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Partner
Chicago
Client Advisory
Paul is a Partner in the firm’s Retirement Plan Services Group. He has more than fifteen years of experience in the retirement plan industry and specializes in helping organizations understand how plan design can dramatically improve their employees’ ability to successfully retire and how proper governance can limit personal fiduciary liability. Paul has worked with a variety of public, private, and nonprofit organizations providing them with proven strategies that have resulted in improved outcomes for thousands of retirement plan participants. He is an ardent researcher of behavioral economics and prides himself in using plain language to help plan committees and participants accomplish their goals and objectives.
Prior to joining Cerity Partners, Paul was a Senior ERISA Consultant with Blue Prairie Group where his expertise in vendor negotiations resulted in lower total plan and administrative costs and improved service levels for institutional clients of all sizes.
Q:
What inspired you to pursue your career in financial management? How?
Neither of my parents were in financial services, though my mother was a public school elementary teacher for 40 years. Her love of helping others flowed through to me and I was pretty good with numbers growing up. Now I'm focused on leveraging behavioral psychology to improve the lives of Americans while reducing their daily stress.
Was there a specific incident in your life that made it clear you were made for this career?
Serving as a captain of our football team in college helped teach me effective leadership and communication skills. Observing retirement plan committee meetings while I interned in college further shaped my awareness of committee dynamics and behavioral psychology. To this day, I learn something new about how our brains work and that is why I enjoy this opportunity to serve so many hard working people.
What should your clients know the most about you?
I love karaoke. If we ever get the chance to sing some Prince songs together, let's do it!
What do you do in your personal life that helps you help your clients?
Krisanthy and I have two young boys, 5 and 2 years old, and they keep us quite active. One important skill that we practice every day with our boys is active listening. Affirming their feelings, watching their body language for cues and distilling complex topics down to words they understand are part of my daily life at home and with my valued clients.
What does the world need now more than anything?
A genuine empathy for those who have different lived experiences than our own. Listen first, speak later.
Paul Sommerstad
Retirement Plans
On Friday, December 23, 2022, the house passed the omnibus bill that included dozens of retirement-related provisions and we expect it to be signed by President Biden quickly. The good news for current retirement plan sponsors is many of the provisions will be elective or not impact your retirement plans until 2024 or later. However, […]
Investing
What You Need To Know Cryptocurrency is a topic dominating financial headlines, but what is it and is it worth exploring with your advisor? Here we explain Cerity Partners’ position as it relates to incorporating Cryptos in a qualified retirement plan — specifically a defined contribution (“DC”) plan. What is a Cryptocurrency? A cryptocurrency (“Crypto”) […]
RFPs are critical to confirming the reasonableness of fees paid to retirement plan service providers. Read to learn more about how outsourcing this critical fiduciary duty can help you save time and money.
David Aaron
Partner & Market Leader
Louis P. Abel, CFA, CAIA
Rozeta Abovian, CTFA
Lloyd Abramowitz
Partner & Practice Leader
Larry Adams, CPFA, AIF®
Aimee M. Adler, CFP®
Associate
Samuel Afari-Aikins, CFP®, CKA
Maria Aguirre
Karim Ahamed, CFA
Chris Akamine, CFP®
Mark Andersen
Helen Anderson
Principal
Sean Angelis, CFP®
Karen Angrisano
Lynne Anicete
Gary Arakawa, CFA, CFP®
Christopher Arotin, AIF®, CFP®
Cheryl Athas
Senior Associate
Barbara Attardo, AEP®, CFP®
Richard Azarloza, CFA, CFP®
Shelby Babcock
Chris Bagileo
Ian Bai, CFP®
Samuel Bain, Jr.
