I reached out to McKinley to explore some financial possibilities. Mark took me on as a prospect…read moreand was fantastic. He was incredibly friendly, obliging, and easy-going. He fielded no shortage of questions and consistently gave thoughtful and helpful answers. The level of service he provided was head and shoulders above other financial professionals I spoke with. If you're going to have someone manage your money, Mark is a great choice--trustworthy, transparent, and thoughtful. I recommend him unconditionally.

After losing a large portion of our savings in the market crash, we wanted to find more stable…read moreinvestments to improve our financial security. Troy has been excellent in providing comprehensive investment advice, including identifying investments with significant upside, but with very limited risk of loss. In the first six months, we earned 30% across all investments. We now have investments that will provide tax-free annuity payments when we retire, as well as investments earning above-market rates that are liquid and can be used without penalty in the event of an emergency. Troy and the McKinley Financial Group have restored my family's confidence in our financial future.

Christopher is my financial advisor and has helped guide me through the process and my portfolio…read morehas received noticeable gains in the 1 year I have worked with him. I highly recommend him.

Love working with Chris. At first I was very skeptical to use a financial advisor but he has really…read moreopened me up to a world I wouldn't have known about without a professional. His knowledge of permanent life insurance helped me save so much compared to what I was previously using as my retirement plan. Definitely recommend!

This review is for Ken Sparling at Stifel. I have had the opportunity to work with Ken on multiple…read moreoccasions on various personal and business financial dealings. I find him to be brutally honest, knowledgable and a very refreshing change from most financial advisors. He is adept at explaining complex financial terms and concepts in a way that makes them easy to understand for the layperson. I have referred clients to Ken and they all have said the same thing. If you want an honest assessment of your financial situation or would just like to get all your ducks in a row or grow your nest egg, I would give him a call.

I have been working with Ken Sparling for over 5 years as my financial advisor. He has always been…read moreprompt, trustworthy, and knowledgeable with my investments and with the financial counseling we have sought. We have been even happier using his services during this very difficult financial downturn in our country, as he has guided us through this time and we have come out stronger because of it. I would recommend him without reservation.

You will always have a great experience with the financial services from this financial…read moreestablishment. (SHIELD FINANCIAL) Randy, always acts in the best interest concerning our financial needs. My wife and I have been fortunate to have found Randy about ten years ago. He always communicates with my wife and I clearly and often, always in an easy and friendly manner. Randy is very trustworthy and professional. Randy and his professional staff always answers our emails and questions in a timey manner. His advice on our financial needs are a great help. Randy does have one main concern, If we ever run into a financial situation we should always check with him to make sure we are making the right decision. Randy is not only a true professional he has also became a good friend.

