Michael W. Lynch, CFP®, CHFC®, CLU®, CASL®, CAP®

Michael is a Certified Financial Planner™ professional with over two decades of experience helping individuals achieve financial independence, secure their families’ futures, and ensure protection against life’s uncertainties through comprehensive financial planning. He’s been recognized for his innovative work on financial planning by both industry groups and the firms with which he’s affiliated. The National Association of Insurance Financial Advisors recognized him as one of the best advisors under 40 years old in 2007. During his time with MetLife, he was named Financial Planner of the Year in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2016. He’s been Barnum Financial Group’s top financial planner every year since he started his career there in 2004.

Michael is passionate about financial education, both for his clients and for the broader public. He is the best-selling author of two books. His first book, Keep It Simple, Make it Big: Money Management for a Meaningful Life (Lioncrest, 2020), examines the basics of personal finance and provides strategies for readers to take action. His second book, It’s All About the Income: The Simple System for a Big Retirement (Lioncrest, 2022), details simple systems retirees can use to turn piles of money into streams of inflation-adjusted income. He turned his second book into a free online video course as a public service.

Michael has written for the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, and Retirement Daily on TheStreet.com. He hosted the popular call-in radio show Smart Money Radio on WICC AM for over a decade and served as an adjunct professor at Fairfield University’s business school teaching courses on financial planning, taxes, and insurance. He currently provides onsite consumer-oriented financial planning courses to employees of Fortune 500 companies and hospitals.

Committed to lifelong learning, Michael holds multiple advanced designations in financial planning from The American College.

He is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®), a program that focuses on in-depth knowledge of the key financial planning disciplines including insurance, income, taxation, retirement planning, investments, and estate planning.

He is also a Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®), the world’s most respected designation of expertise to meet the insurance needs of individuals, business owners, and professional clients; a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®), a designation that focuses on the financial aspects of giving back; and a Chartered Advisor for Senior Living® (CASL®), which prepares financial advisors to lead clients from middle age through retirement and to assist them with the management, preservation, and transfer of wealth.

Michael has an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Washington and a master’s in economics from San Francisco State University. He resides in Cape Coral, Florida. When he’s not working with clients, writing books, or speaking to audiences, you’ll find him fishing or bowling with his daughter Micaela, son Domenic, and fiancé Tasha.

CA Insurance License #0D81165. I am licensed and registered to offer products and services in several states. Licenses and registrations will vary. Domiciled in CT.