Rich Shank dedicated over twenty professional years helping his clients and teams solve financial problems and test compliance with regulations so that upstanding clients have peace of mind that they are prepared to stand-up to any official inquiry. As a certified public accountant and certified management accountant with Big 4 and regional CPA firm experience, Rich worked as an auditor and consultant for private, nonprofit and public entities while ensuring optimal compliance with federal, state and local authorities. Clients included manufacturing, wholesale, distribution, retail, real estate, professional services, construction, government contractors with overhead audit requirements, software developers, advertising agency, nonprofits with federal grant single audit requirements, and pension plans. He transitioned into private industry as a controller of a private equity held, fast growing software development company with several buyer-side acquisitions and international operations. Rich brings this multi-faceted, deep client service ethos from small to large entities with an understanding of the entire financial and business cycles for diverse organization structures and business segments to efficiently empathize with our client’s point of view to discover and then demystify unique incentives available to help our clients thrive in our society.

After contracting COVID-19 in Spring of 2020, heroes from our healthcare industry saved Rich and nursed him back to health from a ventilator. He proudly heeded the call from his friends at Strategic Tax Planning to help safeguard that we educate as many people as possible before time runs out on the Employee Retention Credit and in turn help clients recover financially from this emergency.

Rich is a Maryland native and graduate from Stevenson University with dual bachelor’s degrees in Accounting and Legal Studies, a minor in Economics, 2005, and obtained certified public and management accountant licenses (CPA, CMA), which he has maintained with over a thousand hours of continuing professional education. He served several years as Treasurer for Stocks in the Future, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting financial literacy with underserved children.

Rich loves to learn and explore new ideas to share with others and collaborate to find the best way to solve a problem, benefit from opportunities and minimize risks. He believes that by delivering the best quality information, decision-makers choose more wisely, which in turn makes the world a better place for all to be fruitful and prosper. For fun, Rich enjoys engaging with the characters, stories and worlds found in a galaxy far, far away, the multiverse, or Azeroth. Rich collects games, literature, comic books, enjoys experiencing new foods and libations, and travels to the Happiest Place on Earth. Rich is currently busy learning the joys of feline youth development because a litter of kittens adopted him, much to the chagrin of his elder cat.