Ambient Financial Advisors introduces order and stability to the financial turmoil associated with personal transition, grief, and loss, so that individuals and families can focus on healing and building a new vision for their financial future that provides a sense of purpose, opportunity, and hope.
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We are so glad you stopped by to learn more about our firm, and how we might serve you and your family during the more trying times of life. It has been a long road for us to arrive here, and the same is probably true for you, too. How could words describe such a journey?
The short of it is that our firm’s focus found us. Our founder, Jeffrey Hill, began in the financial planning industry back in 1984. Over the next 36 years he would build a successful practice that helped expatriates and foreign nationals navigate cross-border financial planning. He found where his experience was needed and committed to this need.
When Christopher Hill joined the team, the two set out to assess the future of the firm, in hopes to reinvigorate current client relationships while also serving a unique, unfulfilled need of everyday people. They wanted to find where their joint passion and life experience met their greatest conviction.
As father and son, Jeffrey and Christopher have grown extraordinarily close over the years. After living through numerous compounding personal losses in the family spanning death, disease, and divorce, they had two realizations.
A person’s thoughts and behaviors around money are emotional, unique, and always changing, especially in times of transition, grief, or loss. Cookie cutter financial advice can do more harm than good to families who are either preparing for, or repairing from, these emotion-filled events.
What if we met this need head on by providing tailored financial services to individuals and their families with a high dependence on their story and the nature of their transition?
Ambient was born, hoping to provide a sense of purpose, opportunity, and hope as everyday people navigate the financial turmoil caused by personal transition, grief, and loss events. It is our greatest passion to engage, organize, simplify, guide and seek to protect you, when your story changes.
Hi there! I am an Iowa native, married to my husband, Gary Collins, of 23 years. I have one son, Tanner Collins, that is currently a student athlete studying to become to be a pediatrician.
I enjoy spending my free time with my family in the outdoors, fishing, hunting, gardening. I love to watch sports such as baseball, football, MMA, and Jujitsu.
I spent 15 years working at a bank as their retirement and new accounts specialist. After that, I continued my financial services career at Cambridge Investment Research, working in administrative rolls for 6 years. During that time, I obtained my Series 99 License and completed the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt designation.
This sparked a passion for growing my experience in the financial services industry, leading me to join LPL in 2021.
I look forward to getting to know you and your family while serving you through your financial journey.
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Hello! It is an honor and a privilege to help lead our 40-year-old firm as we serve our client families. A little about myself:
The financial planning industry is a unique one. In the early years, advisors found their way into the profession through channels similar to the industry itself (think insurance agents, bank tellers, stock brokers, or tax professionals). Nowadays, people find their way to the financial planning profession from many different career paths. I am one of those advisors.
Before joining the Ambient, I spent a decade of my life working with high school students and their families in Boulder, CO. During my time in ministry, I worked in an organization called Young Life, later moving on to direct a fairly large youth ministry department at a prominent church. The experience was rich, fun and challenging, and some of the conversations I had then are no different in depth and meaning than those now.
Before I reached my 30’s, I had lost many of my closest people through three major, but unfortunately common transitions: sudden death, diagnosis and divorce. Experiencing the initial days of loss, and learning to integrate those losses into what came next, changed my relationship with money. It has invigorated me to provide better financial life planning and advice to those experiencing their own transition.
To borrow some familiar language, financial transition planning requires specialized knowledge on both the intellectual (IQ) and emotional (EQ) levels. I belong to two communities that have prepared me for the work we do:
As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, I have taken an oath to provide and carry out fiduciary financial recommendations after completing an extensive experience period and passing a rigorous examination. I have chosen to adhere to a very high code of ethics and standard of conduct as well as be a life-long student in my continuing education requirement.
I am also a Certified Financial Transitionist (CeFT®). This post-CFP® mark is a professional designation that is awarded to financial professionals who have extensive training and experience in helping clients navigate major life transitions. These transitions can include events such as divorce, retirement, job loss, death of a spouse, or a sudden windfall of money. The CeFT® designation requires financial professionals to have a deep understanding of the financial implications of these transitions. They must also be able to provide clients with the emotional support and guidance they need to make sound financial decisions.
Previously, I have gone through training from the Grief Recovery Institute, becoming a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist for a short time. In short, I knew what it was like to tell of my own experience, but effectively listening and engaging with another’s is truly an art. My training grounded me in a more empathetic and patient approach to someone in pain. I continue to learn how to engage the nuance of grief in real-time, helping people in self-discovery and processing.
