FOUNDER • CEO
Elissa Buie, CFP® earned an MBA from The University of Maryland and a B.S. in Commerce from The University of Virginia. She has been practicing financial planning since 1983.
Elissa is a past Chair of the Foundation for Financial Planning and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). Elissa is also a Dean for the FPA’s Residency Program.
Elissa has been named as a top advisor by Worth and Washingtonian magazines and by Bloomberg Wealth Manager and was named to Financial Times Top 100 Women Financial Advisers list in 2014*. In 2015, Elissa was listed on InvestmentNews’ inaugural Women to Watch list and in 2019, was selected as the recipient of Alexandra Armstrong Lifetime Achievement Award as part of InvestmentNew’s Women to Watch initiative*.
Elissa has appeared on The Today Show, CNBC, CNNfn, NBC News and McLaughlin One-on-One. She has been quoted in national media including The Washington Post, Time and Businessweek magazines. In 2019, Elissa was recognized by InvestmentNews as one of the most influential people in helping to shape the financial planning profession*.
Elissa’s significant role in merging the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP) and the International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) to form the Financial Planning Association, her contributions as a thought leader to the advancement of the profession through her writing, presenting, and teaching, and her contributions to society and the profession through her work at the Foundation for Financial Planning were highlighted as she received the award. In 2017, Elissa was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award from the Financial Planning Association’s National Capital Area chapter.
Elissa’s article, “To Feel . . . Like a CFP”, was published in July 2000 in The Journal of Financial Planning (JFP). Her article, co-authored with Dr. Dave Yeske, CFP, “Policy-Based Financial Planning Provides Touchstone in a Turbulent World”, was published in the July 2006 issue of the JFP, where their most recent collaboration, “Evidence-Based Financial Planning: To Learn . . . Like a CFP®” also appeared in November, 2011. Elissa contributed 17 chapters to the CFP Board’s first-of-its-kind Financial Planning Competency Handbook, published by John Wiley & Sons.
In October 2013, Elissa was awarded the prestigious P. Kemp Fain, Jr. Award*, the Financial Planning profession’s lifetime achievement award.
Elissa’s significant role in merging the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP) and the International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) to form the Financial Planning Association, her contributions as a thought leader to the advancement of the profession through her writing, presenting, and teaching, and her contributions to society and the profession through her work at the Foundation for Financial Planning were highlighted as she received the award. In 2017, Elissa was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award from the Financial Planning Association’s National Capital Area chapter.
Elissa holds an appointment as Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the Ageno School of Business, Golden Gate University, where she and Dave co-teach the capstone Cases in Financial Planning course.
Elissa’s Featured Awards and Recognition
*Recipient advisor or wealth manager of an award and/or ranking is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment in the future. Disclosures for Awards and Rankings are available here.