BREAKOUT SESSION SPEAKERS

BEN ENGLISH

Ben English, a prominent partner at Hirschler, Fleischer, P.C., helps growing companies develop practical solutions to legal issues. He brings to his clients a wealth of experience to help them capitalize on business opportunities while managing the risk associated with them. Ben advises clients in structuring business entities, providing advice on business plans, financing, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder agreements, employee compensation and benefits and strategic relationships with other businesses. He also advises clients on business succession strategies, ranging from transition of management and ownership of a family business to the next generation, to the sale of a company to a financial or strategic buyer.

Ben has served as Chairman of the Charlottesville Venture Group, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the development of entrepreneurial companies, Director of the Greater Richmond Technology Council, and is a member of the Steering Committee for the Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade's Small Business Initiative, to define Virginia's economic development strategy for high growth companies. He also lectures on financing and other topics involving the growth of entrepreneurial companies.
Ben received his BA from Yale University and his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.

ROY RAMTHUN

Roy Ramthun is President of HSA Consulting Services, a health care consulting practice specializing in Health Savings Accounts and consumer-driven health care issues.

Prior to forming this consulting practice, Mr. Ramthun was the Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House. As a member of the National Economic Council staff, Mr. Ramthun was the senior health policy advisor to President George W. Bush regarding health care issues involving the Internal Revenue Code (primarily Health Savings Accounts), Medicare, Medicaid, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Before joining the President's staff, Mr. Ramthun was the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for health initiatives. In this role, he led Treasury's implementation of Health Savings Accounts after they were enacted into law in December, 2003.

 

THEODORE F. DIMIG

Theodore F. Dimig, Vice President, is a Client Portfolio Manager in the U.S. Equity Group.  

An employee since 2002, Ted currently acts as the head of the client portfolio team responsible for behavioral finance based strategies. Ted has also worked extensively on the firm's fundamentally driven products, focusing largely on its institutional client base. Prior to joining the U.S. Equity Group, Ted worked as a tax aware portfolio manager within the firm’s Separately Managed Accounts group.

Theodore holds a B.A. in history and government from Lehigh University, earned his J.D. from New York Law School and his M.B.A. at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Ted also holds his NASD Series 7, 63 & 65 licenses.

     

TOM CONNORS

Tom Connors, Senior Vice President, joined Lazard in 2001 as the Marketing Representative for Lazard’s Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States.

Prior to joining Lazard, Tom was a Vice President for Merrill Lynch Managed Assets Group. He specialized in institutional and individual investor investment consulting as well as corporate retirement plan services. He was also a Vice President and Institutional Trust Officer with NationsBank and BancOne Trust. A graduate of Clemson University in 1987, with a BS in Financial Management, Tom has 21 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Region: Mid-Atlantic - North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia, Southern Virginia and West Virginia.

      

MICHAEL E. KITCES

Michael E. Kitces, MSFS, MTAX, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CASL, CWPP™ is Director of Financial Planning for Pinnacle Advisory Group, a private wealth management firm located in Columbia, Maryland that overseas more than $500 million of client assets.

He is an active writer and editor and has been featured in publications including Financial Planning, the Journal of Financial Planning, Journal of Retirement Planning, Practical Tax Strategies, Leimberg Information Services, as well as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, CNBC Power Lunch, NBC Nightly News, and more. In addition, Michael is a co-author with John Olsen of “The Annuity Advisor”, the first balanced and objective book on annuities written for attorneys, accountants, and financial planners.

Michael was recognized as one of only 5 financial planning practitioner “Movers and Shakers” for 2006 by Financial Planning magazine for his active work in the financial planning community, serving as a member of the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Financial Planning, a Moderator for the discussion boards on Financial-Planning.com, a commentator on annuity, retirement distribution, and retirement planning issues for Leimberg Information Services, Inc., and for his work as an active member of the Financial Planning Association at the local and National level.

Michael is also a co-founder of NexGen, a community of the next generation of financial planners that aims to ensure the transference of wisdom, tradition, and integrity, from the pioneers of financial planning to the next generation of the profession.

 

DOUGLAS L. CRONKRIGHT

Douglas L. Cronkright, J.D., CLU, is a Corporate Vice President and Senior Advanaced Planning Consultant of New York Life Insurance Company. He serves as one of two Advanced Planning Consultants for the South Central Agencies, which has its Zone office in Atlanta, Georgia. Doug joined New York Life out of law school in 1966. He served in the Home Office in New York in the Advanced Underwriting Department. In February 1968 he was transferred to the Southeastern Regional office in Atlanta, Georgia with the title of Advanced Underwriting Consultant. He remained in the position until December 1972 when he went into private law practice. While in private practice, he worked extensively with closely held corporations in virtually all of the areas in which they required legal advice, as well as continuing with his work in estate planning, pension planning, corporate formation and business continuation. Doug was also heavily involved in estate and commercial litigation.

Doug commenced his re-employment with New York Life on January 8, 1996 as Corporate Vice President and Advanced Planning Consultant for the South Central Agencies. Doug is responsible for the advanced planning training, consultation, case development and case presentation for the more than 1,800 persons in the New York Life field force in the South Central Zone. His involvement includes meetings, seminars, personal consultation, correspondence, reports and personal presentations as well as participation in study groups, Councils, outside speaking engagements and continuing education. He has participated in Georgia’s continuing legal education program as a speaker on estate planning and tax related topics for participant credit. Since returning to New York Life, Doug has conducted countless seminars for groups inside and outside the Company, including Estate Planning Councils and other professional groups devoted to solving asset transfer problems for people of wealth. Doug has also met personally with well over 100 such estate owners and their advisors in a joint effort of professionals to solve the wealth transfer problems.

