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We put you first
because your future is our business

Knowledge, Integrity, and Common Sense

Why Liberty Financial Group, Inc.?



Want a fee-only, fiduciary advisor that listens and truly cares about what is important to you?


Want your assets managed individually, rather than in a boiler-plate model?


Since 1981, we have been putting clients first. As a fee-only planning firm we are paid by our clients only. We sell no products and accept no commissions, referral fees, or outside compensations. Operating under the fiduciary standard we provide pure, financial planning and investment recommendations in the best interest of our clients. We charge for our time, planning advice, and portfolio management only. As a result, our Liberty Financial Group team serves as your personal guide, leading you to achieve your aspirations with integrity, knowledge, and common sense.



Click this Link to Schedule Your Free "Get to Know You" Meeting Today!

Customer Relationship Summary (Form CRS)   

Liberty Financial Group, Inc. BBB Business Review




GET IN TOUCH

WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

CONTACT US



Visit Us

We are located in the Town Bank building on Watertown Plank Rd. on the second floor in suite #203.

There is ample parking in the back of the building, just off of Church Street, and when you enter the building the stairs to the second floor are on your right. Just past the stairs, on the first floor, is an elevator as well.

Customer Relationship Summary (Form CRS)


Hours of Operation

Regular Hours – Labor Day to Memorial Day
Monday - Thursday 8:30 am - 6:00 pm   
Friday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm 


Summer Hours – Memorial Day to Labor Day
Monday - Thursday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm  
Friday 9:00 am - 1:00 pm  


*Additional hours may be available upon request.

Get in touch

13150 Watertown Plank Rd., Elm Grove, WI 53122, Suite #203

(262) 785-1377

Fax    (262) 785-6655

info@lfgwi.com

 Schedule Your Free "Get to Know You" Meeting Today!

Current Clients Schedule a Review Meeting Here

 


HELPING YOU

REACH YOUR FINANCIAL GOALS

Financial Planning SERVICES



Our Services are Designed to Help You Reach Your Goals:

  • Cash-flow expense planning
  • A second opinion on financial investment planning
  • Estate planning
  • Long-range and life-style planning
  • Ongoing asset & investment management
  • Retirement planning strategies
  • Analysis of insurance needs
  • Advice on employee stock options
  • College funding strategies
  • Lump-sum distribution advice

Retirement Planning

For many people, retirement is one of life’s biggest transitions. Some have prepared well, but others are way behind because time goes by and they never seem to get around to it. Whether you are already retired and need to firm up your plan or still working and need to get started, the Liberty team is ready to be your guide to success.

Besides your vision of retirement, planning retirement must take into account many pieces of the puzzle that make up your life.

Among them, we consider:

  • Your age, health & life expectancy
  • Your spending habits (wants vs. needs)
  • Your savings/investment accumulation
  • Your family & estate plan
  • Your bucket list

Our goal at Liberty is to work with you to figure out how to help you achieve the retirement you envision, so the rest of your life is fulfilling and as worry free as it can be.

We'll help you decide things like:

  • Are you counting the days to retirement or will they have to throw you out?
  • What do you expect from retirement? Is it like your parents? What is your vision?
  • Do you have any hobbies or outside interests? What are you retiring to?
  • Do you plan to retire “cold turkey,” or phase into retirement?
  • Do you worry about if you have enough money to last as long as you do?
  • Do you know the best age at which you should take Social Security?
  • Do you know when to tap the various resources you have accumulated, e.g. IRAs, annuities, etc.
  • What are you most looking forward to?
  • What are you most concerned about?

Click this link to schedule your free "Get to Know You" meeting. to see if we are a good fit to help you achieve the retirement you hope for whether it has already started or is in the future.

Watch the video below for some information on investing for retirement.


Financial Life Planning

Financial planning is more than managing your money; it’s also managing your life. It’s about the “how” and “when” of achieving your dreams and goals. Going beyond investment advice and portfolio management, we strive to understand what is truly important to you and then build a financial plan around that.

We fuse life + financial planning together to create the most effective plan. Together we:

  • Identify your priorities
  • Take a look at your income & assets, investments, expenses & debts
  • Prepare for life’s roadblocks, transitions and determine your financial risk
  • Develop your plan & outline steps and timeframes
  • Crystallize choices
  • Update your plan regularly to adjust to your changing needs and goals

There is no “one size fits all” roadmap to success. Everyone’s plan is unique. You need a plan that is just for you, designed with your uniqueness in mind. And you need someone in your corner who knows you to help you stay on track.

Everyone has dreams and goals and often it takes baby steps to eventually accomplish big things. Knowing what steps to take and when to take them is often the problem when it comes to properly managing your finances. By focusing on the life you really desire and guiding your saving and spending toward those goals, we can help you address your concerns in a more productive way.