First, I only gain gratification of sharing my experience with others that are looking for a…read moretrusted Fiduciary Advisor. Bottom line, would I go with Shield Financial and Insurance Services again? Definitely! In March 2022 we attended a Shield Financial and Insurance Services Financial Survival Workshop presented by Randy. Every topic on the invitation was presented in an educational way versus a sales pitch like many of the other invitations we attended. No specific investment and/or insurance products were solicited. We were not pressured to make any decision that day. Instead, Randy informed the attendees that they can call him to attend the six 1-hour individual sessions with him to go over further into what he presented today and handed out a card for attendees to select what financial information they would like to discuss with no obligations. We attended the four 1 1/2-hours individual sessions that were presented educationally and informatively, and each session Randy concluded by asking if we were interested in meeting for the next session with. Each session has a purpose: 1. Inventory - Review your situation to determine if Shield Financial and Insurance Services can help you, if so, give you a high-level picture of the direction Randy recommends, and to see if you like that direction. If you want Randy's help, he'll schedule the next 3 meetings. 2. Education - Make sure you understand the mechanics, the rules, the good, the bad, and the ugly of what is being discussed so you can make an informed decision. 3. Creating the plan - Once the plan is to your liking, you'll take the plan home with you so you can let the plan marinade. 4. Adjust the plan - See if you have any changes you'd like to make to the plan. Once you like the plan, then we're ready to implement the plan. In none of the sessions Randy made no sales pitch to come on board, nor did we feel any sales pressure. The sessions were held as he described they "would be educational and informative". Upon the conclusion of the fourth session Randy informed us we did not need to decide that day to become clients, but instead for us to call him. We took several days to discuss our decision with ourselves and did some research on information presented in the sessions. During this time, Randy held true to his words "to call him" and did not desperately call us with a sales pitch like we received from several past presentations. We scheduled a meeting with Randy to review our financial portfolios since Randy was consistent in being a fiduciary vs a financial advisor. What we really liked about the review: 1. Randy never recommended selling one of our existing investments for an investment he offered. So many others went right to "balancing" my portfolio. 2. Randy presented investment options based on the information that we provided him and again with no need to decide right there and then. 3. Randy directly answered our questions and instead of a reply that did not answer the question. 4. Randy informed us that depending on the meeting we have the option of a phone call, video/zoom call, or meeting in person. We decided to "balance" our portfolios and go with Randy as our fiduciary. In July 2024 we received an e-mail from Shield Financial and Insurance Services regarding an investment opportunity before the Federal Reserve announced interest rates became effective. The e-mail included a video of Randy presenting an overview of the investment opportunity. If interested, there was a link to watch the second video that provided detailed information to make an informed decision. We thought this was a great effective and efficient approach in informing all Shield Financial and Insurance Services clients instead of the time-consuming effort of calling each client and repeating the same information. And with this approach all clients were presented with the same information. We decided to invest in this very limited time opportunity due to when the Federal Reserve announced cutting the interest rates. We were very happy and thankful for the effort the Shield Financial and Insurance Services team made in working long days to process our paperwork with the paperwork for those interested clients to be invested in this opportunity. We are happy with our decision to go with the Shield Financial and Insurance Services team because they are professional, friendly, and return calls in a timely manner. If you receive an invitation to attend a Shield Financial and Insurance Services Financial Survival Workshop do not hesitate to accept because they do fill up quickly. The time is well spent. In fact, why wait call Shield Financial and Insurance Services today.

My wife and I have worked with John Findley for more than 20 years, initially as her employer's…read moreinvestment/retirement advisor. Two years ago we asked if we could get more in-depth advice for our other investments and financial planning in general through his company Modern Wealth Partners. We have been working primarily with Jack Farnstrom in this capacity, along with John (and his two sons who are learning the ropes in financial planning). Jack has been great! He thoroughly understands the many aspects of financial planning and can walk us through any of the more complicated areas. We look forward to continuing our relationship with them for the long term.

Great working with Christian Ortez to set up my 401K rollover. This was the first time I had to…read moreopen an IRA and rollover a 401K after switching companies. He was very patient and asked lots of questions as to what I was looking for with my money. He also gave advice which related to my goals. I do not know a lot about this kind of thing, so it was nice that he was able to explain so I would be comfortable. I would definitely recommend him for financial planning advice and making advestments!

Christian has been extremely helpful and informative when picking investments. He listens to my…read moreneeds and advises the right type of assets.

I had the opportunity to meet with Chuck D. Gibson and Melanie A. Pelayo with Financial…read morePerspectives. I have to say that I felt very comfortable with both of them right away. I did not feel rushed and they were looking out for my best interest. They asked a lot of questions to get a feel for who I was and what my outlook was on my financial future. They provided great information about my needs on investing and what it would take for me to retire. They continue to service my needs and keep me up to date on my portfolio and give me well thought out investment strategies that I have a say in. They are an independent fee only firm and they do not sell you products like some other financial planning service companies. What I like best is that they make money when I make money. So when you think about it the more money I have to pay them the more money they are making me. Another reason why I like Chuck and Melanie is that I am busy running two businesses. One for profit and the other because of satisfaction. I don't have time to do the financial research nor am I an expert so I rely on them to be my eyes and ears. I leverage my time and delegate the financial stuff to the experts. They provide a great service and help you invest on your own terms. If you want a little or a lot of direction you can have it your way. At Financial Perspectives they believe that outstanding financial planning is the Eighth Wonder of the World. I highly recommend their services you can't go wrong. Tell them Gary W. sent you.