Mary Grace Balrup
Julie Banda
Chelle Barberena
Carrie Barlow
Tony Basalla
John Basford
David Beatty, CFP®
Frederic Behrens, CFP®
Laurie Belew, CFP®
Abigail Bell
Joshua Berdet, CFP®
Jonathan Berrios
Yasmin Bichara-Jakovljevic
John F. Blair, CFP®
Jeffrey Blanchard, CFA
Andrew Blumenthal, CFP®
Tim Bodmer
Doug Bonaquist
Hugues Le Bras
Florence Bray
Amanda Brummel, JD
Katie Buchanan
Kevin Buckley, CFP®
Brenda Bujanauskaite
Erica Bunnell, CFP®
Craig Burger, CFA
Matthew Burns
Christopher Burrows
Azaian Cagalingan
Megan Caldarelli
Erica Cameron, CFP®
Matthew Canner
Jeffrey L. Caples, CFA
Jessica Carbajal
Dawn M. Carpenter
Vonny Carrington
Andrea Casas
Brian Casey
Mark Castell, CPA
Ricardo Castro
Onari Tariah, CFP®
Eric Chang, CFA
Cecilia Chen, CFA
Paul Chmielewski
Hannah Reimer Christopher, CFP®
Andrew T. Chudy
Jake Clemens, CFA, CFP®
Justin Coletto
Marie Conner
David P. Corcoran
JD Costello
Meghan Cottrell
Ralph Coutant, CFA, CMT
Jodi Credit
Brendan Cunningham
William T. Curran, CIMA®
Paul D’Elia, CFP®
Darlene Dahl, AEP®, CDFA®, CPA, PFS
Robert Davis, CAIA, CFA
Elizabeth Dawson, CFA, CFP®
Fiona Dean
Brett Dearing
Thomas Decker, CFP®
Elizabeth Delude, CFA
Joel DeMaria, CFP®
Lauren Desforge, AEP®, CDFA®, CFP®, CPA/PFS
Michael Disharoon, CFA
Cheryl Donaldson
Kevin Dorwin
Katrin Doyle
Mimi Drake
Sarah Dudack
Justin DuMouchelle, CFA, CFP®
Pierre duPont
Rebecca Dutka, CFA
Jennifer Ellison, CFA
Megan Endersby
Alex L. Faber, CFA, CFP®
Adrian R. Fadrhonc
Cecilia Fajardo
Jessica Farrell
Kimberly Fields
Kellye Fields
Patrick Fischbach
Michael B. Fischer, CFP®
Andrew Fisher, CFA, CPA
Stacy L. Fisher
Steve Florance, CFA
Victoria Flores-Manrique, CTFA
Jessica Foley
Mariella Foley, CFP®, ADPA®, CDFA®
Justine Fonseca, CFP®
Kent Forkner
Candice Frank
Kathy Freed, CFP®
Richard B. Freeman, CFP®
Shadrack Frempong
Virginia Frisch
Alison J. Gamble
Sam Garcia, CFP®
John Garris
Doug Garrison, CFP®
James P. Gauthier, CFA
Stephanie Gervacio
Justin M. Giacona, CPA
Steven J. Giacona, CPA
Thomas Giddings
David Gifford
Garrett Gillett
Jeffrey Glassman
Richard Golinski, CFA
Caroline Good
Bridget Goodbody, CFP®
Lauren G. Gooding, CTFA
John Goott, AIF®, CFP®
Daniel Goott, CFP®, CIMA®
Judith Gordon
Dajion Grant
Shelia Gray
Cameron Grimm
Alexander Gross, CFP®, AEP®, CPA/PFS
Ashley J. Guerra
JG Guidera
Theresa Guinto
Colby Hackerman, CFA, CPA
Hunter Haley, CFP®, CPA
Shane Hall, CFP®, CAIA
Jill Hardesty
Kayleigh Harris
Rick Harris
Lissa Harris
Susan Hartley-Moss, CTFA
Erica Hartog, CPA
Gregory G. Heard
Matthew Heath, CFP®
Andrew Helfont, CFA
Delia Hernandez
Elizabeth Hicks
Rebecca Hilchey
Ann Marie Hindley
Caren Holzhauer
Lyman Howard, CFA, CFP®
George Hubbard
Partner & Director of Private Direct Investments
Connor Hufer
Bruce A. Hyde, CPA
John Hyman, CIMA®
Partner & Director of Investment Management
James Izard II, CFP®
Jack H. Scaff III
Frederick A. Allner, III
Samuel R. Segundo III
Henry “Sandy” Harris III, CFA
Rhonda Inskeep
Chris Jameson, CRPC®
Alex Jimenez
Kathryn Jodon
Peter A. Johnson
Blake Johnson, CFP®
Anne Johnston, CFP®
Nicole Joko
Thomas (TJ) F. Jones
Thomas S. Jones
André De Jong, FPQP
Wickliffe Lyne, Jr.
