Colette Kolanko, CFP®, CDFA®, CPA/PFS

Colette is a Senior Principal in the Metro Washington DC area, where she incorporates 20+ years of knowledge and experience from the accounting and finance industry. She has a passion for helping people successfully navigate the course of their financial future. Colette’s diverse experience helping corporations, nonprofits, and small businesses succeed led her to start working with individuals beginning in 2005, focusing on their personal financial needs. Her specialties include retirement and transition planning, tax and estate planning, and investment management.

Colette understands that like life, financial planning can become quite complex. Her mission is to help clear away the clutter and allow her clients to focus on their personal financial goals. She enjoys working with people on a variety of financial planning issues and believes in the adage “knowledge is power.” From retirement planning to portfolio construction and management, her philosophy is to educate and inform her clients so they can prepare for life’s ups and downs.

Prior to joining Cerity Partners, Colette served as a Financial Advisor at Lumina Financial Consultants, a firm providing financial planning and wealth management services specifically focused on women and their families. Before Lumina, she spent more than two decades working in a variety of roles, including personal financial planning, accounting, management consulting, and analyst positions.