Five Star award winner Michael Branthover, CFP®

PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

AWARDS

Five Star Wealth Manager award winner 2022, 2024, 2025, 2026

Michael is passionate about upholding the highest standards of service while providing financial planning and investment management. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Michael is a strong advocate of delivering fiduciary advice by always acting in the client’s best interest. He is committed to learning and self-development in an attempt to develop a depth of planning aptitude to each client relationship.

Michael embarked his career with a local firm in 2015 as an advisor where he was responsible for wealth management and financial planning. He joined DAY Financial Group in 2020 bringing a diverse skillset of financial planning.

Michael graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business with a concentration in Finance. He elected to pursue Virginia Tech’s CFP® Certification Education Track, a nationally recognized curriculum that prepares students for a career in comprehensive financial planning. As a Hokie, he was also a four-year member of the Varsity Football program under Frank Beamer.

As a registered representative and investment advisor representative, he holds the FINRA Series 7 registration and Series 66 registrations with LPL Financial. He also holds a Maryland Life and Health insurance license. In addition, he is a member of the Financial Planning Association of Maryland.

Michael serves on the board of Neighbor Ride and is a member of the Finance Committee. Neighbor Ride is a wonderful Howard-county centric organization that provides rides at comparative rates to Howard county seniors (and discounted/free rides to low-income seniors).

When not practicing financial planning, Michael can be found watching football, exercising, or spending quality time with his wife and high school sweetheart, Alex, and their two sons, Austin and Mason.

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This award was issued on 01/01/2026 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 04/10/2025 through 10/01/2025. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 2446 Baltimore-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 217 (9 % of candidates) were named 2026 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2025: 2,389, 254, 11%, 1/1/25, 4/10/24 - 10/31/24; 2024: 2,149, 259, 12%, 1/1/24, 4/10/23 - 10/31/23; 2023: 2126, 256, 12%, 1/1/23, 4/18/22 - 10/21/22; 2022: 2078, 260, 13%, 1/1/22, 5/10/21 - 11/12/21; 2021: 2029, 237, 12%, 1/1/21, 4/27/20 - 10/30/20; 2020: 1898, 234, 12%, 1/1/20, 4/1/19 - 11/13/19; 2019: 1865, 265, 14%, 1/1/19, 4/19/18 - 11/7/18; 2018: 1759, 232, 13%, 1/1/18, 4/21/17 - 11/6/17; 2017: 1093, 355, 32%, 12/1/16, 3/26/16 - 11/11/16; 2016: 1215, 356, 29%, 12/1/15, 6/16/15 - 11/9/15; 2015: 1749, 412, 24%, 1/1/15, 6/16/14 - 11/9/14; 2014: 1484, 395, 27%, 1/1/14, 6/16/13 - 11/9/13; 2013: 1490, 448, 30%, 1/1/13, 6/16/12 - 11/9/12; 2012: 1470, 262, 18%, 1/1/12, 6/16/11 - 11/9/11.

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Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria – required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria – considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients’ assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com.