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Peter Babilla brings 40 years of experience in investment management and fiduciary* financial consulting to Vertex Planning Partners, LLC.
Pete graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana with a Bachelor’s of Science in Finance.
He began his career in 1983 with a focus on institutional fixed-income portfolio management, primarily working with community banks. After a decade serving institutional clients, Pete shifted his focus to working with individuals, families and business owners, providing guidance and education in all areas of Wealth Management. Among his areas of focus are accumulation and retirement planning, investment management, risk management, and estate and wealth transfer.
Pete’s planning philosophy allows him to create a personalized program for clients, based on their own unique goals and circumstances. The extensive investment and planning platform offered by Vertex enables him to create a highly customized program, tailored to each individual client.
Pete and his wife Suzanne have two children, and have resided in Wheaton, Illinois for the past 30 years. He enjoys golf, reading, and traveling with his family. Pete gives back as a past Board Member of the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago, where his focus is on improving the lives of those living with epilepsy.
Pete works as fiduciary for his clients and holds the CERTIFIED FIANANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) designation and the Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS®) designation.
Justin D’Agostino joined Vertex Partners in 2019 and serves a select group of business owners and affluent families. He specializes in investments, financial planning, and succession planning. His interest and knowledge in providing comprehensive financial planning and wealth management services to clients was sparked when he worked at a boutique tax and wealth management firm in Michigan. He has nine years of experience in the financial services industry, and his mission is to provide every client with targeted, comprehensive financial advice and to help them implement customized strategies designed to move them closer to accomplishing their unique goals.
Justin attended Hillsdale College where he earned his BA in Accounting and Financial Management and was a member and captain of the football team. Justin is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional, holds the Chartered Financial Consultant®, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor™, and Accredited Investment Fiduciary™ designations.
Justin and his wife, Alexandra, reside in Chicago, Illinois. He is an avid sports fan and enjoys golfing, playing soccer and spending summer weekends with his family.
Scott Sandee brings over 20 years of experience as Managing Partner. He is responsible for leading the firm’s efforts in assisting middle-market business owners and seven and eight-figure families to plan and realize financial goals based on their unique aspirations and situations.
With a privately held family business background, Scott has helped owners prepare for and execute a successful transition. In addition, he works with business owners and their advisors to develop financial strategies to maximize sales proceeds and minimize future taxes.
Before joining Vertex, Scott served in financial planning and investment strategy roles at Oxford Financial Group, Capital Group, and The Northern Trust Company, working with Chicago’s HNW/UHNW families clients.
Scott holds the Certified Financial Planner®, Certified Private Wealth Advisor®, Certified Investment Management Analyst®, and Certified Exit Planning Advisor designations. Scott earned his B.S. in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University, and his family resides in Wilmette, IL.
Julie Hupp, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, has worked in the accounting and corporate finance field since 1987. She began her career as a CPA with Deloitte & Touche, specializing in the financial needs of small businesses. Then spent the next 13 years in corporate financial planning and business development at Baxter and TAP Pharmaceuticals. Recognizing her passion for personal financial planning, Julie started her business in 2006 where she focuses on comprehensive financial planning strategies and implementation.
Julie graduated from University of Illinois with a BS in Accountancy. She received her Master’s in Management with a concentration in Finance from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 1994.
Outside the office, Julie is the co-founder of the 12 Oaks Foundation, which has merged with Cal’s Angels, and is a former Board member. Julie enjoys cooking, reading, running, triathlons and doing almost anything outdoors. A great weekend is spending time with her husband and two adult kids boating at their lake house in Wisconsin.
Steven P. Franzen, CPA, PFS, CGMA is a public accountant and consultant with more than 23 years of experience helping individuals and businesses reduce their tax liability. He began his career under the guidance of Patrick M. De Sio, CPA, CGMA and in 1996 became Mr. De Sio’s partner in De Sio, Franzen & Associates, Ltd. Steve’s expertise include entity design, complex tax strategies and multigenerational wealth transfer. As Managing Partner, Steve conducts his practice under the philosophy that the client’s investment in their CPA should yield a return on that investment – most of the time that return is realized when working with clients on planning for their future. In an effort to increase the planning capabilities of the firm, Steve formed Vertex Accounting Partners, LLC to ensure their guiding philosophy will continue well into the future.
Steve is a certified public accountant and has earned the professional designations of Personal Financial Specialist and Chartered Global Management Accountant. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Illinois CPA Society. Steve earned a B.S. degree in accounting from Millikin University. He and his wife Kristie live in Sugar Grove, IL with their three children.
Gregory P. Benner, CPWA®, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, AIF®, RMA® has over twenty-two years of experience as a financial advisor. Greg’s practice is based on developing holistic financial plans that help his clients integrate sophisticated retirement, tax, risk management and estate planning strategies into an actionable plan, then stay the course as their behavioral coach.
Prior to founding Vertex Planning Partners, LLC, Greg spent four years as a founding partner of a Registered Investment Advisory firm affiliated with LPL Financial. He also spent seven years with JPMorgan Chase as a Senior Financial Advisor and was a Financial Representative with Northwestern Mutual Life.
Greg holds the Certified Private Wealth Advisor® designation and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Certificant. He also holds the Chartered Financial Consultant®, Chartered Life Underwriter®, Accredited Investment Fiduciary™, and Retirement Management AdvisorSM designations. He earned a B.S. in Finance from Miami University.
He and his wife Lindsey reside in Naperville, IL with their daughter and twin sons.
