Our Professionals

It is a great privilege, and a great responsibility, to be entrusted with the stewardship of our clients’ wealth management plans. It’s what I love doing. I love learning and applying the financial knowledge and skills that enable me to develop solutions and strategies to help achieve our clients’ needs; however, I love listening to them even more. Learning and understanding the challenges they face, the opportunities ahead of them, and what enriches their lives with the joy, purpose, and fulfillment they deserve. The work is exacting and demanding – as it should be – and I wouldn’t have it any other way because our clients depend upon us. 

My diploma from Michigan State University reads Physical Education & Fitness; however, fiscal education & financial fitness are my life’s work.  I will always be a life-long learner and will never rest on my laurels. 

The alphabet soup that follows my name evidences my commitment to advanced training and ongoing professional development to serve the sophisticated and varied needs of our clients:

CFP® - Certified Financial Planner®

CPWA® - Certified Private Wealth Advisor®

CRC® - Certified Retirement Counsel®

ADPA® - Accredited Domestic Partnership Advisor®

RICP® - Retirement Income Certified Professionalsm

No one, however, knows it all and that is why we align ourselves with Wells Fargo Advisors – to be able to draw upon the vast intellectual resources, capabilities, and experience of our colleagues throughout the firm and its affiliates to help meet our clients’ needs.

As a Forbes Top Women Wealth Advisors (2024) and a Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisors (2024)*, I am appreciative for the recognition and driven to continually rethink ways to strengthen and enhance the Client Experience. 

I am also honored to participate in the causes championed by several local, national and international nonprofit organizations including the American Red Cross (serving as a National Council Member of the Tiffany Circle – the women’s leadership society); Fisher House of Michigan; Washtenaw Community College; and the Michigan Theatre.

I am also very grateful to my husband and business colleague, Mark Stutzmann, whose judgment, discipline, and compassion will always be a strong and steadying influence. 

It is an honor to help clients build, manage, and protect their wealth, and to be there for them through all of life’s transitions – planned and unplanned.

Transitions can stifle us, or they can teach, motivate, and define who we are and what we can become. They occur early and late in life, and everywhere in between. They can be happy and celebratory, or hard and unsettling. Almost always, they are accompanied by strong feelings and emotions that influence our decision-making, for better or for worse.

My chief responsibility is establishing investment strategies and overseeing portfolio construction which dovetails with the comprehensive financial, retirement and wealth management planning that my business associate and wife, Peg Moore, orchestrates for our clients.

Like everyone’s taste in music, everyone’s relationship with money is unique and personal. It would be so much easier if markets were totally efficient and investors were always rational, but that’s much more theoretical than practical.  That is why I also devote a significant amount of time to helping Clients understand how their feelings about money may affect their decision-making. During periods of uncertainty, stress and conjecture, I believe it is critical to instill a sense of calm, composure, and open-mindedness into the process – balancing emotions and reason -- which should lead to better decisions and better outcomes.

I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Western Michigan University, but I think the most valuable lessons came outside of the classroom – thriving in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural international environment; handling the pressure of penalty kicks in intercollegiate soccer matches; training and preparing troops as a SPC4 in the United States Army during Viet Nam era; and working in the technology field with its the break-neck speed of change characterized by Moore’s Law.

These experiences taught me the importance of duty and accountability. Listening and understanding. Handling pressure and being there for others as they deal with pressure. And change, the one constant in life, the economy, and in the investment markets.

I share several charitable interests with Peg, in addition to a very special interest I have in honoring and serving our Veterans.

My job is to do everything possible to ensure that Clients always find their interactions with our Group to be efficient, enjoyable, and satisfying. That requires all of us to be in-sync with each other and focused on anticipating, meeting, and exceeding our clients’ expectations. We set exacting standards for the practice, and we hold each other accountable.

I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing from Western Michigan University where I gained an appreciation for the importance of clear, concise communication; the ability to simplify the complex and clarify the confusing; and to rectify that which needs to be fixed as expeditiously as possible.

Before joining the Group in 2018, I worked for an international fashion designer in New York. Fast-paced, competitive, ever-changing – I now see some striking similarities to investing and stark differences to the approach we take in serving our clients.

