Financial Advocate

Emmanuel “Manny” Henson ’06 often thinks of the word “kintsugi” when guiding his clients through financial hardships. Kintsugi is the Japanese term for putting broken pottery pieces back together using gold.

And as a Golden Bear, Henson knows quite a bit about his own golden opportunities.

Before his career as a successful financial planner and educator, Henson was one of three people in the country to receive a $2,000 scholarship from then-Dorney Park owner Cedar Fair LP. With only that $2,000 in his pocket, Henson embarked on a college journey that helped shape his life.

Within his first week as a business administration major at KU, he met his future spouse, Shannon House Henson ’06. The couple run their current business together, Gamma Wealth Management.

Henson said that reframing his mindset came into fruition when he took a first-year seminar course and was required to read the book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Henson said after reading that book, he no longer focused on what he didn’t have, and started focusing on what he could achieve with what he did have.

‘Pensions aren’t enough anymore’

Now, Henson is the founder and president of Gamma Wealth Management, where he helps families, individuals and businesses from all walks of life meet their financial goals.

Located in the greater Baltimore area, Henson believes that anyone can make a difference in their own lives with the right advocate by their side. But he also understands how difficult it is for families and businesses to make ends meet, especially for underrepresented populations.

Originally from Philadelphia, Henson comes from a family that included several people who worked for the public sector, and he saw at a young age that they often weren’t financially ready for retirement.

Henson’s mother was a unionized bus driver, his grandfather served as a Philadelphia police detective and his grandmother spent most of her career as a mid-level Post Office manager.

“I saw the lack of readiness for retirement that my grandmother had, and I think a big part of that was actually a lack of financial education,” Henson says.

He says that pensions just aren’t enough anymore and when government employees aren’t advised to save more than that, they can struggle to retire. So, that’s where Henson steps in.

‘Why I do what I do’

“My niche is government, so I give financial guidance to military, federal, state, and local government employees and I help these individuals fill in the gap that their deferred pensions and compensation plans don’t provide,” Henson says.

“Seeing the disparity in my own community is what drives me to help everyday people keep the standard of living they have now all the way through retirement.”

Knowing that his clients can meet their financial goals is one of the most rewarding parts of his career, he says.

“I had a client who was really stressed out because she didn’t know when she would be able to retire, and after working with her, she called me recently to tell me she retired and could fulfill her lifelong dream of traveling to Italy,” Henson says. “Seeing my clients make it out from those bad situations is why I do what I do.”

Henson admits leadership has always come naturally to him. At age 16, he held his first supervisory position as a food and service lead at Dorney Park. As a KU student, he received the Presidential Leadership Award for working with Student Government Board, Association for Campus Events and the United Greek Council.

He was also one of the first students in the Applied Investment Group at KU, where he learned how to present recommendations to the university trustees regarding where to invest $100,000 of university endowment. By the time he applied to his first job at Vanguard, they were impressed by the amount of financial knowledge and prof[1]essional experience he already had.

During his six years at Vanguard, Henson learned that when it comes to giving financial advice, people don’t want to be chastised for doing the wrong thing.

“Instead, it’s about helping people understand what’s important to them and allowing them to make the right decision on their own with me as their guide,” he says.

Later in his career, Henson became an investment consultant at TD Ameritrade, where he obtained his investment advisory license. That’s when he started mapping out the plans for starting his own financial management company.

Outside his work as a financial planner, Henson is a loving father of two daughters, a member of the Education Advisory Council of Baltimore County, and the cohost of a popular podcast called “Ask My Man Manny,” where he offers practical advice and thought-provoking wisdom alongside military veteran and clinical psychologist Dr. Abbey-Robin Durkin.

When it comes to giving himself practical advice and threading gold throughout his own life, Henson says, “My reaction to any challenge is more important than the challenge itself.”

This article originally appeared in the 2024 Tower Magazine.