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Amy King, CFP®, EA, MQFP®, ChFEBC(sm), CRPC®
Specializations: Federal Employees & Military Couples, Military Transition, & Tax Planning

Amy King, CFP
Amy King, Ops Officer

Hi! I’m Amy King, Founder of Instar Financial Planning, LLC. I’m a retired Army officer married to a Federal civilian.  Over the years I had trouble finding a financial professional who did REAL financial planning and who understood the unique features of military and Federal employee benefits.  So I did my best to become the type of professional I searched for throughout my Army career.

I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM), a Military Qualified Financial Planner, and a Chartered Federal Employee Benefits Consultant(sm). I’ve intentionally built my expertise and my firm to help Military Veterans, Federal employees and their families achieve their financial goals by leveraging our unique benefits and to navigate the challenges we face as we serve our country and communities.

I have an appreciation for those who prefer to “DIY” their finances but want a second opinion to validate/ provide feedback on all the work they’ve put into managing their finances.  But, I also realize some people want more help sometimes.  I’ve specifically designed my process to serve the DIYers but also those who want to outsource some or all of their financial planning needs on their terms.

Prior to launching Instar Financial Planning I worked at a large wealth management firm.  While I truly enjoyed working with my team and our clients, my calling is to serve Military, Veterans, and Federal employees. I wanted to provide the expertise our selfless public servants deserve through a service model they can embrace.

In my “free time”, you can find me keeping up with the day-to-day lives of my adult/ adult adjacent “kids” or volunteering with the Women’s Army Corps Veterans Association, Penn State Parents Council, or the Mason-Dixon Trail System. I also enjoy hanging with my yellow lab, Polly, who always knows just how to keep me in my place.

Schedule a Free Consultation

Amy King, CFP®, EA, ChFEBC(sm), CRPC®, MQFP®
Instar Financial Planning, LLC
Fallston, MD
410-877-7685
www.instarfp.com

Specializations: Federal Employees & Military Couples, Military Transition, & Tax Planning

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Daniel Kopp, CFP®, MQFP®
Specializations: Gold Star Widows, Dual Military Couples, & FIRE

Hello, I’m Daniel – husband to Anna, widower to Sarah, Air Force veteran, business owner, writer, speaker, financial planner, and Christ-follower. I’m the founder of Wise Stewardship Financial Planning where we offer fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment advice with a special focus on young widows and widowers as well as servicemembers and their families.

I’ve always been interested in money since I was a little kid, including out-bidding my siblings for chores-for-hire, to providing loans to my siblings and friends when they had spent all their money and diligently saving my allowance for future goals. Over time this evolved into reading the stock pages in the newspaper as a young teenager and then choosing to major in economics in college. After completing Air Force ROTC at Purdue University, I commissioned as an officer into the Air Force in 2009 but continued my personal interest into personal finances, investing, and all things money-related.

In addition to being a CFP® practitioner, I’ve spent thousands of hours studying financial planning topics and am currently going deeper in the work of Financial Therapy with a Masters at Kansas State University. I also had the opportunity to be a volunteer financial counselor during many of the years when I was on active duty in addition to helping and educating family and friends over the years. Thanks to countless help along the way, I learned more about the financial services industry and found my way to fee-only, fiduciary financial planning. It was through these experiences that sparked my passion and helped me realize what I wanted to do whenever I decided to leave the military!

As an officer on active duty for almost 9 years, along with a brother, sister, and brother-in-law in the military, I experienced firsthand the benefits and challenges that military life can have on all aspects of life especially finances. Frequent changes like TDY’s, deployments, and PCS’s add unique potential opportunities and obstacles to meeting goals and dreams. Add in the often disparate and sometimes confusing military pay, benefits, scattered military benefits and discounts, and countless people offering advice or services, and there is often a lack of clarity on how best to optimize all of these to best meet goals.

I also know that grief is hard. But sometimes, determining what’s next is even harder.

I know because I’ve walked that road before. Like you, I know what loss is like and how it affects your financial life. It is my honor to compassionately guide my clients with financial planning and advice as a trusted companion in your ongoing grief journey.

Schedule a Free Consultation

Daniel Kopp, MA, MS, CFP®, MQFP®
Wise Stewardship Financial Planning, LLC
Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202
857-209-8437
www.wisestewardshipfp.com

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Mike Hunsberger, ChFC®, CFP®, CCFC, MQFP®
Specializations: Approaching Military Transition, Tax Planning, College Planning for Families with Jr/Sr High School Students, One-time and Project-based planning

Financial decisions are complex and interconnected.  Military life can add additional challenges. But, it also comes with benefits from reduced taxes, medical care, and a great pension for those who serve until they are retirement eligible.

So whether your concerns center on preparing for military retirement or transition, maximizing the use of the GI Bill, protecting your loved ones, or investing for the future, all can impact your financial freedom.

At Next Mission Financial Planning, we believe true
Financial Freedom = Options.  Our process is designed to help you set and achieve your Freedom By Date while balancing that with living your best life.

We work best with folks that are interested in learning and actively partnering through our planning only option or with those who are busy and just want to have someone do it for them through our planning + investment management option.

Let’s talk about how I might be able to help you achieve your goals.

A little about me:  I loved my 25-years in the Air Force but wanted to do something different when I retired. I’ve always enjoyed financial planning for myself as well as for friends and family.  Part of my learning curve was purchasing insurance and very high-fee mutual funds sold by a company that focuses on military personnel and who I believed had my best interest in mind. This is part of the reason I want to help military families… I don’t want them to make the same mistakes. I desire to educate you about your options, provide advice that is always in your best interest without having to sell specific products.

I’ll be excited to talk with you to see if we would be a fit and work together to achieve your Next Mission.

Service Offerings
– Planning Only
– Planning with Asset Management
– One-time or Project-based Plans
– Single Fee for all services

Visit our Website or Schedule an Introductory Call

Mike Hunsberger, ChFC®, CFP®, CCFC, MQFP
Next Mission Financial Planning, LLC
Saint Charles, MO 63301
314-328-0086
www.NextMissionFinancialPlanning.com

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Erik Baskin, CFP®, MQFP®
Specializations: Military Transition, Dual Military Couples, Small Business Owners

Erik Baskin, CFP

Hi, I’m Erik, Founder of Baskin Financial Planning, a fee-only financial planning firm located in Colorado Springs, Colorado focused on serving military families and business owners. In 2018, after graduating the U.S. Air Force Academy with an Economics degree, I began my professional career as a hospital administrator in the Air Force. As I was sitting in my apartment in Cheyenne, Wyoming after work every day, I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be a career for me. It was a great first job, but wasn’t ultimately my calling and didn’t get me up out of bed every morning. I was captain of a Division I hockey team in college, and I still have that competitive drive that I need to harness into something. I knew that I needed to start a business, I just didn’t know what yet.

For the next 9 months, I binged business and entrepreneurship books and researched business ideas. I had a One Note with about 20 different ideas. I was teaching myself to code computer software, trade foreign exchange, and anything else that I could get my hands on.

One book in particular called the $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau said that you should find something that people naturally come to you for, something that you are passionate about, and something that people will pay for. This was my lightbulb moment. For me, that thing has always been investing and personal finance. I was always interested in the stock market, and many times found myself in conversations giving people finance pointers. I had also seen what the typical financial advisor did for family and friends, and was very frustrated with the lack of transparency, and lack of value for the fees that are paid.

From there on out, I was dead set on building a fee-only financial planning firm to help families align their money with their values. I began building the groundwork for Baskin Financial Planning in early 2019 while getting my MBA, studying for and passing the CFP exam, then finally launching the business in 2021 all while serving on active duty.

When I’m not busy nerding out with clients on financial planning and investing, I keep busy by spending time with my wife Shelley and my two Greyhound Annie, coaching hockey, working out, playing golf, hunting, going to country concerts, or reading a book outside on my favorite subject…personal finance.

 

Schedule a Free Consultation

Erik Baskin, CFP®, MQFP®
Baskin Financial Planning, LLC
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
719-203-1463
www.baskinfp.com

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Dan Huffman, ChFC®, MQFP®
Specializations: Real Estate Investing, FIRE, Veteran Entrepeneurs

Dan Huffman, ChFC

Hello! I’m Dan, and I founded Cornerstone Financial Planning, LLC to help people live out their ideal life today through strategic financial planning and real estate investing. Life is too short to live with tension between our time, money, and values. The more clarity I’ve gotten on my values, the more I realized that I needed to redesign my life. I strive to live intentionally and focused on these most important areas in my life, which are my faith, my family, and making the biggest impact that I can in the world around me. My mission is to help you discover your ideal life, and then to create and carry out your personalized financial plan to make it happen!
Ideal Clients

My primary areas of expertise and that I enjoy working in the most are early retirement planning (in-line with the Financial Independence Retire Early – FIRE – community) and real estate investing. I add the most value to young(ish!) people in their 20s-50s who are looking to build wealth and replace their active income with rental income, freeing them up to take command of their time, energy, and life. However, I’ve also gotten a lot of fulfillment helping some Clients who were a little late to begin accelerating their retirement investments in preparation of a more traditional retirement timeline.

Financial Planning & Coaching for Real Estate Investors (and beginners!)
I incorporate real estate investment coaching into my ongoing financial planning process for those clients who want to pursue time and financial freedom through real estate investing but aren’t sure where to start, are afraid of making expensive mistakes, or who recognize that they simply don’t know what they don’t know about beginning to invest in real estate. My aim is to be that coach that actually knows you, your life goals, and your financial situation and has a fiduciary responsibility to you rather than some random person on the internet selling you and everyone else they can get to click their link a course with nothing but videos without any one-on-one coaching that’s in-line with your financial plan. My ongoing Clients who are real estate investors receive significant access to me for financial planning and real estate coaching so that they can make investment decisions in a timely manner with the utmost confidence. This is what I wish I had when I was starting out! The only problem with me back then? I was too cheap to pay for it and I couldn’t find anything as robust as what I wanted. But since then, I’ve come to learn the truth of Robert Kiyosaki’s quote “Experience is expensive, education is cheap”. And of course, my coaching includes the financial analyses and strategic tax planning that general coaching programs don’t include, because they can’t!

Financial Planning for FIRE
While real estate investing is a passion and one of the greatest ways that I’ve found to make an impact that extends beyond my immediately community, I’m also passionate about the FIRE community and financial education. For those of you interested in more of a beginner-level financial plan for early retirement, I offer those as one-time plans or as ongoing engagements to help plan out your desired retirement, or recreational employment as I prefer to call it! I really enjoy planning out for different phases of life and helping you envision what each might look like and how we can tax plan around those times when you may have less active income.

About Dan

My wife, son, and I live in Colorado Springs, CO. I began my professional career as an athletic trainer out of college, working at a couple different DI universities. After getting burned out, I switched to physical therapy and was accepted into the Army-Baylor Doctor of Physical Therapy (PT) Program, which was the #5 ranked program in the USA at the time. So, in 2010, I direct commissioned, and I never looked back. I spent 11 years on active duty serving as a PT and deploying twice to Afghanistan. Our last duty station was at Landstuhl, Germany, and we absolutely loved it with all the Christmas markets and how easily we could travel! We have been to 37 countries and counting! But while I loved my time serving our nation’s servicemembers, over time I became more passionate about teaching them personal finance education rather than cracking backs and stabbing people with needles (the official term is “dry needling”) and I also had a couple of key experiences that weren’t so good where I didn’t feel that the military had my best interest in mind. So, in 2021, I ETS’d and switched to the Reserve component where I plan on completing my Army career and to take a sabbatical from working full time to go through the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) educational program, which I completed and passed the exam in July 2022 before finally launching my firm in early 2023. I’m now grateful to be part of a group of advisors such as MFAA and I look forward to serving you if I’m the best fit! If not, I’ll gladly refer you to someone that I think may be better for your situation.

Schedule a Free Consultation

Dan Huffman, ChFC®, MQFP®
Cornerstone Financial Planning, LLC
Colorado Springs, CO 80924
719-286-0403
www.cornerstonefiplanning.com