Dean: Jonathan Guyton, CFP®
Jonathan Guyton, CFP® is Principal of Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, Inc., a holistic financial planning and wealth management firm in Minneapolis that serves more than 200 families in over 20 states and several countries. His specialties include retirement income planning and investment management with an emphasis on asset distribution and income tax planning.
Jon is a thought leader in the financial advisory world and has served on the National Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association. He is currently retirement columnist for the Journal of Financial Planning. He is also a Dean in the FPA Residency program and a teacher to his professional peers throughout the country as they integrate his work into their practices.
Jon is best known for his pioneering research and writings that demonstrated the increases in sustainable withdrawal amounts that come from adding specific, policy-based mid-course adjustment triggers to retirement income strategies. This work first appeared as "Decision Rules and Portfolio Management for Retirees: Is the 'Safe' Initial Withdrawal Rate Too Safe?", published in the October 2004 Journal of Financial Planning and winner of its Call For Papers competition that year. He supplemented this work by co-authoring "Decision Rules and Maximum Initial Withdrawal Rates" with computer scientist William Klinger in its March 2006 issue.
Jon speaks regularly on his work at many national and local conferences as well as to advisors at various national financial services firms, and his comments on these and other topics frequently appear in numerous national consumer and professional publications. In 2007, his peers named him to be a "Mover and Shaker" in Financial Planning magazine.
Jon's professional passion also includes the professional development of emerging financial planners. In 1999, he led the design of FPA's initial career development strategies. He began serving as a Mentor in FPA's residency program in 2003 and was made a program Dean in 2007. In 2009 his firm created the nation's first full-time, multi-year Residency in Financial Planning program that prepares its residents to join established advisory firms in positions normally requiring 5-7 years of experience.
Mentors:
Gregg Clarke, CFP®
Gregg Clarke, founder of Meritas Wealth Management, LLC, has been a financial advisor since 1990. He has a passion for comprehensive financial planning services with an emphasis on goal setting, investments, asset allocation, and retirement planning. Gregg also works with many clients in the area of employee stock option planning. Prior to founding Meritas, Gregg worked as a financial planner for Willow Creek Financial Services. Gregg is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), and has an MBA in Financial Planning from Golden Gate University. Gregg's undergraduate degree is in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.
Gregg is past President of the Financial Planning Association of San Francisco and continues to serve on the Programs Committee. He currently serves on the board of the Community Media Center of Marin and participates as a mentor in the Masters in Financial Planning program at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
Kacy Gott, CFP®, CPA
As the firm's Chief Planning Officer, Kacy is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the firm's client service philosophy, service offering, and client service processes and resources. He serves on the firm's Managing Committee, and is Chair of the Wealth Planning Committee. Kacy became a principal of the firm in 1998.
Active in the industry, Kacy served on the national Board of Directors of the 28,000 member Financial Planning Association (FPA) from 2004 - 2006. He served on several national FPA task forces including his current service on the Diversity Task Force, and was chairman of the 2008 FPA Diversity Summit. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association of San Francisco where he has served as its Chairman, President and the Director of Public Relations.
Kacy serves on the endowment Committee of The Arc of San Francisco, the resource for people with developmental disabilities. He is also a member of the Tech Museum Professional Advisors Council.
He is currently a member of the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board's Council on Education, which advises the CFP Board staff on the development and clarification of all educational policies of the CFP® certification process.
Kacy is an active educator of financial planning students and professionals. He has served as an instructor for the Certificate Program in the Personal Financial Planning Program at the University of California-Berkeley and Golden Gate University. Kacy has also served as a mentor at FPA Residency programs in Lake Arrowhead, DePaul University, and Texas Tech University. He has presented at various regional and national conferences for financial planning practitioners.
Kacy has been a frequent contributor to ABCNews.com and has been quoted by the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Men's Health, Marketwatch.com, Investors.com and SmartMoney.com.
