Eric Thomas, CFP®

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About Eric Thomas, CFP®

I learned quickly in my first year working in the financial services field the importance of having a financial plan and a trusted advisor. It was 2008, the beginning of the financial crisis. At that time, I worked almost exclusively with teachers and public school staff as a registered representative and investment advisor. The time demonstrated that even with great public benefits, everyone should be thinking about investing in their future.

In 2011, my wife and I made the decision to move west to Oregon. We had heard that it was a place where you could make a career, but also provided a different environment to enjoy other priorities like being outdoors and access to a great lifestyle, adventure, and community. I started working at a local Portland financial services firm that was home base for around 150 high end independent firms across the country. The firm provided insurance and investment products for the ultra-affluent.

While working my way to senior management, I was able to earn other licenses to further my education and also learn intimately the pros and cons of how different practices operate. Most of all, working with many different small offices affiliated with the firm gave me the ability to understand some of the conflicts in our industry along with how individual clients may not understand how their advisor is getting compensated.

After almost 8 years, I made the decision that working with clients directly was the direction for me. I earned the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation and started working at a small financial planning firm in Portland. After being given the opportunity to join Clarity Capital Management as a fee-only advisor and partner, I decided to join Ryan Mohr and the firm.

While not working, I enjoy spending time with my wife, Amanda, and four legged adventure partner, Cori. I enjoy backcountry skiing, long distance trail running, and all forms of cycling. Please don’t be surprised if I show up to a client meeting on two wheels!

Craig Nelson, CFP®, CPA

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About Craig Nelson, CFP®, CPA

As the son of two finance professionals, Craig learned financial literacy early in life. He studied finance at Oregon State University and accounting at Portland State University.

Craig is a former Army Officer and Iraq War Veteran. Between periods of active-duty, Craig gained industry experience as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. He then spent six years in corporate accounting at Intel and Nike, focusing on global technology transformation and process optimization projects – helping accountants around the world work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

With ten years of combined military, accounting and project management experience, Craig left the corporate world in 2017 to pursue his passion for financial planning. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Craig has demonstrated expertise in the areas where he provides advice and guidance.

Craig’s non-traditional path to financial planning greatly influences the customer experience at Red Sky. He easily connects with and relates to individuals from various backgrounds. His integrity, discipline, attention to detail, and long track record of success are qualities he shares with his clients.

Outside of work, Craig’s favorite activity is spending time with his wife (Kelly) and two daughters (Anna and Clara). He also has a love for anything outdoors, including golf, fishing, boating, camping, and biking.

Craig Nelson, CFP®, CPA

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About Craig Nelson, CFP®, CPA

As the son of two finance professionals, Craig learned financial literacy early in life. He studied finance at Oregon State University and accounting at Portland State University.

Craig is a former Army Officer and Iraq War Veteran. Between periods of active-duty, Craig gained industry experience as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. He then spent six years in corporate accounting at Intel and Nike, focusing on global technology transformation and process optimization projects – helping accountants around the world work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

With ten years of combined military, accounting and project management experience, Craig left the corporate world in 2017 to pursue his passion for financial planning. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Craig has demonstrated expertise in the areas where he provides advice and guidance.

Craig’s non-traditional path to financial planning greatly influences the customer experience at Red Sky. He easily connects with and relates to individuals from various backgrounds. His integrity, discipline, attention to detail, and long track record of success are qualities he shares with his clients.

Outside of work, Craig’s favorite activity is spending time with his wife (Kelly) and two daughters (Anna and Clara). He also has a love for anything outdoors, including golf, fishing, boating, camping, and biking.

Andy Mardock, CFP®, MBA

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About Andy Mardock, CFP®, MBA

Andy is the founder and president of ViviFi Planning. He was inspired to create the firm to bring exceptional financial advice to young professional families that, without multi-million dollar portfolios to invest, have long been ignored by the financial industry.

Over years of listening to financial stories and experiences, Andy heard the phrase “I wish I would have known” too many times. ViviFi Planning was born out of a desire to help peers avoid ever experiencing this regret. Clients working with Andy feel confident about their money decisions and where their financial lives are headed. This impact is far more than a job or a career to Andy; it’s a mission.

Andy is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner and has been a financial planner for nearly nine years. He obtained his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Financial Planning from California Lutheran University in 2010 and has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oregon.

An adoring father and husband himself, Andy can relate to the ups and downs as well as triumphs and challenges that modern families experience today. In working with Andy, clients benefit from talking with someone who ‘gets it’ because they’re living it. When not helping clients make the most of their finances, Andy and his wife Jessica can be found cherishing their newborn daughter and chasing outdoor adventures on hiking, biking, and skiing trails.

Morgan Ranstrom, CFP®, CFA®

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About Morgan Ranstrom, CFP®, CFA®

Morgan Ranstrom, CFA, CFP®, co-founder and fee-only financial planner at Trailhead Planners, is like a mapmaker for your finances. Morgan helps you assess your current financial situation, plan your destination, and chart the surest path forward, mindful of any pitfalls that may arise along the road. Morgan is proud to work at a firm that believes in offering holistic, tax-focused, and fiduciary financial advice for wealth-building professionals and retirees without ever selling products.

