Chicago
Kristen Koonce, CFP®
Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, Financial Advisor
“No investments are good or bad — they all have pros and cons and need to be used together in the right way to achieve the goals you want for yourself.”
As the leader of our Chicago office, Kristen’s career inspiration came when seeing both her grandparents and parents benefit from the help of a financial advisor. She sought out internships in college on her way to becoming a financial advisor herself and, ultimately, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional. She now works directly with clients as well as partners with other advisors to make sure every financial plan we build is custom tailored to meet each client’s unique needs.
Kristen is focused on retirement and distribution planning. She helps clients with spend-down strategies to help maximize their own wealth and pass money on to the next generation in a tax-efficient manner. “I’ve always had an interest in how you can help clients create multigenerational wealth and set up future generations for success,” Kristen says.
Kristen is married and lives in the South Loop, where she walks to Bears games when the weather is nice. She also supports Northwestern football (her alma mater) and enjoys spending time on the water and the golf course during the summer.
Phil Simonides, CFP®
Executive Vice President
As a Executive Vice President, Phil has been intimately involved with the branding, expansion and leadership development of McAdam. A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Phil is passionate about helping you grow your wealth — and preserve it. He works primarily with high net worth executives and entrepreneurs who are looking for retirement and income planning, wealth management, tax diversification, divorce settlement planning, and estate planning.
Phil got his start in the financial services industry in 1988 and joined McAdam in 2011. To date, he has worked on literally thousands of financial planning cases in his career. With so much market uncertainty these days, Phil is particularly focused on Safe Money Strategies — asset management solutions that offer no possible loss of principal and are specifically designed for use in volatile markets.
“At McAdam, I’m known as the guy that helps you keep more of what you’ve already made, whether it be through wealth preservation or creative income tax planning solutions,” Phil says.
Phil has been featured in such media outlets as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg Radio, Investment News and Financial Advisor magazine. He is also a regular contributor to the Kiplinger’s Wealth Creation platform.
Phil graduated from Middlebury College. He and his wife have three adult children and live in Great Falls, Virginia.
An avid golfer, tennis player and pickleball player, Phil also has coached many youth sports throughout his lifetime. What’s more, he’s spent over 23 years serving as a charity auctioneer, event emcee, and board member of several local and national charitable organizations. To date, he has raised nearly $2 million from live auctioneer activities alone.
