Katherine Bays Armstrong took the leap 20 years ago to start her financial planning practice at Heritage Financial Consultants and has never looked back. This year, she celebrates being recognized as one of the BBJ’s 2023 Enterprising Women of Excellence on 6/3/2023. Katherine paid a fee to promote the award in the form of a spotlight article on the BBJ website. Kathy’s experience, integrity and responsiveness to all of her stakeholders are the cornerstones of her practice.
As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner (CFP®), Kathy’s passion stems from the satisfaction in helping clients create a meaningful life with financial independence. She is deeply committed to assisting clients reach their goals by providing creative and personalized solutions. This empowers her clients to live a life of significance and to do more for themselves, their families, and communities. Kathy achieves this by focusing on communication, trust and understanding as key driving principles clients enjoy as she builds personalized financial plans with her client’s best interest in mind at all times. Clients are encouraged to thoroughly examine the ways in which they spend, invest, save, tax and transfer wealth; she then partners with them throughout the journey by simplifying the complex and delivering a premium client experience. With nearly 20 years as a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Kathy takes pride in educating her clients to make smart decisions about their financial future and independence. She coaches them to stay focused on the plan and their goals, with her team at their side every step of the way through market and life’s changes.
One significant highlight for Armstrong came in 2010, when her daughter, Elizabeth Paal Goss, joined the practice. Utilizing an intergenerational approach, Kathy and Elizabeth provide financial counsel from both the perspective of young professionals, as well as successful executives preparing for retirement. This is especially important with the complicated issues surrounding wealth transfer between generations. “We utilize an intergenerational approach to working with families to achieve financial independence, looking at it from the perspective of both the senior parents and their adult children,” Armstrong said. “It has proven to be a powerful dynamic in building this legacy.”
Armstrong is deeply committed to improving the Maryland business community. She currently is the Board Chair of the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland, and sits on the Women’s Advisory Board of the Greater Baltimore Committee. Formerly, she was President and Board Chair of Executive Alliance, President of the Junior League of Baltimore, and was appointed by Governor Hogan to sit on the Governing Board of the Maryland Transportation Authority.
Kathy serves as a mentor to numerous young executives, counseling the next generation to find a passion they care about and to make an impact in the world. She feels fortunate to have had the opportunities during her lifetime to make a difference in the lives of countless individuals, whether for her individual clients or to the citizens of the state of Maryland. Regarding the success of her financial planning practice, she said, “It’s extremely gratifying to recognize that most of my growth in new clients comes from referrals from existing clients. This tells me that my approach is greatly appreciated.”
Kathy and her husband, Don, reside in Baltimore; however, you may often find them on weekends playing along the Delaware beaches with their golden retriever, Molly, and labradoodle, Sophie. But, Kathy is most proud of their adult children and eight grandchildren who keep them busy building family memories.
Areas of Expertise:
- Financial Planning
- Asset Management
- Retirement Planning
- Education Funding
- Personal Risk Management
- Estate Planning Strategies
- Multi-Generation Financial Planning
Securities and investment advisory services offered through Osaic FA, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Osaic FA is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Osaic FA. The Enterprising Women of Excellence by Baltimore Business Journal seeks to recognize women leaders who have excelled in their industry by showing innovation, perseverance and great success and is based on data from financial advisors, regulatory disclosures, and BBJ research. To be eligible, nominees must be a Greater Baltimore professional based in either Baltimore City, or Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carrol, Cecil, Harford, and Howard counties. She was nominated by Heritage Financial Consultants. Neither the advisors nor their parent firm pay a fee to BBJ for the nomination or receipt of the award. A fee of $475 was paid to promote the award in the BBJ. The award was independently granted and membership in an organization was not required. For more information, please visit https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore.