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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.
A Closer Look at the Stock Market: Style, Size, and Regions
Investors often use major indices like the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average as a way to understand how financial markets are performing. While this is a helpful place to start, the reality is that the stock market is made up of many thousands of companies, each affected by economic and market trends in unique ways. To understand these trends, stocks are often grouped into sectors, geography, and by other characteristics such as the size of the company or the style of investment. Each of these groups can play an important role in long-term portfolios.
While headlines about the S&P 500 reaching new highs or the Nasdaq being driven by artificial intelligence can make it seem as though all stocks are moving together, there is often much more happening beneath the surface. This is especially relevant today because many of the drivers, including AI, oil prices, interest rates, and tariffs, affect all parts of the market, not just large cap stocks. Understanding these drivers can help investors stay balanced and position their portfolios for long-term goals.
Today, areas of the market including small caps, value stocks, and international companies have outperformed over the past year, and their valuations have generally been more attractive. Understanding how sizes and styles have performed can help investors maintain balance. What is happening beneath the surface of the broad market indices, and what does it mean for investors?
Different sizes and styles are affected by market conditions in unique ways
The distinction between value and growth is an important one for investors, and has been the source of much academic research over the past 50 years.3 Value is often defined as companies with attractive valuation ratios, since their prices are low relative to fundamentals such as earnings or sales. Growth, on the other hand, refers to those stocks with higher valuations that reflect expected increases in earnings and market share, and often represents trends that investors are enthusiastic about. The specific companies these represent can change over time, such as dot-com stocks in the late 1990s and AI stocks today.
Value stocks have outperformed this year for many reasons, including uncertainty around interest rates and the outperformance of the Energy sector due to high oil prices.4 Interest rates are near multi-decade highs, which tends to affect growth stocks more. This is because their prices are based on future growth, and higher interest rates reduce the value of future cash flows.
Second, small cap stocks have outperformed large cap stocks this year, reversing a general trend that had lasted well over a decade. In fact, prior to this year, small cap stocks had underperformed the S&P 500 since 2020.5
Small caps have been strong this year for many of the same reasons as the rest of the market. AI, for instance, is often viewed as a large cap opportunity, but many smaller industrial and technology companies supply the equipment, components, and services needed to build data centers and other infrastructure. As a result, these businesses are experiencing healthy revenue and earnings growth today that rivals many other parts of the market.
One challenge is that small caps are often more sensitive to interest rates since they have less access to financing than large cap companies. This has created uncertainty across this group more recently as long-term rates remain high and the possibility of Fed rate hikes increases. However, history shows that this is not always the case. Two of the strongest periods for small cap relative performance occurred in the late 1970s and the mid 2000s, both of which featured higher interest rates and inflation.6 There are many reasons for this, such as the fact that smaller businesses can sometimes raise prices more easily, boosting their operating margins.
Valuations matter for long-term investing
The stock market is often said to experience “regimes,” or periods when certain investment styles outperform. These regimes can last months, years, or even decades. Perhaps the most studied is the fact that value stocks led for much of the 20th century until growth took over during the dot-com era.
The accompanying chart shows the difference between growth and value valuations using the price-to-book ratio. Growth stocks, particularly the largest technology companies, are hovering near historically high valuations.7 By comparison, value stocks and smaller companies are more attractively priced. As always, past performance does not guarantee future results, so these valuation differences do not ensure that value or small caps will continue to outperform. However, it does help explain why market leadership has shifted, and why investors should consider different parts of the market in their portfolios.
The important lesson is not to try to time these shifts, but to recognize that no single trend lasts forever. This is why holding an appropriate balance across styles and sizes, rather than chasing what has recently worked, has served investors well over history.
International markets are another source of diversification
Emerging market stocks, for instance, have performed well this year as earnings growth expectations have improved and valuations have become more attractive.8 The accompanying chart shows that valuations for emerging market and developed market stocks remain well below those of the U.S. across many measures. While U.S. stocks outperformed for much of the past decade, returns since the beginning of last year show that this can change unexpectedly.
Of course, international investing carries its own set of risks, including geopolitical, currency, and regulatory considerations. These risks are precisely why international stocks behave differently than U.S. stocks over time. That said, many U.S. multinational companies also have high international revenues, which naturally offer geographic diversification. When combined thoughtfully with domestic holdings, they can improve the balance of a portfolio.
Ultimately, which parts of the market fit into a portfolio depends on each investor’s specific needs, goals, and risk tolerance. The point is not to predict whether small caps will continue to lead or whether value stocks will keep outperforming. Instead, it’s important to recognize that the stock market is far broader than the handful of companies that dominate the headlines.
The bottom line?
While it’s helpful to start with major indices when investing, not all parts of the market behave the same way. Staying balanced across sizes, styles, and geographies is an important way for investors to build a portfolio aligned with 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.
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.
The prices of small cap stocks are generally more volatile than large cap stocks.
Russell 3000
The Russell 3000 Index is a stock market index that tracks the performance of the 3,000 largest companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange.
Russell 2000
The Russell 2000 Index is a capitalization-weighted index designed to measure the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It includes approximately 2,000 of the smallest securities in the Russell 3000 Index.
MSCI Emerging Markets Index
The MSCI EM (Emerging Markets) Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of the emerging market countries of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The MSCI EM Index consists of the following emerging market country indices: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.
MSCI EAFE Index
The MSCI EAFE Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets, excluding the US & Canada. The MSCI EAFE Index consists of the following developed country indices: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
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.
Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Vertex Planning Partners, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Vertex Planning Partners, LLC is a separate entity from LPL Financial.
Copyright (c) 2026 Clearnomics, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is not necessarily complete and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the fairness, accuracy, completeness, or correctness of the information and opinions contained herein. The views and the other information provided are subject to change without notice. All reports posted on or via www.clearnomics.com or any affiliated websites, applications, or services are issued without regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, or particular needs of any specific recipient and are not to be construed as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any securities or related financial instruments. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future results. Company fundamentals and earnings may be mentioned occasionally, but should not be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold the company’s stock. Predictions, forecasts, and estimates for any and all markets should not be construed as recommendations to buy, sell, or hold any security–including mutual funds, futures contracts, and exchange traded funds, or any similar instruments. The text, images, and other materials contained or displayed in this report are proprietary to Clearnomics, Inc. and constitute valuable intellectual property. All unauthorized reproduction or other use of material from Clearnomics, Inc. shall be deemed willful infringement(s) of this copyright and other proprietary and intellectual property rights, including but not limited to, rights of privacy. Clearnomics, Inc. expressly reserves all rights in connection with its intellectual property, including without limitation the right to block the transfer of its products and services and/or to track usage thereof, through electronic tracking technology, and all other lawful means, now known or hereafter devised. Clearnomics, Inc. reserves the right, without further notice, to pursue to the fullest extent allowed by the law any and all criminal and civil remedies for the violation of its rights.
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