If you visit you will see t-shirts displaying “Longmont vs Everybody,” “Long Live Longmont,” or even “LOCO” (Shortened Colorado talk for Longmont, Colorado). People who live there, love living there. We love living there. After growing up in downtown Denver, CO, the pace and feel of Longmont is much welcomed. You will catch my wife, Cassidy, our daughters Junia and Dahlia, and me walking our big golden doodle “Sunny” around our beloved town.
I look forward to meeting you, swapping stories, and serving you and your family.
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Greetings. I am a CFP Board Emeritus™ member, having begun my professional wealth management practice in 1984. I am the founder of Ambient Financial Advisors, formerly Global Wealth Management Group, a Boulder branch of LPL Financial. It has been one of my life’s great joys to partner with my son in serving individuals and their families on their personal financial journeys.
Since the outset of my cherished career, my focus has been one of comprehensive financial planning, helping clients make financial decisions in all areas of their lives, that are in their best interests. I was inspired by the early CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals who paved the way for holistic financial planning and became excited to spend the majority of my life learning this all-encompassing (ambient) approach to personal finance.
I earned a BA in English Literature from Washburn University and my CFP® professional designation from the College for Financial Planning. I also did graduate work at Washburn University School of Law and am proud of my 38+ years of membership in the Colorado Financial Planning Association (FPA).
I began my career in the early 1980’s while still working as a flight attendant/purser, using my bilingualism in English and Spanish to serve on both domestic and international flights. My international travel and contacts across the USA and Latin America led to a focus on clients residing outside the USA, whether USA expats or foreign nationals. I quickly found my focus doing cross-border financial planning and investment management for these families.
I have realized that many, if not most, of our current client relationships began or developed around a grief or transition event. Through years of walking alongside families before, during, and after these events, I have become devoted to the immense need for specialized financial care, especially in the studies of behavioral finance. Our team’s approach in helping those experiencing or expecting significant grief events and the emotions involved in making sound, timely and prudent financial decisions, gives me both professional and personal fulfillment in life.
I continue to maintain a home in México and the USA, having chosen Colorado as my family’s primary residence and the principal location for Ambient’s office. I am an overall sport’s enthusiast, loving both Colorado and Pittsburgh football. I collect art and enjoy time spent in the appreciation of art, architecture and design. I am married to El Hernández-Hill, a bilingual educator and translator. And of course, enjoy a close relationship with my son, Christopher, who leads our firm.
I greatly look forward to a conversation with you and your family.
Check the background of investment professionals associated with this site on FINRA's BrokerCheck.
Any transitional event, whether expected or unexpected, can carry with it a high level of anxiety, confusion and emotion. Often, they trigger a financial disruption that can be overwhelming. For some, sudden wealth can be as burdensome as unanticipated financial tension. In the aftermath of a difficult life-altering event, most people are in a state of shock and confusion that can make it difficult to know the appropriate course of action legally, logistically and financially. In these times, people need trusted professional advisors who can guide their clients through the immediate necessary decisions and tasks, and discern which matters can safely be addressed at a more emotionally appropriate time.
Grieving is a highly individualized process. To be of greatest assistance to their clients, professional services providers need to be sensitive to an individual’s specific journey, understanding when it is appropriate to offer professional advice and when it is better to provide personal support. While it is important to ensure necessary decisions are made, the best advisors understand that every individual will progress toward healing on a different timeline and will take that into consideration when setting the pace of their financial planning.
Transition, grief, and loss events that trigger a financial disruption, either as sudden wealth or financial strain, can create a challenging family dynamic that can have a lasting impact on relationships. In these situations, families benefit from a financial advisor who can provide guidance, mediation and professional objectivity as they face highly emotional financial issues.
The impact of significant transition can be widespread and complex, spanning emotional, financial and legal issues. Individuals who are grieving can be clouded and in need of guidance but may not have the necessary professional resources, leaving them feeling vulnerable and anxious. What is more, the need to explain their situation to each new service provider can be emotionally exhausting or even traumatic. At such times, access to a network of like-minded professionals who have an established protocol designed to simplify the process can be invaluable to those in the midst of grief.
In the case of the death of a loved one or abandonment, the people left behind can feel isolated or lost. When the loss triggers a financial disruption, whether it is sudden wealth or financial crises, the individual can be overwhelmed about how to move forward. In those moments, individuals need a financial advisor who can demonstrate commitment and offer encouragement by reassuring clients they are not alone in dealing with their financial well-being.
