Chris Dieckow
Leelyn Smith
At Leelyn Smith, tax planning, investment management, and comprehensive financial planning work together under one roof. For professionals, business owners, and families juggling complex financial decisions, that coordination helps connect what they earn today with the life they want to build. “What sets our services apart is that we don’t view financial decisions in isolation,” says Chris Dieckow, CFA®, CFP®, CWS®.
The boutique firm evaluates recommendations beyond investment performance, considering tax efficiency, retirement goals, business ownership, estate planning objectives, and family priorities. Its in-house CPAs bring tax expertise into planning conversations throughout the year, rather than waiting until tax preparation season to look backward. “We believe a financial strategy should never be developed independently from a tax strategy,” Dieckow says.
That approach is particularly relevant for physicians, executives, consultants and entrepreneurs whose earnings may include salaries, business income, partnership distributions or equity compensation. Their questions often begin with taxes: Are they overlooking opportunities to keep more of what they earn? The answers can open broader discussions about retirement contributions, charitable giving, business structures, and tax-efficient investing.
Clients work with a dedicated team that takes time to understand their circumstances, concerns, and objectives. When clients already have relationships with attorneys or other professionals, Leelyn Smith can collaborate with those advisors to help align recommendations with the broader plan.
Dieckow also challenges the idea that a wealth advisor’s primary role is picking investments or beating the market. Many clients have reached a point where demanding careers, children, aging parents and other responsibilities leave little time to oversee increasingly complicated finances. “We’re here to help simplify complexity, provide guidance, create accountability, and coordinate all the moving pieces so our clients don’t have to carry that burden alone,” he says.
Whether preparing for retirement, navigating the sale of a business or considering how wealth will pass to future generations, clients need decisions that account for more than a single portfolio. Leelyn Smith’s aim is to provide that wider perspective through personalized planning, ongoing communication and proactive coordination, giving clients more time to focus on their families, careers and the priorities that brought them to planning.
Leelyn Smith
10 North 3rd St
Geneva, Illinois
630-232-8995
LeelynSmith.com