Every choice you make affects your finances. Where you live, if and who you marry or don’t, your career choice, how many children or pets you have, how you spend or save, what you invest in…all have an impact both short and long term on your life plan. Let us help you prepare for and make those decisions with confidence.

  • When an obstacle or a roadblock comes along, are you prepared? That’s where flexibility and thinking through optional ways to deal with it comes in. They are all part of the plan we work together.


  • What about life’s inevitable transitions? The journey from one stage of life to another is something we all experience, childhood to adult, career to retirement, full house to empty nest. Losses are the toughest: loss of a loved one, loss of health, loss of independence. Yet many transitions are joyful: birth of a child, a promotion.

Financial Life Planning puts you in charge of your future. Let’s work together on getting where you want to be!

Investment management

Would you rather do something else with your time than manage your investments?

We are investors not traders. We manage investments in a diversified manner with a total portfolio approach, incorporating all your assets, including real estate, business, employer plans and personal assets, like slices in a pie.

Our clients are looking for balance; someone to step into their shoes and invest the way they would if they had the time, the interest and the knowledge. It is our goal to help you understand, feel secure, confident, and capable every step of our path together.

We take into account where you are, where you want to be and how fast you want/need to get there.

First we determine your needs and objectives:

  • Do you need income now or later?
  • What are your specific investment goals?
  • What is your investment history and/or experience?
  • How well do you tolerate volatility or instability?
  • Are there to be any restrictions?

Next we design a strategy to establish the slices of your “pie:”

  • We set the direction you wish to take your manageable assets
  • Balance your illiquid assets with manageable assets in a diversified manner

Implementation:

Together we update your plan regularly to adjust to your changing needs and goals. On a monthly basis we track the current estimate of our holdings. We have a system that enables us to more consistently “buy low and sell high” and helps to override natural human emotion.

Knowledge for your journey

What are manageable assets? Cash, stocks, bonds and other investments.
What are liquid assets? Assets that are hard to convert into cash or are lacking cash. e.g. Real Estate, Business, etc.
What are investment restrictions? Things you would never buy or sell.

A Diversified Approach with a Value Tilt:

Using our value oriented approach, we diversify by the three categories, stock, bond, and cash, as well as, by asset class and/or sector. We further diversify by active and passive type and equity style of growth and value. This diversification is done to reduce investment correlation.

We then measure this approach against a composite benchmark similar to your projected risk level. The broad approach utilizes a core and satellite structure and emphasizes liquid investments.

Downside Protection:

As the markets have become more volatile, we will use vehicles that protect us for this exposure primarily using mutual funds and ETFs. To balance that volatility, we use vehicles that utilize long-short, merger arbitrage, managed futures, commodity, currency, and tactical asset allocation strategies.

These are predominately satellite positions designed to cushion the portfolio in highly correlated down markets. Since we believe no one can accurately time the markets, we will stay as fully invested as possible based on the availability of reasonably priced securities.



Tax planning 

Taxes can’t be avoided, but planning helps to lessen the tax bite wherever possible so you keep more of your income and investment earnings. Coordinating tax planning with investment management and tax preparation provides the opportunity to make decisions about savings plans, investment allocation, holding periods, fringe benefits and more.

At Liberty Financial Group, tax planning is a major part of life planning and is not put off to the side. We look at taxes as a piece in your “life plan” puzzle. Each piece affects all the other pieces, your investments, cash flow, insurance planning, estate planning, college planning, etc. But we don’t let the tax tail wag the dog either!

Our team has decades of experience and analyzes all aspects of your situation and works with you to use the tax code to your advantage. Tax laws and their interpretation change regularly, so we keep up to date on the changes and their effect on you now and in the future.

Tax preparation: This service is offered, but not required, and allows us first hand to closely understand your complete return. We also work closely with your own preparer, if you so choose and use those returns to enhance our planning for you.

As you can see, we can handle all aspects of your finances at Liberty Financial Group and give you the best opportunity to be prepared for the now and tomorrow.


M E E T

LIBERTY FINANCIAL GROUP

WHO WE ARE


Click below to meet the team of LFG, that's working with you.

Shannon Nook, FPQP®  Photo Shannon Nook, FPQP®  Hover Photo

Shannon Nook, FPQP®

President/CEO
Read Bio
Shannon Nook, RP®

Shannon Nook, FPQP®

President/CEO


Shannon took her fascination for math and science, and began working at LFG in 1995. She quickly climbed up the LFG ladder, realizing that financial planning isn’t just numbers. Financial planning has numbers, but also needs the scientific tools to produce theories for recommendations and acquire the interpersonal skills to relay this information.

She received her certification as a Financial Planning Qualified Professional™ from the College for Financial Planning in 2007, graduated with B.S. in Financial Services in May 2014. Shannon is an active board member in the Financial Planning Association of Wisconsin.

