Barry H. Sacks, PhD, JD, a member of the California State Bar, is a tax attorney specializing in pension law. He is a 1973 graduate of Harvard Law School.  Since 1974, with the enactment of ERISA (the pension reform law), he has practiced almost exclusively in the area of retirement plan law.  He has been certified as a specialist in taxation law since 1980 by the California Board of Legal Specialization. For the past ten years, he has been listed in the peer-selected “Best Lawyers in America”.  In 2015, Mr. Sacks was designated as Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” in the field of retirement plan law for the San Francisco Bay area.  In addition, he holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT, where he completed a doctoral dissertation that involved substantial mathematical modeling.  

He published the pioneering research paper modeling the use of reverse mortgage credit lines to mitigate the effects of adverse sequences of investment returns in retirement accounts (Journal of Financial Planning, February, 2012).  The retirement income strategy described in the Journal of Financial Planning article has been granted 2 patents. He published a sequel to this paper in the October, 2017 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, expanding the range of application of the strategy. In 2016, he published an article in the Journal of Taxation (“Recovering a Lost Deduction”) on the income tax deduction for interest accrued on reverse mortgages. While developing his model for the use of reverse mortgages in retirement income planning, Mr. Sacks became aware of other needs of retirees (or soon-to-be retirees), including those who are moving to new homes and those who are in the process of divorce.  As a result, he has published papers demonstrating various uses of reverse mortgages to address these retirees’ needs.

In the earlier part of his career, Mr. Sacks spoke frequently at California Continuing Education of the Bar presentations and at advance tax seminars as a visiting lecturer at U.C. Hastings College of the Law.  More recently he has spoken at various Bar Association meetings (including the Marin County Bar Association and East Bay Trusts and Estates Council) and at meetings of financial planning organizations.

For the past 35 years Ilene has provided financial literacy and investment education for individual clients to enhance their understanding of money, finances, and investments; and to organizations with a particular emphasis on retirement planning. She has worked for notable Washington, DC area investment companies in management and in building organizational depth in financial education. 

Ms. Slatko has significant experience in the areas of leadership development, team development, career development, executive coaching and talent management. She has expertise in designing learning solutions – virtual instructor-led training and instructor-led -- to meet the unique challenges of clients. She was a key provider of executive and employee education for The Southland Corporation, U.S. Mapping, Century 21, and ERA Real Estate. She has worked with executives and leaders in the areas of communication, selling, client management, leadership development, and team development. 

Ms. Slatko has extensive experience in Federal retirement programs and training federal employees. When the previous retirement system was replaced by FERS, Ilene was at the forefront of presentations to educate affected employees in their choices. She has been a trainer for retirement presentations at agencies throughout the DC area,

She has been a speaker at conferences including the Army Materiel Command Women’s Financial Day, Delaware Women’s Conference, and numerous youth financial literacy programs. Ms. Slatko is currently the host of a weekly Roku and Apple TV show called, The *It Show, the first financial program designed specifically for young women. In addition, she has been the Director of Training for companies in the financial and real estate fields. 

Ilene is an alumna of Marietta College where she studied Drama, Speech, and English. 

Mr. Heinkel has degrees in accounting, law and a master’s in tax law (LL.M.) (all with honors) and has been published in the Notre Dame Law Journal, the Journal of Real Estate Taxation, and The Florida Bar Journal among others. Mr. Heinkel is a nationally-known expert on tax procedures and resolution, representing people literally all over the world. Further, he is also probably one of the very top experts in discharging taxes in bankruptcy and has presented boot camps, seminars, webinars and other presentations and on this and resolution-related topics around the country. He also graciously makes himself available to consult with other professionals around the country, usually free of charge.


Stephen Abramson is the President and founding partner of APS Pension & Financial Services established in 1977, a mid-size consulting and actuarial firm employing twenty-two professional and support staff specializing in pension and pension-related services.  For over 40 years, APS has been providing closely held businesses with financial services including pension design and administration, business succession planning, and wealth preservation planning. In 2015 APS Investment Management was established to provide fiduciary services to 401(k) and 403(b) plans and in 2018 APS Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), was established to provide investment management services to individual clients and retirement plans replacing his previous relationship with a Broker/Dealer.  Steve has taught professional level education programs for the American Society of Pension Actuaries; lectured to various professional groups, including the National Conference of CPA Practitioners, The NYS Society of CPAs, Nassau Bar Association, the C.W. Post Tax Institute, and the National Institute of Pension Administrators; and conducted continuing education seminars for Certified Public Accountants for the past 35 years. He is co-author of Plan Smart, Retire Rich published by McGraw Hill in 1998; author of Advisor’s Guide to Qualified Plans originally published by Aspen Publishing in March, 2002 and recently in the process of being updated with the 8th edition, and Retirement Financial Management for Clients Approaching Retirement published by Aspen Publishing in August, 2002.  A less technical version of Advisor’s Guide to Qualified Plans entitled Guide to Qualified Retirement Plans: A Plain Language Primer was published by the International Association of Employee Benefits in March 2005.  The second edition of this book was released in 2008.

Steve graduated from Cornell University in 1964, earned the designation of Chartered Life Underwriter in 1967 from the American College, Certified Pension Consultant in 1970 from the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries and Chartered Financial Consultant from the American College in 1972.