Adopting the risk‑taking mentality of his immigrant parents, Jason Howell, BS Accounting ’97, has never put limitations on himself.
As an Independent candidate, he ran for a seat in the United States Congress. He authored a book titled Joy of Financial Planning: 7 Strategies for Transforming Your Finances and Reclaiming Your American Dream and has been featured as a financial expert and political strategist on a wide array of major networks and publications. He also teaches personal finance at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. Most recently, he celebrated ten years of Jason Howell Company.
Officially founded in November 2015, Jason Howell Company is a family-focused wealth management firm specializing in multigenerational financial planning. Many of Howell’s clients are dual‑income couples who may not come from wealth but are navigating new financial success and seeking guidance on how to structure giving, grow and preserve wealth, and (importantly) keep the family together.
Leading up to his current success, Howell’s journey was not without its challenges. He remembers 2017 as an especially tough year. Having recently launched Jason Howell Company (two years earlier), he did not have many clients, and he still had the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ exam to pass. “We had a toddler and a newborn, and I had planned to take the exam in July,” he says. “And I remember sometime in February or March, sort of waddling over to my wife in the kitchen as she was preparing dinner and saying, ‘What can I do to help?’ And she turned to me and said, ‘Just go study.’” Once he passed the exam, he felt tremendous relief but still some frustration when he realized there was still so much more work to do to actually build the business.
“We have entered the unknown age of artificial intelligence. We have the strongest banking and capital markets in the world. And yet we are experiencing economic changes that haven’t been made for 80 years. It’s an exciting time to be alive; to be both a student and a participant of financial history.”
— Jason Howell, BS Accounting ’97
A few years later, 2020 presented its own set of challenges, but it was also an exciting time, as his client relationships grew, and he took on a business partner, Douglas Tees. “It was a challenging time, certainly for the markets,” says Howell. “But it was also an opportunity for us to step up to the plate and show our clients why they hired us.” He thoroughly enjoyed putting in the extra work—writing blog posts, recording videos, and overcommunicating with clients. “You don’t really earn those stripes until you experience a recession or something like that, so we appreciated being able to go through the COVID-19 pandemic together with our family of clients,” he says.
Just a few years after graduating from Costello, Howell was invited back to judge a business case capstone competition. That marked the beginning of a long string of volunteer leadership roles—now over 20 years!—that he embraced with his alma mater. Since then, he’s served on a variety of advisory boards, emceed alumni events, and is now serving as a board trustee for the George Mason University Foundation. “As you start getting involved, you start seeing other opportunities to serve, and [my involvement] snowballed,” he says. Many of the community‑driven values that inspire his involvement are the same ones that guide Jason Howell Company. The firm donates 1 percent of their revenue annually towards sustainability and is currently committed to supporting Costello’s Honey Bee Initiative with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for at least the next five years.
“Money can be understood, it can be explained, it can be managed, and you can move on with your life. We hope we’re giving our clients an opportunity to have really great lives,” he says. Howell takes his experiences to the classroom where he encourages his students to be active participants in the capital markets and to pay attention to what’s happening. “We have entered the unknown age of artificial intelligence” he says. “We have the strongest banking and capital markets in the world. And yet we are experiencing economic changes that haven’t been made for 80 years. It’s an exciting time to be alive; to be both a student and a participant of financial history.”
From launching a firm during uncertain times to guiding clients through market volatility, Jason Howell has consistently shown what it means to lead with purpose and compassion. True to the mission of the company, he is always looking ahead. “The next ten years most certainly are about growth, growing enterprise value, longevity, and our philanthropy,” he says. Recently, the firm added a virtual assistant, additional consultants, and upgraded technology all in service to the multiple generations of their family of clients. For Howell, the work ahead is not just about growth—it’s about community, family and making a little history along the way.