Andrea Feirstein is a Managing Director at AKF Consulting Group, which she founded in 2002 to address the growing need in the college savings marketplace for unbiased, expert advice on all aspects of 529 college savings plans. 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.
Prior to starting AKF Consulting Group, Ms. Feirstein was Director of College Savings at Citigroup Asset Management (now Legg Mason), where her team developed and managed the firm’s proprietary 529 business. Prior to her College Savings role, Ms. Feirstein was a senior investment banker with Salomon Smith Barney’s Municipal Securities Division (now a part of Citigroup) and a bond lawyer with Brown & Wood (now Sidley Austin LLP).
Ms. Feirstein currently serves on the Board of the National Institute of Public Finance, a joint venture between the Foundation of the National Association of State Treasurers (“NAST”) and Pepperdine University. She previously chaired the NAST Corporate Affiliate Advisory Board and the Corporate Affiliate Committee of the College Savings Plans Network. Ms. Feirstein is a member of the MSRB Advisory Group on Municipal Fund Securities. Additionally, Ms. Feirstein 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.
Ms. Feirstein graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Tax Review, and from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (BS in International Finance). She is an SEC- and MSRB-registered Municipal Advisor Principal (Series 54) and a Municipal Advisor Representative (Series 50). Previously she was a FINRA-licensed General Securities Representative (Series 7), a Municipal Securities Principal (Series 53), and a Uniform Securities Agent (Series 63). She is also a member of the New York Bar (retired).