speakers

Derek Ashworth is an Associate Director in FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department. The department protects investors by ensuring broker-dealer members of FINRA use communications that are fair, balanced and not misleading. Mr. Ashworth’s primary responsibility is managing staff members dedicated to the routine review of member firm communications. Mr. Ashworth also participates in the Department’s outreach efforts including serving as a panelist in prior FINRA conferences and presenting during selected FINRA Compliance Boot Camps. He has been with the Advertising Regulation Department for 24 years. Prior to joining FINRA, Mr. Ashworth was a program manager for a business and education partnership at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Previous to this role, he was a specialty banker and registered representative with First Union in West Palm Beach, FL. Mr. Ashworth received his Bachelor’s degree from Stetson University and completed his M.B.A. at Johns Hopkins University.

www.chapleaulawgroup.com is a recognized expert in the field of Section 529 college savings plans and Section 529A disability savings plans.

Mr. Chapleau provides consulting, counseling, representation, and training services to program managers, State agencies, non-profits, law firms, and individuals on a wide range of matters. His goal is to make the laws and regulations surrounding tax-advantaged college savings understandable so that stakeholders may take full advantage of these powerful financial tools.

Mr. Chapleau has advised clients for more than 20 years in connection with more than 50 State-run Investment Programs across 28 States. Mr. Chapleau is an active member of the Legal and Regulatory Affairs Committees of the College Savings Foundation and the College Savings Plans Network, which each educate the public on college savings plans. In addition, he is a speaker on, and moderator of, panel discussions at 529 and ABLE program conferences.

Mr. Chapleau leverages his extensive experience to (i) navigate clients through applicable tax, securities regulatory, and other legal issues; (ii) draft and negotiate required contracts; and (iii) prepare program descriptions and other marketing disclosures. He is the former President and General Counsel of Upromise Investments, one of the nation’s leading Section 529 college savings program managers. Upromise Investments was subsequently sold to Ascensus. Prior to Upromise Investments, Mark was a Senior Legal Counsel at Fidelity Investments.

Mr. Chapleau received a merit scholarship and graduated from Brooklyn Law School, and graduated from the University of Connecticut (BA in Political Science). Previously, he was a FINRA-licensed General Securities Representative (Series 7) and a General Securities Principal (Series 24). He is also a member of the Bar in both Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Paul Curley, CFA, is an Executive Director at ISS Market Intelligence, where he oversees the firm’s 529 and ABLE market data, research, events, and media products and services for institutional clients. He leads ISS MI’s proprietary data aggregation and analysis, authors the firm’s weekly, quarterly, and annual publications on the 529 and ABLE markets, serves as editor-in-chief of the 529 Dash e-newsletter, and is chair of the annual 529 Conference. Mr. Curley previously served on the Municipal Fund Securities Advisory Group of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (FY 2019–2025) and collaborates with leading providers on custom research, market analysis, and presentations.

Andrea Feirstein founded AKF Consulting Group in 2002 to address the growing need in the college savings marketplace for unbiased, expert advice on all aspects of 529 plan design and administration. Since then, she has expanded the firm’s focus to include ABLE plans as well as State-run Retirement Programs, and today she oversees the firm’s engagements on all these initiatives.  Bringing a multi-dimensional perspective to public administrators of tax-advantaged investment programs, Ms. Feirstein has advised upon a wide range of program development and operational issues, including fiduciary training, investment option design, administrative policies, marketing strategies and analysis, and consumer outreach.

In all, Ms. Feirstein has over 37 years’ experience in the municipal finance industry, including managing the proprietary 529 business for Citigroup Asset Management (now Legg Mason, an affiliate of Franklin Templeton). Previously she was an investment banker with Salomon Smith Barney’s Municipal Securities Division (1987 to 1999, now Citigroup), and she was a bond lawyer with Brown & Wood (1984 to 1987, now Sidley Austin LLP). 

Ms. Feirstein is active in the National Association of State Treasurers (“NAST”), where she currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Public Finance, a joint venture between the NAST Foundation and Pepperdine University, and for which she chairs the Executive Treasury Management Track. She is a current member of the NAST Corporate Affiliate Advisory Board, which she also chaired in 2013 and 2014. Ms. Feirstein has been a member of the MSRB Advisory Group on Municipal Fund Securities since its creation in 2018 through its suspension on September 30, 2022.  Additionally, she serves on the Boards of Directors of the New York City Industrial Development Agency and Build New York City, for which she chairs each entity’s Finance Committee.  Finally, she is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance, for which she serves as Treasurer and chairs the Finance Committee, having previously chaired the Audit Committee.

Ms. Feirstein graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Tax Review.  She is an SEC-registered, MSRB-licensed Municipal Advisor Principal (Series 54) and a Municipal Advisor Representative (Series 50), and previously was a FINRA-licensed Registered Representative (Series 7), Municipal Securities Principal (Series 53), Municipal Securities Representative (Series 52), and Uniform Securities Agent (Series 63).   She is also a member of the New York Bar (retired).