Michael D. Bellis, CFP®, CLU® began his career as a financial planning professional in 1994. His practice is centered on holistic financial planning, astute risk management strategies and empirical, research-driven portfolio construction. He began his career in partnership with his father under the name Bellis & Associates. Together, their practice and reputation for excellence dates back more than 40 years and includes multiple generations of the same families. After his father’s retirement several years ago, Mike continued to build a client-centric, consultative practice before forming Vertex.
Mike holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification and is also a Chartered Life Underwriter. He has been an active member of both the Society of Financial Services Professionals and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. He earned a B.S. in Business & Marketing from Illinois State University. Mike is a lifelong resident of Naperville, Illinois. He and his wife Tanja have three children.
The Magnificent 7, AI, and Concentration Risk
The challenge facing investors today isn’t whether artificial intelligence will transform the economy, but how to maintain portfolio balance as the market climbs to new all-time highs. While it’s tempting to focus exclusively on companies that have performed well recently, investing for long-term goals requires a thoughtful approach to both growth and risk management.
Mega-cap technology stocks, including those benefiting from AI trends, are commonly represented by a group known as the “Magnificent 7.” These stocks – Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla – now constitute about 35% of the S&P 500 and represent seven of the eight largest companies. Several are also referred to as “hyperscalers” due to their significant investments in computing infrastructure to meet the growing demands of AI applications.
In market environments like these, when a relatively small group of stocks drives much of the market’s performance, it becomes even more important to focus on historical perspectives, current valuations, and asset allocation. Understanding how similar periods of market concentration have played out in the past can help investors make better decisions about their long-term financial plans.
Innovation drives markets in the long run
This pattern has repeated many times across history. The dot-com boom of the 1990s, during which investors focused almost exclusively on internet companies, provides perhaps the clearest recent example. But going as far back as the 19th century, the telegraph, electric power, and telephones transformed cities and created many new companies. In the 20th century, the electronics and computer revolution reshaped all aspects of life and business, even before the invention of the internet.
Each of these waves followed a similar pattern: skepticism, rapid adoption, market enthusiasm, and eventual integration into the broader economy. Railroads didn’t disappear but became a standard part of the transportation and shipping industry, supporting the overall economy. While many dot-com companies did fail in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many others went on to become today’s technology leaders.
When it comes to long-term investing, it’s important to focus not just on individual companies, but on the impact of new technologies on the broader market and economy. After all, the true impact of innovation is greater productivity and efficiency across all businesses. The key difference is that while the stock prices of individual companies may rise and fall quickly, it takes much longer for the full economy-wide effects to be felt.
History shows that valuations matter as much as growth
What’s driving high valuations for the Magnificent 7? First, according to recent estimates, U.S. private AI investment reached $109 billion in 2024, with hundreds of billions more announced this year. This exceeds the entire GDP of many countries and dwarfs similar investments by others. In recent quarters, investors have reacted positively to announcements of ever-higher AI infrastructure spending. This is a significant shift from less than a year ago when investors were worried about whether these investments by large companies would pay off.
Second, many companies and everyday users have rapidly adopted AI tools, creating more and more demand for computing power. This explains why “hyperscalers” like Microsoft and NVIDIA have seen their market capitalizations soar, with both companies reaching valuations over $4 trillion. This is also why demand for new data centers, and the power needed to run them, are top of mind for investors.
These companies are seen as building the infrastructure that allows other businesses to adopt AI technologies, much like railroad companies built the transportation infrastructure that supported all businesses in the 19th century. While this creates enormous long-term value, the timeline for realizing returns is difficult to predict.
The challenge is that markets often overestimate the speed at which transformative technologies will generate profits, even when the long-term potential may be real. The 1990s offer a cautionary parallel. During that decade, some investors believed that traditional valuation metrics no longer applied to internet companies. When reality didn’t meet expectations, the Nasdaq fell 78% from its peak, and many companies failed or were acquired. Yet the internet did transform the economy, just not within the timeline or in the manner that peak valuations implied.
Balancing opportunities with concentration risk
Since the Magnificent 7 now represents such a large portion of major market indices, the reality is that nearly all investors have these stocks in their portfolios. For those who have focused on technology stocks, their portfolio allocations may be greater than intended.
Holding too much of a portfolio in just a few investments is often known as “concentration risk,” and is the opposite of diversification. On the one hand, these companies have demonstrated growth and profitability. On the other hand, having a large portion of your portfolio dependent on a small group of companies, regardless of how successful they are, can create volatility as trends change. Even great companies can experience periods of underperformance.
For perspective, consider the equal-weighted S&P 500 shown in the chart above, which gives the same importance to each company regardless of size. This approach has historically provided different return patterns than the standard market-capitalization weighted index, sometimes performing better when large companies struggle.
Since mega cap tech companies have performed well recently, some investors may find it surprising that an equal weighted index has still outperformed over the past 30 years. This highlights the importance of not just focusing on what has driven markets recently and what happens to be in the headlines.
This doesn’t mean that investors should avoid technology stocks entirely. Rather, it suggests the importance of maintaining balance and an appropriate asset allocation.
The bottom line?
Current AI trends offer both opportunities and risks to investors. Financial success is not about picking winning stocks, but maintaining an appropriate portfolio balance aligned with long-term goals.
Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested in directly.
All investing involves risk, including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. The economic forecasts set forth in this material may not develop as predicted, and there can be no guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful.
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