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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 is a Partner and Private Wealth Advisor at Vertex Planning Partners, advising business owners, executives, and high-net-worth families on investments, financial planning, tax and succession planning.
He coordinates the full advisory team around each client to keep tax, investment, and planning decisions moving in the same direction. Justin’s approach centers on rigorous, data-driven analysis — modeling outcomes across planning scenarios so clients can make decisions with clarity.
With over a decade of experience, Justin’s work focuses on:
Justin attended Hillsdale College, where he earned his BA in Accounting and Financial Management. He is an avid sports fan and enjoys spending weekends with his family.
Designations:
Justin does not provide tax or legal advice. He works alongside each client’s CPA and attorney on those matters.
CRPC conferred by College for Financial Planning.
Scott Sandee brings over 20 years of experience to his role as Managing Partner of Vertex Planning Partners, leading the firm’s efforts to assist middle-market business owners and eight and nine-figure families in comprehensive planning. We enable clients to achieve their financial goals by tailoring solutions to their unique aspirations and situations. Leveraging his experience in sophisticated investment techniques and financial strategies with privately held family businesses, supported by extensive post-graduate education focused on exit planning, wealth management, estate planning, investment analysis, insurance planning, risk management, and tax optimization, he:
Scott guides successful entrepreneurs and wealthy families through the transfer of ownership of their privately held companies.
Designations: Certified Financial Planner® Certified Private Wealth Advisor® Certified Investment Management Analyst® Certified Exit Planning Advisor Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor
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.
Greg Benner advises high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth business owners, individuals and families on advanced tax, risk management, retirement, estate planning, and wealth strategies.
As a co-founder of Vertex Planning Partners, he works closely with clients, families, and their professional advisors—CPAs, attorneys, and business stakeholders—to implement thoughtful, durable planning strategies. His approach prioritizes clarity, coordination, and disciplined execution.
For twenty-four years, Greg’s work has focused on designing and coordinating multi-factor, integrated plans involving:
Drawing from his own experience as a founder, business and real estate investor, and multi-generational family business member, he understands some of the challenges that can arise for business owners as they consider an exit. Multi-disciplinary, intentional planning with stakeholder communication creates structure, mitigates risk, addresses tax implications, and preempts issues that can arise.
Greg holds a Master of Science in Taxation, a graduate program that deepened his technical training in federal income taxation, partnership and corporate taxation, estate and gift tax, and tax procedure. This academic work enhances his ability to help families and business owners navigate complex tax environments and align their financial and estate-planning objectives across generations.
Designations:
Licenses:
Greg is deeply committed to lifelong learning and continuous professional development in the areas of tax, estate planning, and private-wealth strategy.
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 AI Value Chain: Investor Perspectives on Data Centers, Semiconductors and More
In our modern world, computers and cell phones have become everyday necessities that are expected to simply work. Yet, there is unbelievable complexity behind not only the engineering that makes them possible, but also in the supply chains that allow millions of devices to be manufactured.
Similarly, artificial intelligence (AI) may seem simple when using a chatbot, but there is a complex value chain that allows anyone with a device to access capabilities that would have seemed like science fiction less than a decade ago. This has made generative AI and large language models (LLMs) one of the most important themes driving financial markets and the economy. This also means it’s important to have a broader view of AI that goes beyond a few technology stocks.
While there is little doubt that AI is transformational, it remains difficult to forecast demand or determine how it will affect businesses, workers, and productivity in the years ahead. For investors, this uncertainty can make it difficult to value companies, sectors, and the overall stock market. How can investors better understand AI’s impact while maintaining a long-term perspective?
The entire AI supply chain is supporting markets
At the foundation is the semiconductor hardware that makes this all possible. There are two stages where hardware like GPUs and memory chips are needed. The first is model training to build LLMs, a process that uses huge amounts of data across thousands of connected servers, taking weeks or months to complete.
The second is known as “inference,” which is the actual use of these models by individuals and businesses. Each prompt requires computational and memory resources to generate an answer. The combination of training and inference is why demand and prices for this hardware have surged, leading to high market valuations.
Over time, this hardware needs to be scaled up to meet demand, which is where data centers come in. Imagine a data center as a large warehouse packed from floor to ceiling with servers. These machines run 24/7, requiring security, electricity, and cooling. Altogether, these represent the enormous resources devoted to making AI applications possible.
Spending on data centers has become a significant contributor to economic activity. The chart above shows the amount spent on data center construction, not including the IT hardware. It’s clear that this spending has accelerated since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, and has surpassed all other types of office construction. It’s also important to note that not all of this growth is strictly due to AI. General adoption of technology and automation, especially since 2020, have also led to greater demand for computational resources.1
Finally, there is the use of AI by businesses, both internally as well as new AI applications by software providers. At the moment, this is perhaps the hardest to evaluate, since it depends on how effectively companies can turn AI capabilities into productivity gains and product enhancements. For instance, how AI interacts with existing software, and whether these companies will evolve, has been one source of market uncertainty over the past year.
Investors are weighing whether large investments will pay off2
This uncertainty helps explain some of the volatility in AI-related stocks. As the accompanying chart shows, mega-cap technology stocks have experienced strong returns over the past several years, but with large swings. Since it takes time to build new data centers, periods of optimism about infrastructure spending have been followed by periods of concern about whether there will be sufficient demand.
Since early 2025, for example, investors have been worried about more efficient AI models that might mean less computing power is required. However, history shows that the efficiency gains that come with new innovations do not always reduce overall demand, a phenomenon that is commonly referred to as the “Jevons paradox.” In some cases, cheaper and more capable technology leads to broader adoption and completely new use cases. For instance, electricity today is not just for light bulbs, and computers are not just for large companies.
At the same time, markets have a long track record of overestimating the speed at which new technologies generate profits, even when the long-term potential is real. The enthusiasm investors showed for internet stocks in the late 1990s and early 2000s took decades to truly play out. This is why it’s important to maintain not just a broader perspective on the companies involved in AI, but also a long-term perspective as the technology and demand evolve.
Valuations reflect high expectations
It’s important to remember that valuations are not a tool for predicting what markets will do tomorrow. Instead, valuations can help us decide the appropriate mix of assets in a portfolio, especially when aligning it to financial goals. So, while AI trends provide potential opportunities for growth, many other sectors are attractively valued and have expected strong earnings growth as well. As always, the key is to maintain perspective, balancing the AI theme and other parts of the market to work toward your financial goals.
The bottom line?
The trends driving AI go beyond a few technology companies. While these themes are driving markets, it’s important to maintain a broader perspective and longer time horizon with a focus on long-term financial goals.
References
Index Descriptions
S&P 500
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index of 500 stocks designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of 500 stocks representing all major industries.
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Composite Index measures all NASDAQ domestic and non-U.S. based common stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. The market value, the last sale price multiplied by total shares outstanding, is calculated throughout the trading day, and is related to the total value of the Index.
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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