Douglas E. Howes, CEO

Founded the Firm in 2005

My interest in financial planning began long before I started working in the financial services industry in 1994.  While still in elementary school, my Dad and Mom would teach my older brother and I about stocks.  They used their Duke Energy stock statement which was also intended to be our college savings account.  As a result, at a very young age, I had some understanding of the markets and financial instruments.  Along with my parents, my grandfather was a significant influence for me.  During my first college internship with a local CPA firm, I learned my aspirations of becoming an accountant were misguided as this was not the career for me. Grampy suggested I consider the mutual fund and financial services industry.  If he were to do anything different with his life, it would be in money and finance.

With his advice, I took my second internship with Putnam Investments as their fax and photocopy associate.  I spent all day, every day faxing and photocopying financial documents.   After college, I spent nearly a decade building a career with Putnam.  In 2000, I decided to leave for an opportunity to learn about insurance with MetLife.  With my foundation in investments and insurance complete, it became clear that my value would be best suited in serving local people as opposed to the big corporation.  In 2005, I brought my big company experience to the community where I grew up and formed Sapphire Wealth Management in Andover, MA

Today, our firm serves clients from all walks of life in over 20 states across America.  We have offices located in Andover, MA, and Burlington, VT. With today’s technology- geographic boundaries present no issue for our clients who live as far away as CA.  

I also appreciate life outside of my work.  My wife Cheryl and I are heavily involved with our family and community.  We have three adult children, Andy, Tyler, and college-bound Emma.  Our sons both have careers in financial services working with Fidelity Investments, while Emma will be attending Bentley University to study Economics and Finance.   

We both are animal enthusiasts which extend our family by four.  We have Quest our horse who is Emma’s responsibility, as she is our equestrian, along with Caico our German Shepherd, (named after the family’s favorite vacation to Turks & Caicos), Ellie our Labrador, and Willow our family guinea pig.   

As a family, we love to travel! Our annual family vacation has taken us to Turks & Caicos, the Outer Banks, and Banff Canada to name a few.  In the future, we aspire to visit places such as Ireland, Italy, and more of the Caribbean.

The last great passion I have is working with kids.  I find it incredibly important to help kids build their confidence for life.  When I was a young athlete, there was a baseball coach who did his for me.  I learned how to transfer the confidence I had in the baseball diamond into other aspects of my life.  The medium I use for coaching is softball. Currently, I serve on two of my community’s softball boards, coach for the middle school and recreation softball programs, and provide public and private coaching/clinics to softball athletes of all ages.  

Lastly, my belief in life is centered on one simple concept…my purpose is to serve others.  And I do this by coaching our clients on their wealth management and financial planning matters.