David A. Witter
David A. Witter is founder and CEO of Financial Harvest Wealth Advisors in Winter Park, Florida. David, and his wife, Katie Witter, are wealth strategists and co-own the firm serving clients as an advisory team.
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David is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, and a Certified Succession Planner™. David holds FINRA Investment Advisor Representative License Series 66 enabling him to serve clients in a fiduciary capacity, and, Florida Life, Health, Variable Life & Annuity State Insurance Licenses.
David serves Financial Harvest Wealth Advisor’s approximately 200 local, national, and international clients and is entrusted with more than $370 million in asset management. David is a fiduciary for clients, governed by the highest level of legal standards, providing care and trust for client assets and concerns.
David delivers highly personalized, fee-based advice to help clients preserve and enhance wealth across generations.
“I am passionate about designing new offers of help and finding new ways to help people and their loved ones. Clients commonly come in with a new concern, a breakdown, or they have a new intention on how to use their wealth and they say, ‘I need to get here, I just don’t know how to do it.’ And that’s where the design comes in.”
David’s ongoing education and knowledge of the most recent tax laws, estate planning changes, and tax reducing strategies provides clients guidance in tax mitigation as well as transferring wealth to loved ones effectively and efficiently. David also focuses on protecting client wealth from being unjustly taken, and fulfilling charitable giving for maximum impact.
Raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia, it was graduate school that brought David to Florida. But it was his mother, a schoolteacher for 37 years, who was a catalyst for David’s passion in helping people within wealth management. His parents divorced while he was earning his undergraduate degree and she confided her financial concerns to him.
She told David, ‘I’m really scared about money. I’m really good at saving money, and I’ve got about 10 years left to work, but I don’t know how to invest to be able to retire.’ Hearing this changed David’s trajectory in life and career.
“I was earning a degree in electrical engineering, but after hearing those words, I started taking elective courses in the business school and the economics school, to learn how to help my own family and help my mom.
I think I got my teacher’s heart from her. I love to teach at Rollins College, the adult education courses we offer,” David said.
David has taught retirement courses since 2004 at Rollins College, and at the University of Central Florida Business Development Center, in the past. He also taught Business Finance at Emanuel University in Romania. David facilitated Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at First Presbyterian Church Orlando, David’s home church.
David’s father also influenced him as David received his entrepreneurial spirit from his dad.
“My Dad owned and ran a veterinarian practice for over 50 years. I could tell how much his clients and team around him admired him. Seeing that inspires me to this day.”
David acquires a clear and detailed understanding of his clients’ values and goals and then uses Financial Harvest’s strategic partnerships and professional networks to develop customized recommendations for each client’s unique needs and objectives.
If you meet with our clients, you would find they’re thoughtful. They know what’s important to them. They have relationships that are important to them. They tend to be disciplined, which gives them great freedom. They’re purposeful.
When we are working with our clients, one of our core focuses is, How can we help them in a new way? How can we solve their problems and reduce their worries? How can we help them live a good life?
We’re very intentional. We really want to help people think about their future, their life, their relationships, the people around them, and what they want that to look like. Then we can plan and move towards that future.
- University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, M.S. Computer Engineering, 2000
- University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, B.S. Electrical Engineering, 1998
- Financial Harvest, 2002 -- Present
- Sprint, 2001 -- 2002
- CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, January 2006, awarded by the Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards, Inc., having satisfied the education, examination, experience and ethics requirements for CFP®
- Certified Succession Planner™, awarded by the International Succession Planning Association having satisfied the knowledge, examination, and experience requirements for CSP®
- FINRA Series 66 Investment Advisor Representative License
- Florida Life, Health, Variable Life & Annuity State Insurance License
- Quoted in Financial Planning Magazine, April 2020
- 2016 and 2017 Winter Park Chamber of Commerce Ovation Award for Best Financial Advisor
- Nominated for Orlando Business Journal's “Forty under 40,” April 2013
- Recognized in Orlando Business Journal’s 2012 List of Most Influential Men, September 2012
- Featured as a Financial Planner of Distinction, Orlando Magazine, January 2010
- Uncommon Success – How Family Stewards Produce Intentional Wealth,” 2014
- Featured Author, Financial Playbook Magazine, 2007, “Ticking Time Bomb: Improper Beneficiary Designations”
- “Five Investor Blunders that Kill Wealth and Three Abundant Wealth Strategies” audio CD (also featured in CD), 2006
- “The Financial Farmer’s Almanac: A guide to Growing Wealth and Avoiding Money Trap” e-book, 2005
- Columnist for The Key, 2004:
- “Who Answers to You?”
- “REIT and Eat?”
- “What Should I do about my Annuity?”
- “Need a Million?”
Uncommon Success: How Family Stewards Produce Intentional Wealth
Find out more about the best practices, top concerns and considerations that helped family stewards attain their success.- Speaker, Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, April 2015, “Earning Exceptional Trust”
- Speaker, Orlando Christian Chamber of Commerce, February 2015, “Harmonizing Career, Life and Family”
- Speaker, Rotary Clubs of Winter Park, Maitland, College Park, Windermere, and Dr. Phillips, 2014, “Uncommon Success: Harmonizing Career, Life and Giving”
- Speaker at the International Succession Planning Association Orlando Chapter, 2013, “The Unknown Fiduciary Liability - Threat to Opportunity”
- Presented to business professionals at Cross, Fernandez and Riley (Now BDO USA), October 2012, “Six Core Business Concerns” and “Succession Planning”
- Speaker at Aji Space Conferences, 2011-19. Assisted in producing work sessions on:
- Building Identities of Superior Trustworthiness and Value
- Helping Clients Produce Highly-Valued Accomplishments
- Ethics of Power for Producing $500/hour
- Mobilizing Thought & Action in your Networks
- Clear the Decks - Preparing for the Expansion
- Keynote Speaker, University of Central Florida Investors Club, October 2007
- Round Table Discussion Leader, Mortgage Bankers Association of Central Florida, March 2005, “Real Estate Inside Your IRA”
- Keynote Speaker, Mortgage Bankers Association of Central Florida, November 2004, “Equity Repositioning” - over 70 mortgage and banking professionals
- Guest Appearance, The Money Watch Radio Network AM 660, 2003, “Four Stages of Tax Planning,” “Mortgage Planning,” and “Tax Credits”
- U.S. News & World Reports, Money: https://money.usnews.com/financial-advisors/advisor/david-witter-4519401
- Financial Planning Magazine: https://www.financial-planning.com/news/coronavirus-tests-financial-advisors-limits-like-the-financial-crisis-never-did
- Stockworth TV: https://www.facebook.com/StockworthTV/posts/1069039743481700
I love family time, especially outdoors.
My daughter Kate, who is six, does dance and also plays basketball. You can often find us in our front driveway shooting hoops together. My son Will, who is eight, is a multi-sport athlete and we often bond through playing football or baseball together. He’s taken a big interest in golf as well so we try to play nine holes every weekend.
Katie and I also coach their team sports often. Between, baseball, basketball, and flag football games and practices I stay quite busy. We like being involved in their lives and encouraging them.
I compete in sprint triathlons and am also I’m interested in Lionel model trains. On the weekends, you can often find us boating on the Winter Park chain of lakes. Katie and I are active in our church, First Presbyterian Church of Orlando. I have a big heart for helping people and trying to contribute.