What is Ascend Financial Planning & Wealth Management

Andy is passionate about helping young, entrepreneurially minded professionals create strategies to accumulate more wealth in order to live a fulfilled retirement. These tireless professionals turn to Andy, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, to guide them on their own journey to financial independence while in pursuit of their own unwavering craft.

Andy loves to nerd out on financial planning and is striving to become the foremost expert in his field. He knows that continuous education is an essential element to your success.

With this in mind, Andy is an avid reader. You can always expect him to be reading a variety of books – from his top choice of biographies to other non-fiction reads. Naturally, he will always have a book on the financial industry included on that current reading list too.

When not working or reading, you can find Andy trying to perfect a new recipe in the kitchen or rooting for his beloved Chicago White Sox. He is always looking forward to the next outdoors adventure, but he will certainly settle for a round of golf.

In addition to holding the CFP ® certification, Andy also holds the CRPC® (Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor) designation as well as the FINRA series 6, 7, 63 and 65 securities registrations. Andy graduated from Augustana College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics & Business Administration with concentrations in Finance & International Business. 

Lee J. Kaz began his career on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) working his way up from crowd clerk to phone clerk to manager to stock and options broker. He has a solid background and understanding of financial markets over his 23 years of experience on the trading floor.  Lee is an empathic and caring professional who explains complicated financial concepts and jargon in an easy-to-understand language in order to help clients achieve their goals while planning for tomorrow and to retire with confidence.

Lee is available to personally assist, educate and provide unbiased options to suit your current and future financial goals. Lee addresses every stage of planning from a new birth to the passing of a loved one.
Lee is Past President of both the Mokena Chamber of Commerce as well as the Mokena Lions Club. He is an appointed civilian on the Mokena Police Pension Board. Lee enjoys water, sand, and nature walks in the woods while playing golf as well as an occasional beer while bowling with the Builders Tee Club. He is somewhat musically inclined playing both the drums and guitar…not at the same time. Lee resides in Mokena with his wife Karen.

Credentials

Series 7, 63 and 65 Registrations, and carries the CRPC® (Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor) designation from the College of Financial Planning in 2017.