David Jumper, CFA
Evan Kaplan, CFP®, CFA
Tom Karsten
Alexey Kassabov, CPA
Carl Kaufman
Mickey Keating, CFP®
Kathryn Kennedy, CFP®, CPA, JD
Hannah Kim
Kate Kittinger, AEP®
Ekaterina Klimentova, CPA, CDFA®
Stephen Klingler, CFP®
Jeffrey Knight
Jessica Kobaly
Allen Kozel, CFP®
Kati Krause
Geoffrey Kuli, CFA
Steve Kurosko, CSRIC®
Kyle Kursim, CFP®
Eunmi Kwon, CPA, CFP®
Patrick Labriola
Jeffrey Lancaster, CFP®
Adam B. Landau, CAIA
Amy Lange, CFA, CFP®
Gerry Larr
Greg Larson, CSRIC®
Kristen LaSasso
Dawn M. Lasek
James Lebenthal, CFA
Partner & Chief Equity Strategist
Christine Lee, CFP®
Rita Lee, CPA, CDFA®, CGMA®, PFS
Cameron Lehrmann, CPA
Yola Lerch
Edward Liberman
Andy Lin
Austin Little, CFP®
Richard Long, CFA
Christina Lum
Phong Luu, CFA
Anne Lyons
Lyle Maasdorp, CFP®
Andy Machenheimer
Jory Makin
Steve Malbasa
Julia Malin
Jacqualyn Malloy
Lindsay Marcus
Jessica Marshall, FPQP
Samuel Martin, AIF®, CRPS®
Peter Martin, CPA
Joseph Matus, CFA
Demi Maya
Ray McCarthy, CPA
Doug McCrea
Paul McGloin
Timothy McNally, CPA, CIMA®
Kelly McNerney, CFP®
Charles McRae, CFP®, CEPA®
Sarah Meiser
Ruby Mendoza
Patricia Mercer
Donna Metrou
Cooper Miller
Eric Minnick
Kristen Mitchel
Olive W. Mitchell, CFP®
Greg Mitseas
Christine Monyak
Sean Moore
Darin A. Morgan, CFA, CFP®
Jonathan Morris
Owen Morrow
Constantine Mulligan, CFA
Melanie Murphy, CPA
Patrick Murray, CFP®, CFA
Elizabeth Musarra, CPA, PFS
Lindsey Nadel
Douglas Nardi, CFA
Matt Nardi
Alan Ness, CFP®, AIF®
Lesa Newell
Steve Nielander, CFA
Eda Niño
Reed Nothwang, CFP®
Jenna O’Brien
JoAnne O’Connell
Emily O’Connor
Resmena O’Meally, CPA
Rebecca Occhiline
Melissa Oduaran
Brooklyn Ogburn
Stephen Oliver, CFP®, CFA
Matt Olver, CFP®, AEP®
Sarah Gregg Orum
Jeffrey Paladini, CFP®
Carlie Palmer
Daniel Parillo
Daniel Park, CFP®
Ty Parrish, CIMA®
Nicholas Pasichuke
Cristina Paul, CFP®
Yelena Pelimskaya, CFA
Natalie Perez
Blake Perkins
Jeffrey J. Peters
Nicholas N. Petrelli, CFP®
Katie Pfeifer, CFP®
Carman Phillips
Walker Phillips, CFP®, CIMA®
Scott R. Phillips
Bettie Pickett
Kinga Pietrzycki
Nina Pilgrim
Chris Pleshek, CPA
Quinn Portfolio, CFP®
Matthew Powell
Jacqueline Price
Hugh Quinn
Steven L. Ramirez, CFP®, CFA
Gerianne Raymundo
Thomas Richardson, CPA
Timothy Ringelstein, CFA
Jeremy Robbins, CFP®, CPA
Rhonda Robinett
Marianne S. Rodriguez, CFP®
Tristan Romo
Anthony Rosetti, CFA, CFP®
Melanie Ross, CFP®
Spencer Roule
