Stephen Carlton, PPC

Steve Carlton is the CEO and President of Carlton Investment Services Group, LLC.  A Registered Representative since 1990, Steve excels at providing his clients with prudent financial planning advice, providing tax deduction techniques, insurance services, retirement services and estate planning.  As an independent Registered Representative, Steve is free to choose the investments and insurance products that are best suited to meet his clients' needs.

He helps his clients pursue their goals by planning for the future and managing assets from their 20's through their retirement years.  He likes to meet with his clients at least once per year to make sure they remain on target for their financial goals.  Steve says the most rewarding part of his practice is educating clients about different investments and how they can benefit from them.  His investment strategy focuses on long-term, well diversified investment programs.  His clients range from young professionals and families to high net worth individuals, including business owners and retirees. 

Steve is a retirement plan specialist, and he enjoys setting up companies with a quality retirement plan or 401(k).  In 2013 he earned his PPC (Professional Plan Consultant) designation.  Retirement plan sponsors need a service provider professional to help them navigate the legal and regulatory landscape, implement an efficient process for plan administration, and to help plan participants achieve their retirement goals. The PPC Designation demonstrates you have the knowledge and ability to provide these services at the highest level.  As a 3(21) Fiduciary, Steve is able to give advice to the plan sponsor as well as the plan employees.

Since 2010, Steve has been honored annually by being named a Five Star Wealth Manager,  www.fivestarprofessional.com/wmresearch.  In the Twin Cities, only the top 7% of financial professionals earn this award.  The FIVE STAR:  Best in client satisfaction Wealth Managers evaluation process is designed to identify wealth managers in a local market that score highest in client satisfaction.  Wealth Managers are rated by their customers and financial service professionals based on service, integrity, knowledge, communications, value for fees charged, meeting financial objectives, post-sale service, quality of recommendations and over-all satisfaction.

In addition to being named a Five Star Wealth Manager, Steve has also been honored consistently by Independent Financial Group as one of their Elite Advisors. 

Steve graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology.  He feels that a good financial advisor needs to understand people and their needs.

Outside of the office he volunteers his time as a Board Member of the MN Council of Trout Unlimited. TU is the leading conservation organization for coldwater fisheries, www.tu.org. His favorite hobbies include fly fishing, fly tying, teaching others fly fishing, skiing, camping and traveling.  He also loves attending sporting events and cheering on the University of Wisconsin Badgers. He is married to Amy Carlton, and they have a teenage daughter named Quinn. 

Steve can be reached via e-mail at steve@investcarlton.com.

Five Star Professional, as a third party research firm, identified pre-qualified award candidates based on industry data and contacted all identified broker dealers, Registered Investment Advisor firms and FINRA-registered representatives to gather wealth manager nominations. Self-nominations are not accepted. Award candidates are then evaluated against 10 objective eligibility and evaluation criteria associated with wealth managers who provide quality services to their clients such as client retention rates, client assets administered, firm review and a favorable regulatory and complaint history. Five Star Professional determines the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. • Five Star Wealth Managers do not pay a fee to be included in the research or the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. • The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth managers’ future performance. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager, or any wealth manager, is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. • The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional or the magazine. • The award methodology does not evaluate the quality of services provided. For more information on the Five Star award and the research/selection methodology, go to fivestarprofessional.com.