Our Team

Eric Van Ness, MBA, CFP® has spent more than twenty years helping people do one of the hardest things in personal finance: turn a lifetime of saving into a clear, sustainable retirement income plan. He started his career with Waddell & Reed in 2004, earned his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation in 2009, and has been focused on retirement income, tax strategy, and long-term planning ever since.

Before becoming a financial advisor, Eric served in the United States Army, where he earned the Meritorious Service Medal for his work as a Civil Affairs Economic Development Team Sergeant in Kosovo. The military didn’t just shape his discipline — it shaped his way of thinking. He learned how to stay calm under pressure, how to sift through complexity, and how to create structure when the stakes are high. Those habits now show up in the way he builds retirement income plans: steady, methodical, long-term, and grounded in real numbers rather than trends or noise.

Most of Eric’s day is spent meeting with clients and developing plans that coordinate retirement income, taxes, Social Security timing, and investment strategy into one coherent roadmap. He believes clarity is the antidote to anxiety, and he takes the time to explain the “why” behind each recommendation so clients understand how all the pieces of their financial life fit together.

Eric stays current with tax law changes, market conditions, and planning research so the strategies he builds continue to support clients through every season of retirement. His focus is simple: help people retire once, retire right, and feel confident about the path ahead.

Outside the office, Eric enjoys traveling, reading, and scuba diving with his wife Dana and their daughter, Daphne. He’s also a lifelong fan of Chicago sports — Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs — and tries to remain optimistic no matter what the standings say.

Andrea has been in the finance industry since 2014.