Laurent W. Metzler President, J.D., RFC®
Larry Metzler is the President of Apogee Financial Services Group, Inc, Founding Partner of Metzler Law, LLC and President of Innovative College Funding Solutions, LLC. He is a financial planner and an attorney-at-law whose practices are located in Moorestown, New Jersey. His entire career has been focused exclusively on financial planning (including college funding), estate planning, retirement planning, asset protection and wealth preservation planning, personal and business tax planning and real estate matters. He came to the practice of law after prior extensive experience as a fee only executive financial counselor, having worked for the PNC Corporation and the Wilmington Trust Company in the 1970s through the early 1980s as a Vice President in the financial and investment planning division of the trust department. In this role he was responsible for creating and implementing personally tailored financial, tax and estate plans for senior-level executives from such companies as Aramark, Dupont, Scott Paper, Hercules, Smith Kline Beckman, Tasty Baking Company, The Sun Company, United Air Lines, and Cigna. After leaving the institutional banking environment in 1983, he founded Apogee Financial Services Group, Inc., a fee based financial planning, investment and insurance advisory firm. Shortly thereafter, he opened his law practice.
Being a father and grandfather has influenced every aspect of how Larry creates financial, family wealth, asset protection and estate plans for his clients and how he practices law. In fact, it was that perspective that led him to create the “Life Plan”® (Legal, Insurance, Financial and Estate Plan) and the Family First Program®. Although Larry has been practicing law for over twenty-six years and financial planning for over thirty-five years, he was not fully satisfied with the “traditional” approach to financial planning and estate planning. He always felt that something was missing. While he has always charged a flat fee for the financial and estate planning guidance he has provided to his clients rather than the typical hourly rate, he had an old-fashioned idea of what a lawyer and financial counselor should be. Essentially, he wanted to serve, as an ongoing trusted advisor for life and the “go-to” advisor rather than someone his clients turned to only for specific transactions. The creation, implementation and integration of Innovative College Funding Solutions, LLC with Apogee Financial Services Group’s “Life Plan”® was the vehicle that helped provide his clients with all of the missing pieces of the puzzle. With such unique features as the “Life Plan Membership Program, the Kid’s First Legal Protection Plan®, and RAMP®, he now has a framework to not only protect his clients and their families over the short-term, but to also give them the long term confidence that they will be able educate all of their children while simultaneously building, preserving and passing along not only their financial assets, but also their intellectual, spiritual, and familial wealth.
Larry graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Accounting. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Temple University School of Law. He is admitted to practice before the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bars, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United State District Court for New Jersey, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Supreme Court. He is also a member of the NACFA, the National Academy of Elder Care Attorneys, the New Jersey Bar Association, The Burlington County Bar Association and the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators. He has written several articles on the topics of tax planning, investment planning, and estate planning. He has also appeared on WHYY and other local television and radio stations and has been a guest lecturer at numerous functions throughout the Greater Delaware Valley. Other than his military service with the 380th Bomb Wing, 8th Air Force, SAC, Larry has lived his entire life in southern New Jersey.