Pioneering planner gives pro bono help

Alexandra Armstrong, a financial professional for more than 40 years, won the Lifetime Achievement Award for helping to raise more than $10 million for the Foundation for Financial Planning, a nonprofit that funds pro bono financial planning services.

She is the first recipient of this award.

In 1977, Ms. Armstrong, chairwoman and founder of Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc. in Washington, D.C., was the first person to earn the certified financial planner certification in the District of Columbia. She started her own planning firm and broker-dealer in 1983.

In her acceptance speech in New York last month, Ms. Armstrong encouraged advisers to consider giving to the foundation, for which she was chairwoman in 2000 and continues to serve as a board member.

“With our endowment fund, we can reach people that maybe we can’t in our everyday practice,” she said.

The foundation, created in 1981 and reorganized in 1996 to focus on resource development and grant making, aims to connect professional planners with those who can’t afford but need financial guidance. It funds groups that work with active-duty military members, veterans, disaster victims and low- to moderate-income families.

Ms. Armstrong said the foundation provides valuable advice that can help people gain control of their financial lives.

“We’re not talking about rocket science, we’re talking about providing the basic fundamentals,” she said.

The award from the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation comes with a $25,000 contribution to the Foundation for Financial Planning.

HER SERVICE

Ms. Armstrong has a long history of serving the planning industry. From 1980 to 1987, she held a board position with the International Association for Financial Planning, a predecessor organization to the Financial Planning Association. She was the first, and only, woman to lead that industry group.

In 1993, she also co-authored a book for widows called, “On Your Own: A Widow’s Passage to Emotional and Financial Well-Being.”

Ms. Armstrong also has been active in her Washington community, serving as the first female president of the Boy Scouts of America, National Capital Area Council.

She is married to Jerry J. McCoy, an attorney specializing in charitable planning. They live in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.