Cornerstone’s Local Retirement Team
Cornerstone’s Local Retirement Team consists of local and trusted professionals with goals to help guide you along retirement as needed, with confidence. Because there are many decisions to make when preparing for a sound retirement, it’s important to us that our clients are surrounded by other individuals with similar values. Having local professionals to update documents and enhance your overall well being is crucial, especially to those who relocated to AZ after retirement.
As our clients age and experience uncharted waters, our Local Retirement Team is here to help every step of the way. Between new tax laws taking place, or trying to navigate through complexities of the healthcare area, it can be hard and daunting to keep up with it all by yourself. We know that we can’t be everything to everyone, which is why we provide our clients with resources that will bring peace of mind to other areas of life. For instance, by partnering with qualified attorneys and tax professionals, Cornerstone can help ensure that your legal documents are in order and that you have a tax-efficient plan for the preservation and distribution of your retirement assets.
We actively plan ahead, together, and always with your goals in mind. Experience the difference a local team retirement team can make on your overall quality of life!
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These two industry leaders now offer our clients their combined experience. Binger brings over 24 years of institutional equity investment experience to Gradient Investments and its affiliated advisors and clients. Montagne has 20 plus years of working with both institutional and high net worth clients and has amassed a strong breadth of investment experience in her tenure. In addition Binger and Montagne are regular contributors to CNBC, Fox Business, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and have many other national publications.
Whether your financial goal is preserving principal, maximizing income or accumulating capital, our third-party money managers have carefully designed a strategy to help you achieve your long-term financial goals.
MICHAEL BINGER, CFA® -
PRESIDENT OF GRADIENT INVESTMENTS, LLC
Michael Binger, CFA®, serves as the senior portfolio manager for Gradient Investments, LLC. Michael brings over 24 years of institutional equity investment experience to Gradient Investments and its affiliated advisors and clients. He has extensive experience working directly with financial advisors, designing and actively managing portfolios. Binger has successfully invested in numerous market and economic cycles giving him a level and depth of experience that is rare in this industry.
Michael started his investment career in Minneapolis with Lutheran Brotherhood in 1987 and gained experience managing assets in a variety of asset classes including convertible bonds, small cap equities and large cap equities. When Lutheran Brotherhood and Aid Association for Lutherans merged in 2001 to become Thrivent Financial, Michael was selected to work as the senior portfolio manager on the Large Cap Growth Team and Large Cap Alpha Team managing over $3 billion in assets. As the senior portfolio manager, he developed and oversaw the tactical investment strategies utilized within mutual funds, variable annuities, pension funds and insurance company products. These investment processes included proprietary portfolio construction strategies, security selection parameters and volatility controlled umbrellas.
Michael graduated from the University of Minnesota, earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration-Finance. He graduated with honors and was the University of Minnesota’s “Wall Street Journal Award Winner.” Michael is a CFA® and a member of The Chartered Financial Analyst Institute and the Twin Cities Society of Security Analysts.
Michael’s media highlights include providing market insight on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio. He has also been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Smart Money, Reuters, Business Week and numerous other local, national and global investment publications.
MARIANN MONTAGNE, CFA® -
SENIOR INVESTMENT ANALYST OF GRADIENT INVESTMENTS, LLC
Mariann Montagne, CFA® serves as a senior investment analyst for Gradient Investments, LLC. She has 20 plus years of experience working with both institutional and high net worth clients, and has amassed a strong breadth of investment experience during her tenure. This includes company and industry sector analysis, risk monitoring and portfolio management in both the equity and fixed income markets. She is highly attuned to economic and market conditions, and has extensive experience selecting individual stocks, ETFs and mutual funds.
Prior to joining Gradient Investments, she was the senior investment analyst and co-portfolio manager for a Minneapolis-based registered investment advisor with over $500 million in assets under management. Montagne was involved in security selection, portfolio management, client presentations and setting strategic direction for the investment department. Her coverage included individual securities, ETFs and mutual funds in the equity, fixed income and alternative asset classes. Prior to that, she was a senior investment analyst at Thrivent Asset Management, examining industry sectors and selecting individual equities. Montagne also spent several years at Munder Capital Management as the assistant director of research along with covering growth and value equities.
Montagne served for seven years on the Global Board of the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY), including posts as president and conference chair.
She is a Chartered Financial AnalystTM and a member of both the CFA Society of Minnesota and the CFA Institute. Montagne is an alumnus of the University of Detroit where she graduated cum laude with a finance major and an English minor.
Montagne’s media highlights include quotes in Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, NPR, Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. She has also appeared on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News.