The fashion world is replete with all sorts of fads. There are a lot of fads in investing too; however, they are not found in our practice. Some fashion is so indistinguishable in quality and appearance it’s more like a commodity; and there are financial firms who treat all their clients alike, but that is never how a client will be treated in our practice. Then there are certain fashion brands which cater to the unique taste and style of discerning customers. We understand that every client is different, every client is special. That is why we stress the importance of listening to and understanding our Clients, what they need, and how they want to be treated. Our goal is to provide a bespoke investment and wealth management experience for each client.

New York was fun, but my husband, Kevin, and I are both glad to be back home in our native state. Our two daughters are a constant reminder of the importance of family, and for me it also serves as reminder of the impact that our Group’s work has on our Clients and their families, now and for years to come.

Two decades of experience working closely with Clients has taught me the importance of listening – understanding everyone’s unique situation and needs, never guessing, nor assuming I know how someone feels or what they’re thinking.  

If you ever saw my workspace, you may notice a small photograph of an elephant. Certainly not a pet, but a reminder. A reminder of a question that Mark asked me years ago: “Have you ever been bitten by an elephant?” “No, of course not,” I responded. Then he asked me if I’d ever been bitten by a mosquito?  Of course, we all have because it’s the little things that get us. The elephant reminds me of the importance of paying attention to the details – to the little things – and never letting them diminish the level of service our Clients deserve.

While you might miss the elephant photo, you shouldn’t miss the one of my house which, believe it or not, I built pretty much with my own two hands. It also serves as a reminder – a reminder of a fable about a renowned architect – a master designer and builder of exquisite homes. After a long and distinguished career, he decided to retire, but his employer implored him to design and build just one more house. Reluctantly he agreed, but his heart wasn’t in it and the structure wasn’t up to the same standards as his prior work. When he went to see his employer to say his final good-bye, he was asked to do one more favor. He recoiled thinking he was going to be asked to build another house, but instead he was given an envelope and was asked to open it. Inside were keys – keys to the last house he built, a gift from his employer. That story reminds me that everything we do for Clients, we should do it as if we’re building our own house.

I spent a lot of time around money changing hands before I joined the team. You see I was a casino pit boss. It was an intense job requiring strong inter-personal skills; diligent awareness of all that was going on; a commitment to following established rules and regulations of conduct; and emotional intelligence to effectively manage a range of emotions from joy and celebration to disappointment and regret.

 I must say I don’t miss any of the glamor or glitz and I much prefer being part of a team of investment and wealth management professionals dedicated to helping Clients find more lasting joy and happiness, for themselves and their families.

 However, I still get to use my people skills, but doubt that I’ll ever have to convince a disgruntled client to leave the premises. I still get to follow lots of rules and procedures designed to ensure the integrity of all the services we provide our clients. And I still work in a fast-paced environment, but one with colleagues who I can rely on and who rely on me to make sure we’re always doing the right thing for our Clients.

 Personally, I’m blessed with a wonderful family. My dear husband Robert, three daughters and five grandchildren, and finally, finally the last to be born was a boy – the first in three generations. For sure, there will be no hand-me-downs for him.

Before joining the Group in 2020, I worked in corporate operations, financial services, and the nonprofit sector. I’ve witnessed how people work well together, and often how sometimes they don’t. I’m not sure what’s in the water here, but what I do know is that everyone is aligned in the same purpose and objective – to solve our clients’ problems and meet their needs by drawing upon each other’s expertise, experience, and tenacity to complete the task on time, every time.

Our culture encourages collaboration and frowns upon complacency. It’s not that we are dissatisfied with doing a good job, we just like challenging ourselves and each other to see if there are ways to improve upon what we’re doing.

While my official job title is “Client Associate,” I think caregiver would be my preferred title because by nature that’s what I am. I care about people and what they need, and I always do what’s in my power and ability to help them because we all need other people’s compassion and help. As the saying goes, there are only four types of people in the world – people who are caregivers, people who will be caregivers, people who will need caregivers, and people who are currently being helped by caregivers. We’re all in this together, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.