Doug received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University in 1963 with a major in Economics, his Juris Doctor degree from Wayne State University in 1967 and his CLU designation in 1969.

 

     

 

LARRY MCKOY

   

Larry McKoy is a Virginia Certified Public Accountant, Personal Financial Specialist and  
Certified Financial Planner.  Larry has over twenty years of experience working with tax issues and opportunities for his clients. Larry is one of the Firm's Senior Tax Partners. In addition to core tax compliance, much of his time is spent assisting clients in numerous industries with mapping out tax strategies to fit within their current business plans.

Larry works extensively with pass thru entities including S corporations, partnerships, LLC's and trusts to accomplish cutting edge tax structures. Larry has extensive experience with mergers, acquisitions, multi-state tax issues, IRS interface issues, executive compensation tax issues, and owner/executive planning. Larry is often involved in structure of business transactions to accomplish tax opportunies while still achieving business goals.

In addition to business taxation issues, Larry is a firm leader in the area of estate planning and financial planning. He is often involved with assisting executives and owners in their personal tax and wealth building strategies. The synergy of working with both the company and owner/executive helps formulate tax strategies at all levels.

      

 

SHAWN MAJETTE


Mr. Majette is a 1976 graduate, magna cum laude, of the University of Richmond, with major concentrations in English and Economics.  A member of the national Economics Honor Fraternity, Mr. Majette also edited the Richmond College literary magazine and was the 1976 Charles T. Norman Medal graduate for outstanding student in English.

Mr. Majette received his juris doctorate from the College of William and Mary in 1979.  While a student, he served as law clerk for a Norfolk law firm, an intern for the Norfolk Office of the United States Attorney, and as research assistant for the National Center for State Courts.

Mr. Majette focuses his practice in the legal aspects of mental and physical disability, with a strong emphasis on the legal, medical, financial, and management issues involved in caring for the incapacitated elderly.  He has served as a Commissioner in Chancery of the Richmond Circuit Court for more than a decade.  As the founding chairperson of the Virginia Bar Association Elder Law Section from 1993 to 1996, he helped to raise awareness of the special issues involved in his practice area throughout the Commonwealth.  He has served as chair of the Section’s legislative affairs subcommittee, and the Section Council.  Mr. Majette also served as the chair of the Third District Disciplinary Committee of the Virginia State Bar.

Mr. Majette has held numerous appointments to Virginia General Assembly advisory committees and has assisted in drafting several Virginia statutes relating to elder law and mental health issues, including revisions to the law of civil commitment, emergency medical consent, guardianship, and the prevention of financial abuse of incapacitated adults under durable powers of attorney.

Since 1987, Mr. Majette has served as a Special Justice for adult mental health commitment hearings for the City of Richmond.

A prolific writer and speaker on elder and mental health law topics, Mr. Majette has been a frequent speaker for the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, of which he has been a member since 1989. In addition he has served as president of the Academy’s Virginia chapter.  Mr. Majette’s national and local presentations for the National Academy, the National Geriatric Care Managers Association, the Virginia State Bar, local chapters of the Virginia Society of Public Accountants, and several national legal, accounting and medical continuing education programs have been widely attended and well received.  Since 1991, Mr. Majette has been an annual speaker for the Annual Elder Law Seminars sponsored by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Majette has written several articles for various legal publications, including his 1998 chapter addressing Virginia issues connected with powers of attorney, long term care insurance and Medicaid for the standard Virginia treatise on wills and trust practice, Estate Planning in Virginia.  Mr. Majette is a recent member of the prestigious Special Needs Alliance, a network of America’s leading disability and public benefits lawyers.  In 1999, Mr. Majette was recognized by Richmond Magazine as the top lawyer in Richmond in the field of Elder Law.

 

ANGIE HART

 In 1999, Angela moved to Richmond, Virginia and was promoted to senior vice president after being selected to champion the business banking initiative and conversion activities for SunTrust Bank. Upon completing the conversion, in 2003 she joined State Farm Insurance Company to provide training and sales support of bank and life insurance products. This role has led to her current position as the Sales Trainer and community liaison for Farm Bureau Insurance Companies.

Angela graduated cum laude with a B. B. A. degree in Business Administration from Howard University. In 1989, she continued her studies earning a M. B. A. with a concentration in Finance from Southeastern University. Upon graduation, she became an adjunct instructor. She recently served as an adjunct instructor of Business Management and Finance for undergraduate and graduate students of Averett and Virginia Commonwealth Universities. Also, she has been a facilitator of strategic planning sessions for several organizations.

During her career, she has been active in numerous civic and community organizations. Some examples are as follows: Chair, Small Business Committee Fairfax Chamber of Commerce Secretary, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Bank Chair, United Way Consultant, Baptist General Convention of Virginia Board of Director and Diversity Liaison- March of Dimes Board of Director Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Leadership Metro Richmond- Mentor Chair, Wellness Committee – Virginia Farm Bureau Angela Hart has received special recognition from the Virginia Bankers Association, NAACP, and the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.