Watch: Denise and Robert Baranowski of Brookstone Wealth Strategies

In this Firks 5 episode, host Dan Firks talks with Denise and Robert Baranowski of Brookstone Wealth Strategies about their backgrounds, what separates their firm from other advisors, retirement planning, investment returns, and their divorce financial planning practice.

Read the full guide to Brookstone Wealth Strategies →

Video Transcript

Dan Firks: Hello, I’m Dan Firks, and this is Firks 5. Hello and welcome to Firks 5. Today we’re going to interview Denise Baranowski and Robert Baranowski with Brookstone Wealth Strategies, two of my favorite financial advisors. We’re going to ask them five top questions about their business, and we’re going to connect you with some of the best in town. Hello, Denise and Robert, thank you so much for joining us today at Firks 5. So tell me a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your business.

Robert Baranowski: Okay, so I’m Robert Baranowski, and I worked in the healthcare space, in administration and finance, for about 10 years, and during that time period I went back to school, received my Master’s in Finance, and decided to work with Denise at Brookstone Wealth Strategies in the divorce financial group about four or five years ago now. That’s kind of my background from a professional standpoint.

Denise Baranowski: I’m Denise Baranowski, and my background is being a paralegal in large international law firms, and then I decided to work on the trust and estates area and the taxation, and eventually transitioned over to working with clients on the planning as well as the portfolio management of their portfolios, and I’ve been doing that for many years.

Dan Firks: Great information, thanks for sharing that with us. What separates your company from the competition?

Denise Baranowski: I think a lot of it is our background, because I actually have worked on Wall Street, so I know the intricacies of working on Wall Street, and have the paralegal background that really comes into play from a planning perspective, and the trust and investments, as well as the investment management, has been very helpful to provide a holistic approach for our clients.

Robert Baranowski: You know, I think another aspect is, we’ve both been here in the Naperville area for about 25 years. One thing that really goes a long way with our clients, I think, separates us from other advisors, is it’s not just the financial results that clients receive, but also the fact that we have a strong network of other professionals in the area, as well as personal contacts. So whether your child’s graduating from college and they need, say, a job at the hospital, or if you need an accountant, or a real estate agent, or a lender, things like that, those are things that we can always bring to the table as well to help our clients. So I think it goes beyond just being a client with us, it’s more on the human side of things.

Dan Firks: If someone wants to start saving for retirement, and they want to retire at say age 65, what would be the first step?

Denise Baranowski: The first step for us would actually be sitting down with them and going through some of their financials, and finding out what their spending habits are, what other assets they have, how those have been invested, whether they’re going to take Social Security at full retirement age or plan to take it early, and just look at all of those aspects and say, can you afford to retire at this particular time, and what will retirement look like, so that they have the expectations built in as far as their lifestyle, vacationing, etc.

Dan Firks: Great, thanks for sharing that with us. Denise, what investments have the highest returns?

Denise Baranowski: Good question. The markets now have been excellent in the last year or so, but when we work with clients where they want to have staying power, it’s really equities, stocks, and stock mutual funds, because they’re really the only type of asset that will actually appreciate over time. Bonds are not used for that particular purpose, they’re meant more for stability in the portfolio, but you want to have it where your buying power is the same five years from now as it is now, and they’re the only asset that will keep up with and surpass inflation.

Robert Baranowski: I also think another option that many of our clients deal with quite a bit, whether it’s a residential or a commercial property, is they use that as a rental property as well, real estate.

Dan Firks: I know a little bit about real estate myself. Alright, tell us a little bit about your divorce practice.

Denise Baranowski: Well, we started the divorce practice about four or five years ago, because of the fact that I was in a situation where I had lost my husband, and so the estate planning issues are the same whether you’re divorced or whether you have lost a spouse, and that being the case, it was just a natural transition for me, because of the trust and estate work. Folks who are really worried about how they’re going to make it after a divorce, and what do the settlement options look like, and how can we help with all of that, as well as making sure that there’s a cash flow for them that’s predictable in the future. I think oftentimes it’s not always just with high-net-worth individuals, it can be with individuals who just may not have been privy to the financial information in their household throughout the years. So we kind of hand-hold and walk them through the entire process, working on their financial affidavits and things like that. So it’s kind of, at the same time, we also have an opportunity to educate them as much as they would like to be on the financial situation that they’re in and what is to come.

Dan Firks: Excellent, thank you very much guys, I really appreciate your time today, thank you for taking the time out of your very busy schedules and answering our Firks 5 questions today, and again, thank you so much for coming.

Denise Baranowski: Thank you for having me.

Dan Firks: Thank you for watching this episode of Firks 5. Make sure to follow us at Dan Firks for your most up-to-date real estate trends and market conditions, and when the time comes to buy, sell, or invest in real estate, call Firks first. We’ll be here. See you next time. Have an amazing rest of your day.

Read the full guide to Brookstone Wealth Strategies →