Cornerstone Portfolio Research Consultant
At Menninger & Associates Financial Planning, our mission is to provide high quality service and advice to our clients that emphasizes the six areas of financial planning – cash management, tax planning, risk management, investment planning, retirement planning, and estate planning. All six areas are very important for pursuing one’s financial goals, and our firm is notorious for providing best-in-class for these services.
Historically, we worked together as a team with other financial advisors from other states, and also drew upon the knowledge of various other sources of information to develop our investment process, selections, and recommendations. We have now grown to managing over $150 million for our clients, so we decided to enhance our resources for managing our clients’ hard-earned assets.
After due diligence and interviewing several candidates, we are excited to announce that we have hired Cornerstone Portfolio Research (Cornerstone) to serve as the outsourced Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for our firm. Cornerstone is a group of very highly qualified Chartered Financial Analysts® (CFA®) with 70+ years of investment management experience who can help our firm with identifying and selecting suitable investments for our clients’ portfolios. Please note that Cornerstone will not be replacing our investment management team but is being hired to support and enhance our capabilities to better serve our clients.
Investment Management Consultant: Thomas L. Balis, CFA®
Thomas L. Balis, CFA® founded Cornerstone Portfolio Research in 2020. With 20+ years of experience in the investment and financial services industry, investment management is truly his passion. Helping advisors and their clients achieve their goals and dreams is his motivation for getting out of bed every day, and his way of making the world a better place.
Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Ohio State and has since earned the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation as well as the Accredited Portfolio Management Advisor (APMA®) and Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor (CMFC®) certifications.
Thomas spent a decade helping investment reps grow their books at JPMorgan Chase and is a former member of the RIA Executive Advisory Council for PIMCO. He is also a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Philadelphia.
Most recently, Thomas was the Chief Investment Officer at Hoover Financial Advisors. While there, he built an investment program that helped the firm skyrocket from $400 Million to $1.2 Billion in AUM in just 5 years.
Thomas and the Cornerstone team joined Menninger & Associates as the outsourced Chief Investment Officer (CIO) in April of 2022.
Thomas was born and raised in Ohio but has called Philly home since 2015. He has three wonderful kids, Simon, Chloe, and Zoe.
*(Thomas Balis) is not affiliated or registered with LPL Financial. Any information provided by (Thomas) is no way related to LPL Financial or its registered representatives.
