Susan S. Spraker, Ph.D., CFP®
President
Susan’s corporate mission is to encourage and facilitate individuals’ visualization and achievement of wealth, however they define it. In working with people of all ages across the country for over 25 years, she has learned that accumulation of money and assets is not the end game, but simply a means for each person to find fulfillment in life. Helping her clients dialogue and dig into what happiness means to them, how they want to live their lives, and what they are doing now to achieve their goals is an aspect of the practice that sets Spraker Wealth Management apart from other firms.
The firm plays a significant role in each client’s work toward reaching personal and/or family financial goals through the years. This relationship is best described as “wealth management”. The practice of wealth management incorporates intense and individualized portfolio management, financial planning and personal counseling revolving around all issues related to money and finances, saving and spending.
Dr. Spraker has over 25 years’ retirement planning experience. Her practice specializes in “active portfolio management,” implementing conservative and liquid retirement growth and income strategies, as well as helping clients complete and stay current with tax planning and filing, estate planning, and multiple comprehensive asset protection strategies. Susan has particular expertise in financial counseling for couples, the recently widowed, single women, and those who have received a sudden large inheritance, helping them simplify financial issues and strategize family money dynamics as well as consolidate and manage the assets according to divergent client needs and risk tolerance.
Susan earned her B.S. degree in History and Education from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Her financial planning and wealth management career began with retirement counseling at South Carolina National Bank in Columbia 1972-1974. She left banking to pursue graduate studies in the Midwest at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1974, where she earned both the Master’s (1976) and Doctorate degrees (1981) in the field of urban planning. With doors closed to urban planning in Central Florida in the 80s, Susan pursued financial planning, in 1985 becoming a licensed and independent securities and insurance broker in Winter Park and Longwood, Florida. She earned her marks as a Certified Financial Planner® in 1993 and over all those years developed a loyal client base which followed her to the firm she founded with two partners in 1998 in Maitland, FL.
After 10 years of partnership, in July 2008 she established her own independent practice, Spraker Wealth Management, Inc., to further develop her long-practiced active portfolio management style. Her 65 client families again followed her with $50 Million under management. By April, 2010, despite a 2-year recession, the firm grew to 70 families, with $60 Million under management. Susan and her firm now oversee the assets and planning for 3rd generation clients.
The firm actively supports nonprofit charitable organizations in the arts and in benevolence, not only by coordinating opportunities for client involvement in community outreach, but also scheduling staff volunteer work on a monthly basis. Susan serves as Vice Chair of the Leadership Council for Community Food & Outreach Center.
Susan’s planning and investment advice have been featured in many periodicals over the years, including U.S. News and World Report, Investment News, The Orlando Sentinel, Orlando Business Journal, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, Wealth Manager Magazine, The Financial Times International, Florida Trend Magazine, Society of Actuaries Pension Section News, Knoxville News Sentinel, and on AM 580 WDBO Radio. In 2008 and 2009 she was named one of the Top 50 Women in Wealth Management by Wealth Manager Magazine.
She is a member of The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) for fee-only advisors, and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). She served on the Charles Schwab Institutional Advisory Board for two years and the Boards of the Central Florida chapter of The International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) and FPA. She is a member of the adjunct faculty at the prestigious Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA where she teaches financial planning.
In her free time, Susan enjoys everything art, personal training, running with her rescued greyhound, Trey, travelling America’s coastal areas and mountains, writing stories and poetry, reading accounts of people who have overcome great odds to achieve success, and spending time with her two grown children.