Meet our Continuing Education Faculty
Insurance Planner and educator
Lee Conti Jr.
Lee Conti, Jr., is a partner with CPS Elite Advisors Insurance Services and a nationally recognized speaker on cutting-edge insurance trends. He is committed to the highest fiduciary standards and has dedicated nearly three decades to helping advisors design insurance programs to help their clients protect and augment wealth. Lee achieves this by creating sophisticated bespoke insurance solutions tailored for affluent families, corporations, entrepreneurs and professionals with unique or shortened income streams.
Lee has been a breakout speaker at financial planning industry conferences since 2006 and is consistently a go-to resource for wealth advisors on insurance-related questions.He is certified nationally as a Continuing Education instructor for Insurance sessions and is also approved to teach CFP® Continuing Education courses to financial advisors. Lee takes pride in creating and teaching dynamic sessions that allow advisors to walk away with practical information to integrate into the customized financial plans they create for their clients. He has currently trained over 8,000 advisors on risk management strategies.
Lee has a passion for education and community involvement, which led him to serve as President of the New York City Financial Planning Association in 2016 after many years on the Board. He currently serves on the Board of Savvy Ladies, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women through financial literacy.
In his free time, Lee enjoys spending time with his family wine tasting, attending sporting events, taking cooking classes and seeking new sushi restaurants.
ASSOCIATE
Thomas Virkler, JD, CLU
Thomas Virkler, Esq. has over four decades of experience specializing in the areas of estate, charitable, business and non-qualified benefit planning as well as matters of life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance and annuity taxation.
Tom joined CPS in 2010 and has helped numerous financial services professionals understand the best individualized structures to accomplish clients’ stated objectives while minimizing taxes. He often collaborates with client’s attorneys and CPAs to ensure all agree with proposed strategies.
Tom received his B.A. from the State University of New York and his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, Birmingham Alabama. He is a member of the Alabama State Bar Association. Tom and his wife spend time between their home in Athens, Georgia and the northern Tennessee/central Kentucky region with their four children and spouses and their six grandchildren.
ASSOCIATE
Sameer Somal, CFP®, CFA, CAIASM
Sameer is the CEO of Blue Ocean Global Technology and Co-Founder of Girl Power Talk. He is a CFA Charterholder, a CFP® professional, and a Chartered Alternative Investment AnalystSM.
Sameer leads client engagements focused on digital transformation, risk management, and technology development. A testifying subject matter expert witness in economic damages, intellectual property, and internet defamation, he authors CLE programs with the Philadelphia Bar Foundation. Sameer is a frequent speaker at private industry and public sector conferences, including engagements with the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB), Global Digital Marketing Summit, IBM, New York State Bar Association (NYBSA), US Defense Leadership Forum, and US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute.
He proudly serves on the Board of Directors of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and Girl Power USA. Committed to building relationships, Sameer is an active member of the Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA), Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB), American Bar Association (ABA), American Marketing Association (AMA), Business Transition Council, International Trademark Association (INTA), and Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF). A graduate of Georgetown University, he held leadership roles at Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Scotiabank. Sameer is also a CFA Institute 2022 Inspirational Leader Award recipient and was named an Iconic Leader by the Women Economic Forum.