Meg Rowley
Veronica Rubio, CFP®
Jeff Rup
Salvatore Russo
Devon Ruttenberg
Sherrell Sabree
Alex Saikali
Sherman S. Salangad
Jorge Salazar, CFP®
Jonathan Salvato, CFP®
Minnie Yao Sanford, CFP®
Steven P. Saunders, CAIA, CFA
Becky Scaletta
Isabel Scharmer, CFA
Leonard Schlangel, CPA, JD
Theodore D. Schneider, CFA
John Schnur
Steve Schoneman, CFA
Aram Schotts, CFP®, CRPS®
Matthew Serkes, CFP®
Marshall Serwitz
Mary Shahian, CFP®, CDFA®, ChFC®, CKA
Deborah Shaug
LeAnn Shea
Timothy Sheridon
Charmaine Sherlock
Andrew Shestek
Bob Shier, JD
William Shier
Samuel Short
Gary Silverman, CFA
Adam Simoncelli
Emily Sims
Marcella Skenderis
Dee Slavutin, ChFC®
Lyric Smith
Marie C. Smith, CFP®
Robert C. Smith
Neal Smith
Meghan Smith
Javier Solis, CFP®
Michelle Soto, CDFA®, CFP®
Robert L. Souza, CFA
William Speciale, AEP®, JD
Judith Spencer
Shelby Stahr, CFP®
Marisa Stancroff
John Stanovich, CFP®
Philip Steele, AIF®
Caraline Stenslik, CFP®
Kyler Stephens
Elizabeth W. Stone
Jennifer Stott
Marisela Suarez
Robert J. Sullivan, CFP®
Alketa Sundquist
Colleen Supran, CFA
Amy Suri
Howard Sussman, CFP®, JD
Bonnie Suveerachaimontian, ChFC®
Scott Swanson, CFA
Brendan P. Sweeney, CFA
Pam Swenson
Michael Syer, CFP®
Claudia Sykora, CPA
Ayisha Tahir, JD
Sue Takano
Emily Taken-Vertz, CFP®
Jacob Talley
Matthew Taylor
Jonathan Taylor, CFA
Natalia Tchetchoulina
Shaadi Tehran
Andres Terronez
Eric Thompson, CFP®
Christian Thwaites
Dan Timotic, CFA
Patrick Tobin, CFP®
Jonatán Toledo
Scott Toomasson, FPQP
Justin Topping, CFA
Eric Towell, CFP®
William Tricarico
Brian Tu
Christopher Turso, CFP®
Brandon Tutak
Tinetta Tutt
Byron Udell, JD, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®
Partner & Head of Risk Management
Amanda Ulczynski
Karina Valles
Myles VanderWeele, CFP®
Christine Vandrey
Juan Vasquez
Tania Vasquez
Cynthia Venturelli, FPQP
Andrew Verdeyen, CFP®
Peter L. Viehl, CFA
Daniel Vignola
Linda Wagner
Steve Walker
Thayer Walker
Todd Walklett, CFA, CFP®
Angella Wallace
Eric Warbrick, CPA
Jason Waters, CFP®
Jennifer Watson, CPA
Aaron Waxman, CFP®, CPA
Gail Weiss
Larry Weissman, CFA
Craig Wells
Kim Wilkinson
EmJay Williams
Katherine Willis, CFA
Matt Wojtowicz, CPA
Susan Wolf
Tracey Wood-Sanford, CPA
Zach Woodward, CFP®, AWMA®
Charles Wright
Jon Yankee, CFP®
Peter Yoon, CFA
Brendan Yospa
Dustan Zavatsky
Felix Zavisubin
Jeff Zych
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