Ray Dunlap
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™
Founder and President
Background:
Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Ray attended St. John Fisher College, quarterbacking the football team for three years and graduating in 1976 with a B.A. in History. He received his Masters Degree in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from the University of South Florida in 1980.
Ray actually began working at age 18 as a featured nightclub performer - playing the piano in a number of restaurants and dinner-theaters in New York and Florida, which paid for his education. After graduation, he worked in the freight business (Purolator Courier) and the computer industry (NCR Corporation) before becoming an investment broker in 1984. He worked for William R. Hough & Co., an investment-banking firm in St. Petersburg, Florida as an institutional municipal bond broker for ten years, becoming a partner there in 1990.
Also, in 1990, Ray received his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM certification after two-year program of study.
He moved to Georgia in June of 1993 and joined Dean Witter Reynolds as Vice President of Investments in their Peachtree City office in June of 1994.
Ray then moved to Lincoln Financial Advisors in September 1996 as Regional Director of Financial Planning and Regional Director of Investments. Under Ray's leadership, Lincoln was ranked the number one financial planning firm in the State of Georgia in 1998 by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Ray has since started his own financial services firm, Dunlap Wealth Strategies, offering financial planning and advisory services as an Investment Adviser Representative of Commonwealth Financial Network, member FINRA, a Registered Investment Adviser. In calendar year 2000 Ray's company was ranked by Bloomberg Magazine as one of the top eight wealth management firms in Georgia, and in 2009 was named in Atlanta Magazine as one of Atlanta's *FIVE STAR Wealth Managers.
Ray is also a member of Ed Slott's Elite IRA Advisor Group and the H.S. Dent Advisors Network, two premier wealth management associations for investment professionals.
He has taught money management and retirement planning classes through the Fayette County Community School as well as the State University of West Georgia. In addition, he has been a featured speaker for numerous corporations and professional groups.
Ray and his wife, Sandye (a Georgia native), have five children - Jessica, Bryan, Allison, Brandon and Melissa. Sandye teaches First Grade in Gwinnett County and the two of them recently moved into a home in the city of Atlanta near Grant Park and Turner Field.
And Ray has never quite given up his dream of someday playing baseball for the New York Yankees! He currently plays right-field for the Peachtree City Twins in the local Men's Senior Baseball League, and is patiently waiting for George Steinbrenner to call!
*Survey recipients were asked to select only wealth managers whom they knew through personal experience, and to evaluate them based upon nine criteria: customer service, integrity, knowledge/expertise, communication, value for fee charged, meeting of financial objectives, post-sale-service, quality of recommendations and overall satisfaction. No fee is paid to be included in the research or on the final list. The overall evaluation score reflects an average of all respondents and may not be representative of any one client's evaluation. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager's future performance.
CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and are certification marks owned by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. These marks are awarded to individuals who successfully complete the CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements.
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