As your trusted advisor, our job is to help you make smart decisions about your money. But our personalized approach is about so much more than that. We strive to understand what is important to you from generating income and protecting your financial security to assisting aging parents and legacy planning. We spend a good deal of time looking for ways to reduce taxes in retirement. And most important, we offer guidance and clarity for decisions that come up throughout the year, because money is tied to all aspects of life. We want to be your first call when an important decision comes up, because we are passionate about building long term relationships with our clients.
Our firm is independent, which means that we are not beholden to any company’s goals or relationships which could color our recommendations to you. We are a fiduciary advisor, which means we put your interests ahead of our own.
Gessner Wealth Strategies, LLC operates independently of our custodian and investment team. We do not hold client assets but instead use highly reputable firms, such as Charles Schwab, for important checks and balances. The custodian is strictly in charge of recordkeeping and custodial services for your money, such as statement preparation and tax reporting documents. The custodian is in charge of the safekeeping of your assets, and you always have access to your money.
We maintain a network of
professionals whose knowledge
and experience rivals that
of the largest firms.
This includes:
- Investment Research Experts
- Attorneys
- Tax Experts and Professionals
- Realtors
- Mortgage and Banking Experts
- Insurance Professionals
Meet the Team
As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, I am passionate about building a life plan for my clients and helping them see that they have choices, which often comes to them as a pleasant surprise. I am an independent thinker and a huge advocate of my clients’ interests. My greatest joy is working to do what is right for them and be their voice.
As an avid problem solver with a penchant for learning, I love to challenge myself with a new goal each year. I view my role as requiring not just financial aptitude, but also a constant desire for personal and professional improvement.
Teaching others is something that comes naturally to me, so you will often find me leading a retirement planning class at the local community college several times a year. I’m a big believer in partnering with my clients and ensuring that they are empowered to make their own important decisions, so I strive to speak in plain English and simplify complex information.
I have a B.S. in Finance from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and an M.S. in Management from Boston University, Brussels. Growing up in Montana and moving to Colorado for college, I took out student loans and worked my way through all four years. After graduating in 1987 with honors, I accepted a job at Shell Oil in Houston, and worked my way up the corporate ladder to a management position before leaving in 1992 for Brussels, Belgium, where I lived for 4 years. In Brussels, I learned about different cultures and basic conversational French as well as pursuing and earning a graduate degree in management. Returning to the U.S. in 1997, I made my way to a boutique financial planning firm and then to MassMutual, where I received an excellent education in financial services and insurance planning like Long Term Care, disability, and life insurance. In 2015, I formed Gessner Wealth Strategies LLC, and in 2016, borne out of a strong desire to truly help people with an unbiased approach to financial planning, I launched my own independent practice, and have loved every minute of it.
As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, I am held to the highest standards set forth in the industry. I surround myself with a back office of experts in tax and investment research so that my clients have the best of both worlds – the resources of a large firm with the caring, dedication, and personal service of a small firm. I am honored to be able to help others with the decisions that are so personal and important in their lives and can truly say that I love helping others find financial security and peace.
As the Client Services Manager at Gessner Wealth Strategies, I truly enjoy working with our clients every day and helping them with important questions about their accounts. I not only answer the phones but ensure that our files meet compliance standards, projects are finished on time, tasks and follow ups are completed, and data is collected carefully and securely. I guess you could say that I run the office like a well-oiled machine!
With over 14 years of administrative experience, I am a native Houstonian, spending some time living in Georgia and Washington but moving back to the Houston area in October of 2015. I earned a degree in Pharmacy Technology at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, in 2011, and have experience in both the mortgage industry and the jewelry industry, earning a Gemological Institute of America Certification in Diamonds. I serve as the Kids Church Coordinator and the Elementary Youth Program Leader at my church and have two children. I enjoy reading, spending time at the beach, and going to Dallas to visit my parents and siblings.
We don’t make bets on single stocks, industries, regions, or the economy. Instead, we work with some of the best minds in investment management to engineer portfolios consisting of a wide diversification of securities which hold a large number of distinct companies across 9 asset classes, 40 countries, and multiple industry sectors. Please read about our investment philosophy here and here for a discussion about why it’s important to hire experts for your portfolio of investments.
Our independent team of highly credentialled CFA® investment professionals create portfolios designed for long-term investors. All of our portfolios are created with these important concepts:
- The majority of an investor’s long-term return comes from proper asset allocation.
- It pays to stay invested. The US stock market has been resilient throughout history.
- By trying to time the market, you may miss the market’s biggest gains. The best method for loss avoidance is to expand your time horizon.
- Holding cash is a losing investment and it increases the likelihood of unintentionally injecting Longevity Risk into an allocation.
- We equip our portfolios with a stronger engine (stocks) while using better brakes (hedges) to stay risk-neutral vs. traditional benchmarks.
- Our well-defined process allows us to better navigate both good and bad markets.
The Bottom Line
Our portfolios are built to address longevity risk with more stocks to enhance growth and yield, and less bonds through the use of hedges to protect during market downturns without sacrificing upside. We use a combination of active and passive management and avoid market timing. It's important to hire experts for your portfolio of investments.
Investment Management
Our Philosophy and Process
While it is easy to get caught up in the state of the economy or the latest “hot” stock or mutual fund, we believe passionately that the way you invest should be aligned with where you are in your life… not with the short-term ups and downs of markets.
Why Pay an Advisor?
I can do it Myself
This is an important question. There are so many great tools for those people who want to handle their own investing and financial planning. However, most people have a tough time implementing their plan consistently.
Fiduciary Status
Transparent 100% of the Time
Gessner Wealth Strategies never takes a commission to buy and sell investments in your account,
as we believe that system – which the big, national brokerage firms use – is fraught with potential
conflicts of interest. Instead, we align our interests with yours by charging a percentage
of assets under our management on a quarterly basis, with full disclosure.
All of our investment advisory services are offered on a fiduciary basis.
Awards & Accommodations
Complimentary eBook:
Choosing the Right Strategies for Insurance and Estate Planning
Our eBook Answers Critical Insurance and Estate Planning Questions!
Will Higher Tax Rates
Crush Your Retirement Gains?
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ANSWER NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
Are you doing everything you can to protect yourself from higher taxes in retirement? Download our complimentary guide and find out today!
