Founder & Advisor

Meet Derrick Johnson

Financial planning became personal to me long before it became professional. Here's why I built this firm — and why Florida's public servants are who I do this for.

Independent FiduciaryLegally bound to your interests
Series 65Investment Adviser Representative
Rooted in FloridaIn the community, not just the office
Derrick Johnson at a Teacher Appreciation Week event

Why I built Benowitz Wealth Management

I grew up with a single mother who worked hard and carefully stretched every dollar our family had. From an early age, I learned that money isn't really about wealth — it's about stability, choices, dignity, protection, and the ability to care for the people you love.

When my mother was in her mid-twenties, she became disabled by an illness called myasthenia gravis. It created real hardship for our family. But even while she needed help herself, she stayed faithful, generous, kind, and devoted to others. Her example taught me what compassion and service truly look like — and I've never forgotten it.

Money was never about being rich. It was about being able to take care of the people you love.

Because of those experiences, financial planning became part of my life young. I saw firsthand what it meant to budget with limited resources, make thoughtful decisions, and protect what a family had worked hard for. As I grew up, I often helped my mother think through her financial choices — and I learned that good guidance can change the course of a family's life.

As a young adult, I started several successful businesses. They worked in large part because of the financial understanding, budgeting discipline, and practical lessons I'd developed early on. Today, my mission is to use those same lessons to help others understand their finances, grow what they've worked for, protect their resources, and make informed decisions — no matter how much money they have.

And I chose to serve Florida's public servants on purpose. Teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, first responders, and government employees spend their careers serving others — the very same spirit I watched in my mother through every hardship. People who dedicate their lives to serving Florida deserve clear, thoughtful, fiduciary-minded guidance as they prepare for retirement. That's the firm I set out to build.

I don't just say I serve educators. I show up.

You'll find me in Central Florida's schools and at the events that matter to the people who keep them running — because the public servants I plan for aren't an abstract market to me. They're my neighbors.

The standard is simple

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Service First

I serve the people who've spent their careers serving others. The advice I give you is the advice I'd give my own family.

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Education Over Sales

You'll leave understanding your options — not pressured into a product. Clarity is the goal, every time.

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Fiduciary, Always

As an independent fiduciary, I'm legally required to put your interests ahead of my own. No quotas, no products to push.

Let's sit down and figure this out.

Five years out, five months out, or already retired — a short conversation can bring real clarity. No cost, no obligation, no products being pushed.

Book a Call With Derrick