Abha Mohla is a Director in the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s (MSRB) Market Regulation department where she supervises attorneys in the department and advises the Chief Regulatory and Policy Officer on legal and policy matters relating to the MSRB’s rulemaking, compliance support, and regulatory coordination initiatives. Abha also leads compliance and education initiatives at the MSRB, including serving as staff liaison on MSRB’s Compliance Advisory Group and Municipal Fund Securities Advisory Group. As staff liaison, she helps facilitate stakeholder engagement by steering both groups in providing input to MSRB and its Board of Directors on municipal market rules, market practices, and education related to municipal securities, including municipal fund securities.

Prior to joining MSRB, Abha spent seven years at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). During her tenure at FINRA, Abha served as an Enforcement Counsel advising examination staff and analysts and handling disposition of matters involving a wide range of securities industry violations. Abha also held the position of Associate Principal Analyst in FINRA’s Market Regulation Department where she focused on cross-market surveillance reviews and investigations for the U.S. equity market regulated by FINRA. Prior to joining FINRA, Abha practiced securities law at Snyder Kearney, LLC where she focused on the representation of broker-dealers in connection with their due diligence of public and private securities offerings, with a concentration on non-exchange traded real estate investment trusts.

Abha earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and a J.D.

Luis Sierra is a vice president for Marquette Associates with 14 years of investment experience and works from Marquette’s Baltimore office. He joined the firm in 2017 and is a member of the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, sustainable investing group, and nonprofit services group. Luis serves as the investment consultant on several client relationships with a focus on public funds and nonprofit clients.

Prior to joining Marquette, Luis worked as an investment counselor at Fisher Investments. Previously, he worked as an operations administrator at Efficient Advisors.

Luis holds a B.S. in finance and international business from Drexel University and an M.B.A. in international business and an M.S. in finance from Temple University’s Fox School of Business. Luis is a CFA^® charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Baltimore. He serves as treasurer and board member of JANE (Jewels Advancing, Nurturing, and Empowering), Inc.

Chris Stack, Esq. Managing Consultant, Saving For College, is a nationally recognized 529 authority and experienced in educational finance. An attorney for over 30 years, licensed in New York & Pennsylvania, Chris has experience in finance, investments and law relating to tax- advantaged products, including Section 529, since it became federal law in 1996.
As a partner at a major New York law firm, he advocated to his state clients the benefits of 529 programs and beginning in 1997 served as the principal or participating author for a number of states’ legislation establishing 529 programs, as well as amending various state statutes. He has been credited for actively and successfully initiating, advocating and assisting in the 2022 federal tax law changes allowing for “leftover” 529 funds to be transferred to a Roth IRA. He’s also assisted several states and plan managers implement their 529 investment plans that now service over $20B in assets.
Since 2001, Chris has been providing consulting and educational services while affiliated with SavingforCollege.com. He is intimately familiar with the provisions of Section 529 itself, as well as the various state laws and programs. Currently, Chris advises and consults with sponsoring state agencies, program managers and investment companies, and presents nationally to financial advisors, accountants, attorneys and actual investors on 529 plans.
Chris is a graduate of Fordham College and Fordham University School of Law, located in New York City. He has participated as an investor in various 529 plans since 1997 as owner of several 529 accounts.
Savingforcollege.com is widely acknowledged as the leading independent authority and resource on Section 529 and the various 529 programs and hosts a website that is the most often cited source of comprehensive information on 529 plans and developments concerning the industry.

Kimberly Yee is the State Treasurer of Arizona. She is Arizona’s chief banking and investment officer and oversees the cash management of Arizona’s $64.7 billion state budget and payments to agencies, local governments, and schools. Upon taking office in January 2019, assets under management were at $15.4 billion. Today, assets under management have more than doubled to $32.2 billion.

Treasurer Yee is also the Administrator of the AZ529 Education Savings Plan. Since the Fall of 2020, Kimberly has grown assets to $2.67 billion with 57,390 new accounts opened to help families save for higher education and workforce development.

Treasurer Yee also led the effort to pass a state law requiring students to have financial education in high school before graduation and was the first State Treasurer to have visited all 15 counties in Arizona during the first year of her administration.

Treasurer Yee is the Chairman of the Arizona Board of Investment and State Loan Commission and is a member of the State Land Selection Board.  She also serves as Chairman of the Financial Literacy Task Force, Arizona’s first-ever statewide body dedicated to advancing personal money management and financial awareness for students, senior citizens, military families and vulnerable populations.

 ​Born and raised in Arizona, Treasurer Kimberly Yee is the first Asian American elected to a statewide office in Arizona’s history. She is also the first Chinese American Republican woman to win a major statewide office in the history of the United States.  In 2010, she became the first Asian American woman elected to the Arizona Legislature and served for eight years, both in the House and the Senate.

​Kimberly Yee served as Senate Majority Leader and became the second woman elected to this position in Arizona’s history, following U.S. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who served the position in 1973, forty-four years earlier.

​Prior to elected office, she worked in the administrations of two past governors and in the administration of former State Treasurer Dean Martin. Kimberly Yee comes from a family line of small business owners.   

Treasurer Yee is a graduate of Pepperdine University where she earned degrees in English and Political Science and she holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Arizona State University.