Steve is the President of Client Services and a Principal of The Colony Group. Steve oversees the firm’s financial counseling and investment advisory teams, working together to design and deliver the solutions that will best position clients to achieve their goals as they navigate their personal financial journey. Steve continues to lead many of the firm’s long-standing client relationships, seeking to deliver an exceptional client
experience along the way. With a deep understanding of the complicated needs of busy corporate executives and the solutions they require. Steve works with companies to design financial counseling programs for c-suite corporate executives and their employees.
Prior to joining The Colony Group in 1998, Steve provided financial counseling and tax services for high net worth individuals with The Ayco Company, L.P. and the international accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Steve is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation. He is a member of the Boston Estate Planning Council.
He earned his Juris Doctor with distinction from Albany Law School and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Finance from the State University of New York with honors.
Articles
Should I have an investment policy statement and a distribution policy statement?
When it comes to investors, I think of them as people who experience two stages in the continuum of their financial lives. The first is the accumulation stage, when they build their assets, the second is the distribution stage, when they retire and crack open their nest egg. What the two stages have in common […]
By Stephen R. Stelljes
Aug 7, 2019Why do many wealthy families fail to pass on a lasting legacy to their future generations?
Shockingly, 60 percent of family wealth succession transfers fail, according to research by Roy Williams and Vic Preisser in Preparing Heirs, 2003. Rarely does the failure concern poor investment choices or bad tax advice; it’s due to a lack of family engagement. Wealth transfer failures are largely caused by a breakdown of communication and trust […]