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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, and holds the Tax Planning Certified Professional®, Chartered Financial Consultant® and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor™ 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.
Why Investors Can Be Thankful This Holiday Season
As the holiday season begins, it’s the perfect time to pause and appreciate what we have, both in our personal and financial lives. This is particularly important since investors tend to focus on what could go wrong rather than what has gone right. At the moment, with markets performing well, it’s helpful to reflect on the past year to gain perspective as new challenges and opportunities emerge.
Financial markets have delivered strong returns over history, and this year has been no exception. The S&P 500 has gained over 15% with dividends year-to-date, while bonds have returned approximately 7% as measured by the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. International stocks have outperformed U.S. stocks for the first time in many years. Many diversified portfolios have benefited from this broad-based performance across asset classes. What can investors keep in mind as they prepare for the coming year?
We have entered the fourth year of the bull market
First, investors can be thankful that financial markets have performed well this year despite market swings. This bull market cycle, which began after the market bottom in October 2022, is now entering its fourth year.
While past performance is no guarantee of future results, history shows that bull markets tend to last much longer than bear markets, often running for five to ten years or more. The typical bull market has delivered cumulative returns far exceeding what we’ve seen so far in this cycle, despite the many challenges investors faced during those times. While there are important concerns around valuations and market concentration, investing for the long term requires us to navigate all types of market conditions.
The bond market’s positive returns are important to highlight after the challenging interest rate and inflation environment of recent years. As rates have stabilized and the Federal Reserve has begun easing monetary policy again, bond prices have recovered. This demonstrates why holding both stocks and bonds remains important for portfolios in terms of both balance and income generation.
This resilience underscores an important principle: trying to time markets around short-term events is not only difficult, but can be counterproductive if not considered as part of your broader financial plan. This was true even in April when markets fell close to bear market levels as new tariffs were announced. Markets not only rebounded quickly, but rose to new all-time highs. Investors who remained disciplined were rewarded, while those who reacted to headlines may have missed opportunities and, in some cases, may still be on the sidelines.
Inflation has improved and the Fed is cutting rates
This has allowed the Fed to begin cutting interest rates after keeping them at restrictive levels for most of the year. This is also to support the job market, which has been weakening since the summer.
Historically, lower rates benefit both stocks and bonds by reducing borrowing costs for businesses and consumers while making existing bonds with higher interest rates more valuable. So, even though inflation and interest rates will remain important factors for markets, fears of ever-rising inflation and interest rates appear to be behind us.
Asset allocation helps manage risk while capturing opportunities
We can also be thankful that we have different assets available to help balance risk and reward. Risk management is important at all points in an investor’s journey, and especially so after a three-year rally. The S&P 500 price-to-earnings ratio of 22.6x is above average and steadily approaching its peak dot-com levels.
Valuations do not predict what the market will do in the near-term, so this doesn’t mean markets can’t continue performing well. However, it does suggest that future returns could be more modest, especially when compared with cheaper asset classes and sectors. Thus, it’s important to have realistic expectations and to hold different parts of the market with more attractive valuations.
Questions about artificial intelligence will persist. It’s natural that the effect on stock prices is difficult to predict given the transformative nature of the technology. This is similar to the challenges of predicting how the internet revolution would unfold beginning in the mid-1990s. Political volatility is also likely to continue with ongoing tariff changes, geopolitical worries, the growing national debt, and more. Recent history underscores that overreacting to these events is not only counterproductive, but can derail financial plans.
The bottom line?
The holiday season is an ideal time to reflect on the many reasons to be thankful and to review your portfolio allocations. A properly constructed portfolio balances the benefits of different asset classes and aligns them toward financial goals. This remains the key to navigating challenges and opportunities in the year ahead.
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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