Contact a Board Member

Wesley Stien,
CFP®, MBA
President

Wesley grew up in the Holston River Valley of Virginia, and it was here that his love of the outdoors took hold. He has lived most of his life in the Mid-Atlantic region and currently resides in Arlington, Virginia, with his amazing wife, Christine, eleven year-old daughter, Sadie, and trusty canine, Rodney.

Wes’ education and professional experience are a collection of two recurrent themes: intellectual challenges and helping people improve their lives. He worked as a case manager at a multi-national law firm where he assisted attorneys with front page litigation while earning his MBA. He also tutored inner-city kids in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. and led troubled teens through intense personal and physical challenges across hundreds of miles of wilderness trails and rivers.

In business school, Wes was drawn to personal finance because it offered both intellectual challenges and the ability to work with people. Following graduation, Wes joined a well-known brokerage firm as a financial advisor. He later worked as a dually registered advisor at an RIA before concluding that his mindset differed fundamentally from commission based advisors and discovering fee-only financial planning.

Wes is a CFP® practitioner who holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from James Madison University, an MBA from George Mason University, and an executive certificate from Georgetown University.

Steve Martin, CFP®, CPA, JD, LLM
Secretary / Treasurer

I am blessed to be a member of ACP as the community has helped me grow my solo practice since 2016 to a multi-member firm. Prior to starting Oasis Wealth in Nashville, I worked as a Wealth Planning Strategist in the Private Banking world, as an estate planning attorney, and as a tax consultant for a Big 4 Accounting Firm.  In addition to having the CFP®, I have my CPA, JD, ad LLM (Taxation).

Regarding ACP activities, I currently serve on the Finance Committee and the Marketing Committee. My prior activities within ACP include serving on the Financial Focus Committee, on an ad-hoc website improvement committee (ok, it’s not great now due to financial constraints, but you should have seen it years ago), and as the initiator of a “mix group” within ACP that focused on marketing practices for our firms.  I have attended all but one of the ACP conferences since joining.

Josh is a partner and lead advisor at Bluestem Financial Advisors in Champaign, IL. He joined Bluestem in 2014 after working for a regional investment brokerage firm, where prior to joining Bluestem, he realized that his passion was in helping people, not selling them products. Josh’s active involvement volunteering for ACP supplements his serving on the boards of other local organizations, including the Eastern Illinois Estate Planning Council, his local Toastmasters group, and the regional board for American Cancer Society.

At home, Josh loves enjoying time with his wife, daughter, and English Bulldog above all else.  Living in the Champaign area, which is home to the University of Illinois, means Josh is surrounded by sports and a culture of always learning. He is also an avid fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Bears and enjoys playing the guitar, golfing, exercising, and trying new craft beers.

Despite being naturally good at finance, I avoided pursuing a career in it for a long time because I did not want to sell my soul. Then, I discovered holistic personal financial planning and haven’t looked back.

I learned about ACP when I got a job with Ken Robinson. The fact that there is a community of planners who are just as committed to treating the field of personal finance as a helping profession solidified my love for the field and for ACP.

Since joining, I have served on the G2 Committee and the Systems Committee. I also have over a dozen years of experience in leadership positions at a variety of organizations.

Nathan graduated with a B.S. in Religion and M.A. in Philosophy. He spent a few years working at the university with prospective students and teaching philosophy and religion before making the decision to transition into financial planning.

After starting out with an advisory firm in Virginia, Nathan joined Accruent Wealth Advisors in early 2017. Nathan is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, IRS Enrolled Agent and NAPFA Registered Financial Advisor.

Nathan and his wife Kayla live in North Carolina with their two children, 14 chickens, and goldendoodle. Outside of the office he enjoys weightlifting, running, reading, drinking excellent coffee, and is passionate about all things Duke basketball.

Having graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a degree in Music, I was very thankful to have been hired by Capital Group in 2001. I spent 18 years with Capital Group, working with the American Funds and CG’s institutional clients, mainly in operational and managerial roles. It’s a fantastic organization, modeling to me what it looks like to put clients and shareholders first.

I left Capital Group in 2019 due to my family deciding to move from Los Angeles, CA to Spokane, WA to be near extended family. I knew I wanted to work more directly with clients in a financial planning capacity, and fairly quickly zeroed in on the idea of starting my own firm as an RIA. I found ACP not long after that, which propelled me into running a sustainable practice. I’ve slowly narrowed my client focus, and now work primarily with employees and retirees of Capital Group. 

I’m now four years into this phase of my journey. My firm still needs to grow and I’m learning more every day. But I can say without hesitation or reservation that I. Love. My. Job. 

What else do I enjoy and value? A few of the big ones are my family (seriously, how am I so fortunate?), foster care, adoption, church, The Salvation Army, music, playing bass guitar, watching baseball, playing fantasy baseball, Disneyland, Hawaii, traveling, and the beach.

In 2015, after over 30 years providing wealth management services to business
owners, individuals, and families through a major bank in Chicago, I left banking
and decided to start my own financial planning practice. Luckily, I found ACP (with a little help from Sheila Padden) – and I was provided the tools, experience, process - and most importantly, the people - that gave me the confidence I needed to start what has become, for me, a very successful solo practice.

In addition to my business, I believe in the importance of being involved in my
community. I currently volunteer as Board member and Finance Committee Chair of a local not-for-profit Continuing Care Retirement facility with two campuses in the Chicagoland area. In addition, I also serve on the Finance Committee of my local parish. In the recent past, I co-chaired a successful fundraising event, which reduced my community’s Art Center’s debt from $4.3 million to $1.0 million and have served as President and Development Committee chair of the local community development group.

I have also been involved in supporting ACP, volunteering as a member of the
System Committee, Training Committee, and the Compensation Committee.

Besides spending time with clients, I make time to play tennis and golf on a weekly basis and enjoy bike rides with my wife, who recently retired from teaching. We have four great adult children who are all successfully launched but for whom I still provide free planning advice and tax prep!