Kacy holds a BS degree in Finance from San Diego State University. He earned his Certified Public Accountant credential in 1990 and his Certified Financial Planner credential in 1996.
Debbie Grose, CFP®
Debbie Grose, CFP® is a partner and Director of Financial Planning at Lighthouse Financial Planning, LLC in Folsom, California. Debbie earned a BS in Accounting from California State University, Sacramento and a certificate in Personal Financial Planning from UC Davis.
Debbie is best known for her quick start in the profession evidenced by both creating an innovative approach to servicing the middle market and as an up and coming leader in the profession. She is president-elect for her local FPA chapter, serves as Career Transition Chair of the Mid-Profession and Career Transition (MPACT) community of interest, is a current member of the FPA national Career Development Committee and the Professional Advisory Council. Her past service includes serving on the FPA national Professional Development Advisors Group. Two of Debbie's proudest accomplishments includes bringing a CFP® board certified undergraduate degree program to Northern California at CSUS and being a founding member of MPACT.
Debbie and her husband enjoy spending time with their two sons and in the great outdoors. A little known fact about Debbie is she is a country music fan and has been known to be an "honorary" sound board assistant during Kenny Chesney live performances.
Carolyn C. Kaufman, CPA, CFP®, LL.D
Carolyn Kaufman has been practicing financial planning for almost 30 years. She is a partner in the firm of Prim Capital Corporation which is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The firm is focused on comprehensive financial planning and provides value added services to help the client in goal achievement. The clients are high-net worth individuals including professional athletes. She has served as a mentor for over 10 years and is currently a Dean in the program. She has also served on task forces for the FPA national conventions. Carolyn is currently an adjunct professor at a University in the Cleveland area. Before becoming interested in planning, she was a tenured university professor and taught in the areas of finance, accounting and taxation. She has served on corporate and non-profit boards of directors and has been a trustee at a college in the area.
Sabrina Lowell, CFP®
Sabrina joined Mosaic Financial Partners in 2002. As an Advisor, Sabrina helps clients develop a framework to make informed decisions during times of transition.
Sabrina is a CFP® certificant, received her BA in business from Principia College, and holds a Certificate in Personal Financial Planning from the UC Berkeley Personal Financial Planning Program. Sabrina has also taken classes through Golden Gate University towards a Master's in Taxation.
Sabrina is actively involved in the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leadership and advocacy organization representing the financial planning community. As a long standing member of the FPA she has twice Chaired the FPA NorCal Conference (2010, 2011), spearheaded session tracks for the FPA National Conference (2007, 2012), served on the national Consumer Advisory Group and the Professional Development Advisory Group task forces, and participated locally on the SF FPA Career Development Committee and SF FPA Speaker's Committee. Sabrina is a past President of NexGen, a national organization supporting young financial planners; and in 2008 chaired its national conference. She has given financial planning presentations pro bono for Earned Asset Resource Network (EARN), has twice served as a Mentor for the "SF FPA Practicum Project" supervising financial planning students to prepare plans for the working poor, and volunteers annually for San Francisco Financial Planning Days designed to unite the collective resources of the financial planning community and city governments assist Americans in need of financial guidance through a series of free Financial Planning Day events. Sabrina routinely speaks on the value of internships as well as the use of financial planning software as a practicing practitioner.
Sabrina has been quoted in Talking Money with Jean Chatzky, The Wall Street Journal's Smart Money Magazine, CNNMoney.com, Dow Jones News Wire, Money Magazine, Financial Planning Magazine, Investment News, AdvisorMax.com, Today's Advisor, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Investment Advisor, and The Journal of Financial Planning.
Outside of work, Sabrina volunteers with various women's philanthropic organizations and serves on the Board of Directors for The Junior League of San Francisco (JLSF) overseeing the Fundraising Council. Sabrina is on the Admissions Committee for the Olympic Club and to relax enjoys travel, SCUBA diving, playing tennis, and golf.