She loves to travel with her family, and hopes to one day get her husband on board towards a tiny house community lifestyle. Taking the time to reduce the everyday stress, liability and becoming a future care free retiree (also her goals for her clients!).

David Wargin Photo David Wargin Hover Photo

David Wargin

Advisor
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David Wargin

David Wargin

Advisor


Growing up, David was in a unique position as his father was a financial planner. He learned from early on the value of money and hard work. His father even had him work for him at the young age of 10! However, David swore he was going to take his own path, and became a chef after originally going to college for teaching. 

David could just not shake the strong financial skills and values instilled in him. He was moved by the lack of financial education in the world and decided to use his skills to help the world around him. David started at Liberty in 2008 and as you may have guessed, was quickly thrown into the fire. He excelled! He may not have originally wanted to go down this path, however he now believes this is the path intended for him.   

_____________________________________________________________________

David Wargin regularly meets with clients for financial planning needs and collaborates on investment portfolio allocations and trading. David also facilitates money transfer requests and periodic money distributions as well as performs social security and portfolio survivability analysis.

David is an avid reader and possesses a passion for history. He loves sports, both playing and watching, of all kinds and also enjoys cooking for friends and family. He lives with a calico cat named Olivewho as he says “chose him” after showing up on his doorstep.



Renee Kietzmann Photo Renee Kietzmann Hover Photo

Renee Kietzmann

Client Service Manager
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Renee Kietzmann

CLIENT SERVICE MANAGER


Renee joined the Liberty team in 2017 bringing over 20 years of experience in business operations and office management.  As the Client Service Manager, she is involved with making sure our client service coordination is in top performance along with accounting maintenance and payroll systems. Renee works hard to ensure Liberty is the best it can be for our clients! 

As a Liberty client herself, we recruited Renee to our staff as we knew she’d be the perfect fit.  Renee enjoys learning about the financial planning process and contributing in wherever she can. She utilizes her perspective as both a client and team member to create the best client experience possible. 

Renee graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran College with a Bachelor’s of Arts, Psychology degree. She currently lives in Milwaukee and enjoys spending time with family and friends. You can find Renee cheering on our local sports teams, volunteering for her church and participating in college alumni events. Renee was a three-sport athlete in college and even won a women’s slam dunk contest in college. We think she is just as skilled on and off the court. 


Jaydon Wargin Photo Jaydon Wargin Hover Photo

Jaydon Wargin

Client Service Specialist
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Jaydon Wargin

Client Service Specialist


Jaydon joined our team in January of 2018 to fill our intern position. His many daily duties include answering incoming calls, scheduling client meetings, following up and confirming client accounts and transfers, and scanning and coding documents. Along with these duties, he assists with mailing quarterlies, as well as scanning and entering tax documents during tax season.

Jaydon was born and raised in Milwaukee, and is an avid Bucks fan. He attended UW-Stout for Plastics and Materials Engineering, as well as UW-Milwaukee for Electrical Engineering and Chemistry. He enjoys learning about investment management as well as playing sports of all kinds, with a particular interest in golf and basketball.

Granthem Beck Photo Granthem Beck Hover Photo

Granthem Beck

Research Analyst/Support Advisor
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Granthem Beck

RESEARCH ANALYST/SUPPORT ADVISOR


Grant joined the Liberty team in 2023 and brings a background focused on financial planning with plans to focus on the portfolio management side of the process.

Grant began working at a wealth management firm in 2016 and knew that it was the career path for him. He graduated with dual B.A.s in Economics and Political Science, moved to the East Coast for a year, realized he belonged in the Midwest, and came back. We are glad he did!  Outside of work, Grant enjoys a variety of outdoor activities but can usually be found on the golf course (best score 68). When he isn’t golfing, he enjoys travelling and hiking with his wife Amanda, who works at Versiti Organ Procurement.


          



YOUR PERSONAL FINANCIAL GUIDE

LEADING YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR GREATEST FINANCIAL GOALS

Our VISION & MISSION


Our goal is to help you feel safe, confident, and capable every step of our journey together. To accomplish this we’ve developed two main working relationships. An ongoing advisory agreement, entitled to ongoing financial reviews, quarterly summary reports, & specifications below. The second relationship is on a retainer basis, entitled to pre-paid financial planning reviews and the services below.  

Your Financial Goals and Objectives May Include:

  • Creating and preserving personal wealth
  • Protection against inflation
  • Maximizing wealth transfer
  • Reducing tax burdens
  • Increasing your peace of mind
  • Securing retirement income
  • Minimizing the risk of financial catastrophe
  • Providing for a child’s education
  • Establishing charitable legacies

Fee-only, fiduciary advice

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