a nonprofit created by former Washington Redskins Charles Mann and Art Monk that works with youth in the nation's capital to ensure they can go to college. The chapter has donated $182,000 in the past eight years to The Good Samaritans and expects to donate approximately $24,000 this year.