Haley Gutschenritter

Haley’s favorite saying is “knowledge is power.” As a retirement planner, she loves empowering pre-retirees and retirees with the knowledge they need to enter retirement with confidence. She is also dedicated to staying up to date on the complex and ever-changing rules and regulations of retirement planning. Her excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to effectively communicate retirement concepts help the individuals and families we work with understand the why behind their retirement plans.

Haley is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^™ and has her life, health, and accident Iowa insurance licenses and holds her Series 65 securities license. Haley meets with the individuals and families we work with in-person and has conversations over the phone to help them build retirement plans and update their customized retirement plan we call Your Merkle Plan. She also teaches our educational workshops, including Women in Retirement.

On weekends, you can find her and her husband, Chad, at Raccoon River Park exercising their Cavapoo, Mozzie. During football season, the Kansas City native cheers on her beloved Chiefs.

Designations Definitions

Certified Financial Planner™ or CFP®

The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® and federally registered CFP (with flame design) marks (collectively, the “CFP® marks”) are professional certification marks granted in the United States by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (“CFP Board”).

The CFP® certification is a voluntary certification; no federal or state law or regulation requires financial planners to hold CFP® certification. It is recognized in the United States and a number of other countries for its (1) high standard of professional education; (2) stringent code of conduct and standards of practice; and (3) ethical requirements that govern professional engagements with clients. Currently, more than 62,000 individuals have obtained CFP® certification in the United States.

To attain the right to use the CFP® marks, an individual must satisfactorily fulfill the following requirements:

Education – Complete an advanced college-level course of study addressing the financial planning subject areas that CFP Board’s studies have determined as necessary for the competent and professional delivery of financial planning services, and attain a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited United States college or university (or its equivalent from a foreign university). CFP Board’s financial planning subject areas include insurance planning and risk management, employee benefits planning, investment planning, income tax planning, retirement planning, and estate planning;
Examination – Pass the comprehensive CFP® Certification Examination. The examination, administered in 10 hours over a two-day period, includes case studies and client scenarios designed to test one’s ability to correctly diagnose financial planning issues and apply one’s knowledge of financial planning to real world circumstances;
Experience – Complete at least three years of full-time financial planning-related experience (or the equivalent, measured as 2,000 hours per year); and
Ethics – Agree to be bound by CFP Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct, a set of documents outlining the ethical and practice standards for CFP®

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