Paul F Schifferer

As a CFP® professional and founder of Illuminate Wealth Management, I work with business owners, executives, and professionals who are navigating complex financial decisions. My goal is to help you understand your options, avoid costly mistakes, and create a strategy that supports the life you're working so hard to build. Over the years, I've developed a particular passion for helping clients make smart decisions around equity compensation. Whether you're dealing with RSUs, ISOs, stock options, ESPPs, or a major liquidity event, I help clients think through the tax implications, manage concentration risk, and create a plan that connects today's decisions with their long-term goals. I also work closely with business owners who are balancing the demands of running a company while trying to make thoughtful decisions about growing and protecting their personal wealth. When your business, taxes, retirement goals, investments, and family finances are all connected, financial planning becomes about much more than investments alone. While equity compensation and business planning are often what bring people to me, my role is much larger than solving a single financial challenge. I help clients think through retirement, taxes, investments, cash flow, and long-term wealth planning so they can make decisions with confidence and stay focused on what matters most. My approach is simple: bring clarity to complexity and help people make confident financial decisions. I believe good planning should help you spend less time worrying about money and more time focusing on what matters most to you.

James Madl is a financial advisor at Hendricks Wealth and Estate Management with a Series 65 designation and four years of industry experience. Hendricks Wealth and Estate Management advises individuals, high-net-worth clients, trusts, pension and profit-sharing plans, and business entities, offering portfolio management, financial planning, and retirement plan consulting. The firm employs a range of analytical approaches and integrates financial planning with tax, insurance, and corporate-structure considerations, providing coordinated legal, tax, and insurance services through affiliated professionals.

David Meehan is a CFA® charterholder with seven years of industry experience. He has been the sole advisor at Maple Street Capital Advisors, LLC since 2018 and previously worked as a self-employed investor for three years. Maple Street Capital Advisors provides investment management and financial planning services to individuals and families, including high-net-worth clients. The firm employs a fundamental, long-term investment approach focused on diversified, low-cost core equity and fixed-income funds, complemented by selected individual equities, with an emphasis on asset allocation, rebalancing, and strategic cash management including a near-constant allocation to gold via ETFs.

Edgardo Navarro is a financial advisor at Navarro Asset Management, LLC with three years of industry experience. He holds a Series 65 designation and has been managing investments at Navarro Asset Management since 2022. Navarro is also the Managing Director of Kocoon Investments, LLC, a family investment entity he has been involved with since 2014. Navarro Asset Management serves individuals, including high net worth clients, as well as trusts and estates, providing discretionary and non-discretionary investment management along with financial planning and consulting. The firm employs a diversified investment approach using mutual funds, ETFs, equities, bonds, options strategies, and private funds, and incorporates fundamental, technical, and charting analysis methods.

Curtis Bergquist is a CFP® with 50 years of industry experience. He is the owner of Ameribanc Corporation, an independent advisory firm based in Hoffman Estates, IL, and has been associated with Ausdal Financial Partners, Inc. since 2009. Ameribanc provides investment advisory and financial planning services to individual and family clients through its Capital Management Service (CMS), which integrates market-timing signals with mutual fund holdings to manage risk and adjust exposure according to market conditions.

Alka Oberoi is a financial advisor with Leading Edge Wealth Management, LLC in Rolling Meadows, IL, holding Series 63 and Series 65 credentials and possessing 33 years of industry experience. She has been with Leading Edge Wealth Management since 2008 and also has experience with Leigh Baldwin & Co., LLC and Copley Alternative Investments Inc. Outside of her advisory role, she is involved in retirement income and comprehensive planning through fixed life insurance products. Leading Edge Wealth Management serves individual and high-net-worth clients and their related trusts and estates, offering both discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management, written financial planning, and educational seminars. The firm applies a client-specific investment approach based on modern portfolio theory, utilizing a range of institutional mutual funds, ETFs, individual securities, and third-party models, and incorporates quantitative methods and third-party research in its analysis and implementation.