Benjamin Stern

Jeffrey Laughlin is a CFP® with 17 years of industry experience and has been with Fidelis Financial Planning, LLC since 2011. He holds a Series 65 license and is based in Saint Charles, MO. Outside of his advisory role, he is the owner and managing member of a non-investment related real estate entity. Fidelis Financial Planning serves middle-income and high-net-worth individuals, as well as various institutional clients, offering integrated financial planning and discretionary portfolio management. The firm employs a structured investment approach grounded in academic research, focusing on broadly diversified, low-cost funds and ETFs.

Bruce Krieg is a financial advisor at Midwest Investment Advisors, LLC in Fenton, Missouri, holding a Series 65 designation with 15 years of industry experience. He has been with Midwest Investment Advisors since 2010 and also has a long-standing association with Kriegl Lohbeck & Co dating back to 1992. Midwest Investment Advisors serves individual, high-net-worth, institutional, and business clients, providing discretionary portfolio management and financial planning. The firm employs multiple analysis methods and manages all portfolios in-house, overseeing a notably high client load for a solo advisor and maintaining an affiliation with an accounting firm to offer complementary services.

Michael Mills is the sole advisor at Mills Barrington Advisors, LLC, an independent firm based in Chesterfield, MO. He holds Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and has 24 years of industry experience. Mills has led his firm since its founding in 2013, following prior experience at major brokerage firms. Mills Barrington Advisors provides discretionary portfolio management and investment advisory services to individuals, trusts, and businesses. The firm emphasizes global diversification and uses a combination of quantitative analysis with fundamental and technical inputs, employing a range of strategies including margin, options, and short sales alongside longer-term holdings.

Richard Murray is a financial advisor with Midwest Advisors LLC in Saint Louis, MO, holding a Series 65 credential and 10 years of industry experience. He has worked at Midwest Advisors LLC since 2012, including a period from 2017 to 2019 at Sorin Capital Management. Midwest Advisors LLC is a small, independent firm managing approximately $39.1 million on a discretionary basis for a select client base. The firm specializes in investment management focused on U.S. real estate industry securities, employing both long-short and long-only strategies with options used for hedging, and follows a fundamental, value-biased investment approach supported by frequent industry engagement and detailed research.

Jeffrey Mcgovern is a Series 65-licensed financial advisor with 13 years of industry experience. He is currently the sole advisor at Haven Wealth Planning, where he has worked since 2022. Prior to that, he spent six years at Buckingham Strategic Wealth, LLC. Haven Wealth Planning provides discretionary investment management and financial planning services primarily for individual and high-net-worth clients. The firm employs an evidence-based, passive investment approach grounded in Modern Portfolio Theory and the Fama–French framework, often utilizing index mutual funds and ETFs, and integrates financial planning with investment advice.

Describe the education and business background of the adviser’s principal executive officer: Carl Dwayne Goodin was born March 7, 1951, in Springfield, Missouri. He grew up in and around St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Lafayette High School in St. Louis County, MO, graduating with honors. He was conferred a BM in Education from the University of Missouri at St. Louis in May of 1973. He has completed coursework toward an MA in Finance and Economics from Webster University, St. Louis, MO. His grade point average in graduate studies is 4.0. He completed the CFP professional education program (College for Financial Planning, Denver, CO) in 1989. He continues to study, analyze, and research all matters related to personal financial planning, investments, insurance, estate planning, accounting, and taxation, generally devoting from 5 to 20 hours per week to independent study and advanced seminars. Carl D Goodin, CFP™: Having completed the education, examination, experience and ethics requirements he was awarded the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER designation in March 1989. The Financial Planning Association: Carl Goodin has been a member in good standing of the Financial Planning Association since 1985. For many years he served on the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association of Greater St. Louis, serving as Director of Professional Development, Director of Public Relations, President Elect, and President. Financial services career and education: Carl Goodin began his career in finance and insurance in 1979 as an aircraft insurance (property and liability) underwriter. In 1981 he chose to continue serving the aviation community, but in a different capacity, primarily as a life and health insurance producer associated with the company now called Lincoln Financial Group. During this period his clientele expanded from those associated with aviation to include small business owners and other professionals. Also, during this period, he became interested in providing personal financial planning services not focused on life insurance sales. In 1986 he accepted an offer to be the regional manager of the UNUM non-cancelable disability income office in St. Louis, only to return to Lincoln Financial as regional manager in 1988. During this period, he successfully completed the examination requirements for the Missouri Uniform Securities license (Series 63), the Investment Company/Variable Products license (Series 6), the General Securities Representative (stock/bond broker's license, Series 7), the General Securities Principal license (stock/bond broker's supervisor, Series 24) and the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER. Financial Planning Associates, Inc., A Registered Investment Adviser: Believing that he could offer better, more objective advice for his clients in a more independent setting, he left Lincoln Financial and incorporated Financial Planning Associates, Inc. in 1998. Carl D Goodin, Professor, College for Financial Planning: From March 1999 until July 2005 Carl served as an adjunct faculty member of the College for Financial Planning, teaching all of the required classes for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER candidates. Those classes included: Financial Planning, Insurance, Retirement Planning, Employee Benefits, Tax Planning, Investment Planning, and Estate Planning. Carl D Goodin, Professor, University of Missouri at St. Louis: In July 2005, Carl resigned his teaching activities at the College for Financial Planning and assumed a similar teaching position as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, where he continued until 2015. Fee Only financial planning and investment management: In 2009 Carl Goodin voluntarily relinquished his securities and insurance licenses and terminated all associated residual benefits in the interest of offering his clients valuable, objective advice unaffected by conflicts of interest associated with commission compensation.