Fred Garfield, CEBS, CFP®, ChFC, CLU, RHU
Senior Vice President
Fred Garfield is a Principal and Senior Vice President of the Horton Group. With more than thirty years of experience, Fred serves clients of 100 to 3,500 employees as an employee benefits and financial risk management consultant. He has earned the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS), Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Registered Health Underwriter (RHU), and Retirement Plans Associate (RPA) professional designations. These combined designations represent more than fifteen years of advanced study in this industry.
These abbreviations represent a highly qualified and talented specialist in this field, but Fred knows that all of these designations mean nothing if you can’t deliver on your promises. “The client service team and worksite wellness professionals at Horton have been incredible with their follow-through on critical services. Horton’s investment in talent to serve our clients has been critical to our growth.”
While Fred aggressively negotiates in the marketplace on a client’s behalf, what happens the rest of the year is the real value in Horton’s “strategic service schedule” process. Health plan claims and insurance costs are only a small part of the total “people cost” for a client. Fred knows an integrated, proactive approach can bring significant, longterm cost savings that can improve absenteeism, reduce disabilities and FMLA events, avoid workers compensation claims, and provide health and wellness improvements to improve the quality of employee’s lives.
If “a company’s wealth is their employees’ health,” then Fred’s goal is to create and oversee a strategic effort for maintaining human capital. “An auto dealer could not afford to provide a warranty to owners who do not change their oil and service their vehicle properly,” Fred states. “Similarly, we must help clients engage their employees so that they act responsibly, along with providing the education and resources necessary to keep employees healthy and avoid the most serious and costly health claims.”
Through this approach Fred has enabled many companies to “bend the curve” downward on medical cost inflation and receive premium rate reductions on renewals.
Fact File
- Bachelors in Communications and Psychology, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL
- The Horton Group Principal and Senior Vice President, since 1996
- SMF Associates Owner, President and CEO, 1990-1996
- Principal and Producer, 1980-1990
- NBC Radio Assistant Music Director and On-Air personality, 1977-1980
- Certified Employee Benefits Specialist
- Certified Financial Planner®
- Chartered Financial Consultant
- Chartered Life Underwriter
- Retirement Plans Associate
- Property & Casualty License
- Life & Health
- NASD Licenses – Series 6, 22, 63, 65
- Life and Qualifying Top of the Table member – Million Dollar Round Table
- Vanguard and Millennium Awards – New England Financial
- Aetna Life and Casualty
- CIGNA / Great West Healthcare
- Guardian Life
- Mutual of Omaha
- MetLife
- Unicare / WellPoint
- New England Financial
- International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
- National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers
- National Association of Health Underwriters
- New England Financial Leaders Association, former Executive Committee Officer
- Society for Human Resources Management
- Illinois CPA Society, former faculty for continuing education
Read More From Customers
The efforts made by The Horton Group have not only improved our company’s bottom-line, but have greatly improved the attitude of our employees. The wellness initiative has raised the quality of our benefits program and the value of improving overall health.
John Dudek, President
Dudek and Bock Spring Manufacturing Company
When we started with The Horton Group and Fred some years 15 years ago, we were a young company trying to make a mark for ourselves. With Horton as our partner, we have grown our company thirty-fold. Their valued expertise in managing both our employee benefits and risk management programs helped us fuel our explosive growth. Horton’s attention to our needs exceeds our expectations.
Michael Miles, President and CEO
Seaton Corp. dba Staff Management
Securities, Variable Contracts, and Retirement Plan Services are provided through Financial Telesis, Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC, 4340 Redwood Highway, Suite A-23, San Rafael, CA 94903. The Horton Group and Financial Telesis, Inc. are not affiliated firms. The Horton Group is a member of the Retirement Plans Advisory Group.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. CEBS and RPA are designations granted through the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.