Morgan is a CFA® charterholder and a Certified Financial Planner™ professional. He has released two studio albums of his own music and is the author of “Money with Purpose: Receive the Dividends of an Undivided Financial Life” which was published by Wisdom Editions in 2019. Morgan loves to travel and has worked, studied in, or traveled through most of the countries in Central and South America. Morgan, his wife, Naomi, and their children, Alba and Hugo, love living in Minneapolis, MN and they can often be found paddle boarding on Lake Nokomis, taking day trips up to the North Shore, or cycling around one of our many beautiful Minneapolis lakes.

“All to say, who you are, what you are about, your goals, purpose, fulfillment… these are what matter, and they help us create the signposts of our financial life. Money is not an end in and of itself, nor is it a beginning. It’s a means to an end, an entity we can use to transfer value, fulfill our needs, live our values, and move further into a life of purpose.” ~ from Money with Purpose.

Courtney Ranstrom, CFP®, MBA

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About Courtney Ranstrom, CFP®, MBA

One of the questions Courtney asks herself and her clients – what does wealth mean to you? In many cases, wealth has nothing to do with money but with how we find fulfillment in our lives. Courtney does not believe in imposing arbitrary standards of wealth onto her clients. Rather, she wants her clients to understand what wealth means to them and how they can achieve their version of wealth. Her conversations with her clients are not just about money, they are about building a financial life plan tailored to each client’s values, resources, and ongoing life goals.

Courtney has been working in the wealth management industry since 2009 and is a Certified Financial Planner®. Prior to that, she worked as an internal auditor in both government and a publicly-traded company. She received a Master in Business Administration from Willamette University in 2005.

Courtney lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, daughters, and two Cardigan Corgis. When not working, you can find her reading books or visiting the zoo with her girls, walking around their Central Eastside neighborhood, drinking coffee, and eating dark chocolate.

 

Tyler R. Elliott, CFP® JD

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About Tyler R. Elliott, CFP®, JD

I am the founder and principal of Watershed Wealth Planning LLC. My practice is focused on households in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s who have high income but may be struggling to build a positive net-worth, often due to the burden of student debt and rising housing costs. As a financial planner, I am able to pull on my prior experience as a bankruptcy attorney to help people avoid common pitfalls and cut out the noise that can complicate important financial decisions.

My clients have concerns that are more unique than “retirement” or “college planning,” such as: How do we travel internationally every year without compromising our long-term plan? As someone who has traveled to 33 countries in my 44 years, I love helping clients answer these types of questions.

When meeting with people for the first time, I’m often asked, “Why did you give up a career as an attorney to become a financial planner?” Practicing bankruptcy law exposed me to the countless stories of clients who had enjoyed success early in their career only to experience financial hardship as they neared retirement age. As I began to recognize the patterns of poor planning, I realized that I could have a more positive impact working with young households as they make key decisions about how to save and invest. As a proactive planner, I now get to watch clients build their ideal life while helping to increase their probability of sustained success.

 

 

Grant Bledsoe, CFP®, CFA

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About Grant Bledsoe, CFP®, CFA, CEPA, AIF®

Hi, I’m Grant Bledsoe.

I work with business owners & entrepreneurs across the country. I find that many business owners devote all their attention and energy to building a successful business, but all too often they neglect their personal finances in the process. I help my clients conceptualize their ideal life, and then help them arrange their business and financial puzzle to achieve it.

To do this my firm offers a few different services: comprehensive financial planning, investment management, and retirement plan management.

These services cover the spectrum of challenges that business owners typically face:

·Growing the value of your business & structuring a sound exit when you’re ready
·Minimizing your personal and business tax liabilities
·Protecting your personal and business assets against liability
·Building consistent cash flow to support your lifestyle
·Protecting your business against death, disability, or departure of one or more key people, including yourself
·Structuring your business in a way that supports & builds your personal wealth and ideal life

To deliver our planning services my firm has developed a process we call Confidence in Advanced Planning. Over the course of 3-5 initial meetings, we help our clients chart a course from where they are today to wherever it is they’d like to go in the future. Throughout the process we assess their financial strengths & vulnerabilities, answer any lingering questions, and build a step by step guide that will give them a very high chance of reaching their objectives. We then execute that plan over time, and make real time adjustments as our clients’ lives and the world around them evolve.

Here’s a little more about my background:

I started my career in finance at Charles Schwab after finishing my MBA, working on their institutional securities lending desk in both Denver and San Francisco. After seven years, I realized I wanted to help people more directly in an unbiased setting as a fiduciary. To do this I launched Three Oaks Wealth and structured it as a fee-only registered investment advisory firm. I’m not compensated by anyone but my clients directly, and am legally bound to act in their best interests.

On paper I hold the following credentials:
·CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®)
·Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
·Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA)
·Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®)
·MBA from Ithaca College, concentrating in finance
·B.S. in Applied Economics, also from Ithaca College

On a personal note, I live in Sacramento, CA with my wife, two sons, and daughter. I’m a huge fan of the Seattle Mariners (and baseball in general), and love spending time outside & exploring the outdoors in our area.

If you’d like to chat about your financial situation, feel free to book some time on my calendar: https://calendly.com/grant-bledsoe-1/30min

You can also find my blog at https://www.abovethecanopy.us, and my podcast at https://www.growmoneybusiness.com.