Personal
Matthew J Ferrara is Chairman of the Board and Board President for Miami Light Project — a not-for-profit cultural organization which presents live performances by innovative dance, music and theater artists from around the world; supports the development of new work by South Florida-based artists; and offers educational programs for students of every age.
In 2011, Matthew established an ongoing annual prize (the Spike Award) awarded to a qualifying dance student at the New World School of the Arts — providing the recipient with an opportunity to spend 6 weeks at the prestigious American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. The award was established in memory of his uncle John P. Ferrara, a great patron of the arts.
In 2007, Matthew Ferrara and his brother Pete (Northwestern Mutual – Boulder, CO) traveled to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan with Surgicorps International volunteering on a medical mission that provided surgery to burn and bear attack victims as well as those with congenital defects such as cleft palates.
Matthew attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where he studied Western Philosophy, English Literature, and Buddhism.
His ongoing studies continue at the Shri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute, in Mysore, India where he has been travelling to for a month every year to study philosophy and continue his ashtanga yoga practice.
He is originally from Pittsburgh, PA and counts cooking and the Pittsburgh Steelers among his favorite things.
Professional
Matthew J Ferrara – Financial Advisor
Matthew is a Financial Advisor with a practice focusing primarily on physicians, finance professionals and business owners/entrepreneurs that comprise clients in over 20 states. As a licensed “Advisor”, he maintains a fiduciary relationship with his clients, always compelled to act in their best interest.
Prior to joining Northwestern Mutual in 2002, Matthew enjoyed a decade of success in business development and management positions with companies that spanned from small start-ups to Fortune 100 enterprise. He has been a client of Northwestern Mutual since six months of age and his immediate family has over 50 combined years of tenure working with the company.
Strong Relationship with the Medical Community
Matthew has developed strong ties with his clients and sustained relationships with well-respected and world renowned academic and community hospitals, as well as other healthcare delivery systems, including:
Cleveland Clinic of Florida
- Ranked first among the 18 best hospitals in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area
- America’s 100 Top Hospitals in the National Benchmarks Study by Thomson Reuters, 2008-2012
- Top 5% in a national emergency room medicine excellence study conducted by a leading healthcare ratings organization, 2010-2012
- Breast Imaging Center designation as a Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology, 2010
Mount Sinai Medical Center – Miami, FL
- Partnered with Columbia University to create the Mount Sinai Heart Institute and the Columbia University Division of Urology, the only Ivy League affiliated programs in South Florida.
- Outstanding Achievement Award – Mount Sinai is the only hospital in Florida to win this award three times in a row and one of only 23 hospitals nationwide, which puts Mount Sinai among the Top 15% of all accredited cancer programs in the country
- America's Best Hospitals National ranking – Geriatrics, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Gastroenterology, Pulmonology, Nephrology, Diabetes & Endocrinology by U.S. News and World Report, July 2011
Miami Children’s Hospital
- Ten Miami Children’s Hospital pediatric specialty services are among the best in the nation
- Miami Children's Hospital and two of its services have received 2012 Kids Crown Awards from South Florida Parenting.
- Fifty MCH physician shave been identified by U.S. News & World Report as being among “America’s Top Doctors.” What’s more, three of the MCH subspecialists were further highlighted as being among the Top 1% of physicians in their subspecialty nationwide.
University of Miami School of Medicine and the Jackson Memorial Medical Center
- The founders of the Miller School of Medicine were visionaries. They anticipated the tremendous need for excellent medical care within our community and set into motion a plan for the facility that now has more than 1 million patient encounters annually.
- Five Miller School programs at the Jackson Memorial Medical Center have been ranked among the best in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s 2011-2012 Best Hospitals survey, with UM’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute ranked #1 in ophthalmology for the eighth year in a row.
Here are my areas of expertise
Financial Planning
Insurance Protection Strategies
Life Insurance Strategies
Retirement Planning & Income Strategies
Education Planning & Funding
Disability Planning
Multigenerational Planning
Estate Planning
Lending a hand in my community.
As part of Northwestern Mutual, I'm proud to help accelerate the search for better childhood cancer treatments while supporting families undergoing treatment, and survivors from late effects. Here are some of the organizations we partner with:
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF)
ALSF funds cancer research, raises awareness, and supports the families of children with cancer. Since 2012, Northwestern Mutual, its employees, and financial professionals like me have donated more than $20 million to support ALSF and fund over 400,000 research hours.
Beads of Courage
Beads of Courage is an art-in-medicine program that helps kids with cancer tell their unique treatment story through colorful beads that are symbols of their courage.
How Northwestern Mutual helps you live the life you want.
When people feel better about their money, good things happen—they become more confident and feel more secure. For more than 160 years, Northwestern Mutual has helped people achieve the financial flexibility they need to live more and worry less.
Being a mutual company means Northwestern Mutual reports to its clients, not Wall Street. They don't believe in chasing fads or taking undue risk for short-term gains. Instead, they take a long-term approach—both in the way we help people plan to reach their goals, and in the way they do business. This has served their clients (and mine) well through all kinds of economic ups and downs, including wars, recessions, even the recent pandemic.
It's why I'm happy to be part of a company that's in it for the long-haul and prioritizes clients over profit.
