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Qualifications & Licenses

William KatzWilliam M. Katz began his career in the insurance/financial and estate planning industry in 1991. He received a BS in Economics from Syracuse University where he is a member of the Golden Key Honor Society.

Series 6 and 63 – Investment company products, mutual funds and variable annuity contracts

Life & Health Insurance License

Experience and Dedication

WMK & Associates, LLC is part of National Financial Network, a financial services firm that has over 55 years of experience helping high net worth individuals and business owners. They employ over 90 financial professionals and staff and have offices in Manhattan and Garden City, Long Island.  NFN has the ability to use virtually any investment or insurance product that is available in the marketplace today, we are a general agency of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® (Guardian.)

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® helps protect families, secure futures and improve well-being through insurance and wealth management offerings for individuals, employers and businesses.  Our ability to always put our 26 million customers first is driven by our 158-year heritage as a mutual company committed to serving the long-term needs of our policyholders.  With approximately 9,000 employees and a network of over 2,750 financial representatives in 55 agencies nationwide, the entire Guardian team s passionate about advancing innovation, service and knowledge to help build strong families and communities for generations.  For more information about Guardian, please visit our website www.GuardianLife.com. You can also follow Guardian on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

Financial information concerning The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® as of 12/31/18 on a statutory basis: Admitted Assets = $58.5 Billion; Liabilities = $51.3 Billion (including $44.3 Billion of Reserves); and Surplus = $7.2 Billion.

Agency Rating
Moody’s Investors Service Aa2 (Excellent – 3rd Highest of 21 ratings)
A.M. Best A++ (Superior – Highest of 15 ratings)
Standard & Poor’s AA+ (Very Strong – 2nd highest of 22 ratings)
Moody’s Aa2 (Excellent – 3rd highest of 21 ratings)
Fitch AA+ (Very Strong – 2nd highest of 21 ratings)
COMDEX 98 (Score out of 100)

Ratings are as of 07/2021 and are subject to change.

To learn more about Guardian’s financial strength, click here.

Who is Park Avenue Securities?

Park Avenue Securities (PAS) is our Broker/Dealer, and enables us to provide our clients with full service brokerage and investment advisory products and services. PAS has over 3,000 Registered Representatives nationwide and gives NFN access to widely known mutual funds and annuities like those offered by Fidelity, Vanguard, American Funds, Oppenheimer, Pimco, John Hancock, and hundreds more. We also have the ability to purchase stocks, bonds, ETF’s, closed end funds and CD’s through PAS.

PAS is a member of FINRA, NYSE and SIPC, and must adhere to the rules and requirements of these regulatory bodies. PAS is audited by FINRA on a regular basis. All offices of PAS are audited no less than annually

Check the background of our investment professionals on FINRA’s BrokerCheck.

Where is my money held?

All broker/dealers have a “clearing firm”. The clearing firm actually “holds” clients’ accounts and performs essential functions for financial companies and their clients.  Park Avenue Securities clears through Pershing LLC.  Pershing is a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon and is one of the largest providers of brokerage services, with over $1.8 trillion in global client assets (as of March 31, 2019). To learn more about Pershing click here.

How is my money protected?

All securities are protected up to $500,000 by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). This includes cash balances awaiting reinvestment of up to $250,000. SIPC was created in 1970 to protect customers of member broker/dealer firms in case of liquidation. For more details on SIPC, please see www.sipc.org.

In addition to SIPC protection, Pershing provides coverage in excess of SIPC limits from certain underwriters in Lloyd’s insurance market.  The excess of SIPC insurance program is valid through February 10, 2020 for Pershing LLC accounts.  It provides the following protection for Pershing LLC’s global client assets:

An aggregate loss limit of $1 billion for eligible securities-over all client accounts.

A per-client loss limit of $1.9 million for cash awaiting reinvestment-within the aggregate loss limit of $1 billion.

SIPC and the excess of SIPC insurance policy do not protect against loss due to market fluctuation.

Why are there so many companies to deal with?

We put our clients’ interests first. Our structure enables us to use publicly traded investment products, or insurance products, allowing us to create a financial plan that consists of the most suitable offerings. Since we are not obligated to use any one company’s products over another, our clients’ needs come first.

 

 

 

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