I've had the pleasure of working with Chuck at Financial Perspectives in two capacities. First, he…read morehas been managing my mother's retirement money since around 2009 or so. Second, I've been using his services to learn more about managing my own money. I'm not the kind of person who writes yelp reviews much, but Chuck has been awesome, so here's my experience. . . I'm very involved in my mom's financial situation so I've been interacting with Chuck quite a bit from the beginning. I felt better that my mom having someone professional to manage her money instead of me doing it for her. It gave us both peace of mind, but I secretly felt that I could do just as good as Chuck using a simple balanced portfolio of index funds with low expense ratios, buy-and-hold, then rebalance. So after a few years I compared what how my mom's portfolio did under Chuck's management with performance given what I would have done if I were managing it. I was certain that I would have outperformed since I did not include any fees for my "service." All along, I assumed my mom has been taking a small financial hit in order to get peace of mind of having a pro manage her money. Chuck is super nice, and genuine and my mom likes him, so that was all fine. Well, I was simultaneously disappointed and pleased to find that Chuck's plan did better than mine even including his fees. That bastard! Even though he "passed" my test, that was a fairly silly, and even unfair, test to put him through. Chuck doesn't claim to predict the market to outperform it. His overall philosophy, as I understand it, is to allow your money to grow with the market, but to limit loss as much as possible from major downturns in the economy. He's seen what's happened, for example, with the housing crisis where people lost half of their retirement money, and he made it his mission to prevent that for himself and his clients. My mother and I are very appreciative of that philosophy. I've been quite interested in investing and planning for retirement for many years now. I've read several books and quite bit online, and am part of a finance lunch group at work. I've made several large spreadsheets that help me re-balance my portfolio across asset classes, sectors, etc, while minimizing my expense ratios. I've written code to automatically download financial data online for my spreadsheets. Yes, I'm a math and computer nerd, and finances became somewhat of a hobby for me. I thought I had it all figured out. Recently, I've been talking with Chuck a lot about my investment strategies as part of his services and I'm ashamed to say he has opened my eyes quite a bit. I'm now convinced that this strategy of limiting major losses is both possible and clearly better than my previous strategy of buy-and-hold + rebalance. To paraphrase, portfolios that lose the least are the ones that perform the best. Plus there's less of an emotional roller coaster along the way. It's not some crazy plan that someone cooked up, it's a well studied strategy that he's implemented in way that can be customized to someone's risk preferences. He is super passionate about it, super knowledgeable, and he takes time to explain it well. I'm continuing to work with him to learn how to do it on my own. Since, he's been great managing my mom's money, I'd would let him manage mine, but that would take away one of my few pleasures in life. So for now, I'm using his services to learn how to do it.

Janet and her team at Sierra Pacific Financial Advisors have been our trusted financial advisors…read morefor over 4 years now. We really appreciate having them in our corner.   Financial planning: our journey started with a few thorough and honest financial planning sessions with Glenn. He helped us put everything in perspective based on our financial goals and outlined a range of options forward for us.  Investments: Janet then turned our financial goals into investment advice. She's approachable, patient, and experienced. We definitely threw a few curve balls her way but she's able to handle everything while instilling trust in us and collaboration with us. She sets up regular meetings with us to review our investment status so we are always on the same page. When the market started to turn, she proactively reached out to review our options. Janet is also quick at answering our one-off questions over email.    Customer service: we felt appreciated by the Sierra Pacific team. During the pandemic, we were able to meet with Janet over Zoom, but when needed, we were also able to meet her in person to sign some papers with social distancing protocols in place. They also hosted a few virtual customer events to add some holiday cheer to our lives.  We are very happy that we found Janet and her team at Sierra Pacific Financial Advisors. We are going through a turbulent time right now and it is good to know that someone we trust is thinking about our financial well-being and strategizing to help us build our future.

We recently started working with SPFA on managing our investment portfolio after an initial…read morefinancial planning session. The team, lead by Janet, is professional and takes time to understand your needs and investment philosophy. The planning was thorough and included multiple scenarios, which were well thought through. Janet's team is prompt and thorough in its work and I'm expecting my portfolio to do well and thrive in the years to come under her stewardship.