Transition, grief, and loss events can have the power to shatter an individual’s vision of the future. Suddenly, their picture of what lies ahead has been altered in a way that leaves them unable to look forward. In the immediate aftermath of the event, thinking ahead may not be necessary or even helpful. But as time passes, establishing hope in the future can offer tremendous healing. While financial well-being is only one aspect of this process, having an advisor who can help the individual see what is possible can be beneficial.
We provide a comprehensive financial planning relationship, or what we call our "Ambient Engagement," accomplished by defined "Roadmaps" tailored to your current situation. Regardless of the client’s Roadmap, Ambient Engagement consists of 4 main elements, all of which we believe are integral to caring for someone’s entire financial picture:
Financial ToolsOne of the most important parts of our time spent together will be organizing all of your financial data into one central hub.
With WealthVision, your own encrypted personal financial website powered by Emoney, you will have simple transparency into your ever-changing financial information.
Through storage of important documents in your Vault (electronic safe deposit box), secure aggregation of financial accounts and deep projection and analysis tools, we are able to constantly visualize goal setting, decision making, and estate distribution, all stress-tested by customized “What-If” scenarios. This tool makes your financial life less of a static snapshot and more of a visual, dynamic plan.
Financial Life PlanningWe will explore financial decisions necessary to achieve your goals and desired outcomes, as well as consider the human side of your decision making, and identifying how your values connect with your resources. As applicable, we will explore what the CFP® community considers the different elements of one's financial life:
Mastering financial, economic and cash flow | debt management concepts.
Understanding a portfolio, including different investment types, diversification, and risk management.
Performing retirement needs analyses, evaluating retirement plans, and understanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Understanding how laws and management techniques around taxes, property transfer and estate planning apply to you.
Evaluating risk and assessing different types of insurance, from healthcare to property to disability.
Preparing to save and pay for higher education.
Our hope is that you would not only be given proper analysis and recommendations, but that you would also come away educated.
Investment ManagementWe have been providing active management of investments for decades through many different economic climates. We love helping families understand both the technical and behavioral side of investing and seek to be a calm presence in all market landscapes.
We are powered by one of the most robust and responsible Independent Broker/Dealers, LPL Financial, to provide you with professional, active account management, an agnostic universe of investment types and options, and high-end account servicing.
LPL's 2023 Sustainability Report
We have access to everything from specialized separate account managers whom we trust (larger, more complex investments) to the most fundamental and simple model portfolios.
We also provide socially responsible and sustainable investing through many Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)* portfolios.
We even have our very own automated, algorithmic-based investment platform, Guided Wealth Portfolios, that pares us as your advisor team with the latest cutting-edge technology and ease-of-use in investing for those just beginning their investing journey. You can read more here:
Financial AdviceIn addition to providing necessary tools, financial life organization and education, and investment management, we seek to be the team you trust for financial advice in all topics big or small. We exist to help you make decisions that are in your best interest (fiduciary) and that apply to your specific situation.
You can call, text or email us at any time during our engagement, as you are not bound to interacting with our team only when you have a scheduled meeting. We know that financial situations can change quickly. We are available.
All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss in a declining market. There is no guarantee that a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform a non-diversified portfolio. Diversification does not protect against market risk.
*Environmental Social Governance (ESG) has certain risks based on the fact that the criteria excludes securities of certain issuers for non-financial reasons and, therefore, investors may forgo some market opportunities and the universe of investments available will be smaller.
Ambient Financial Advisors and LPL Financial do not provide legal or tax advice. Please consult with your tax or legal advisor regarding your personal situation.
As a bonus, but integral part of our service, we provide access to our coveted “Ambient Ecosystem.” This is a network of like-minded professionals who we have found and vetted on your behalf to help when your needs fall outside of our scope either in subject or complexity. If they are called upon, we will prep the professional with your situation (with permission) and will accompany you to an introductory meeting so that you do not have to begin the relationship alone (if desired).
We have developed process-driven service roadmaps designed to serve the unique needs of individuals and families in the midst of personal transition, grief, or loss. These Roadmaps are only a starting template crafted from our experiences, providing the scaffolding that takes greater shape and detail once we get to know your specific story.
We charge one simple flat fee for our Ambient Engagement relationship paid in 2 installments. If your desire is to outsource investment management to our team, a separate fee will be calculated on amounts managed (see below), and your 2nd Ambient Engagement installment will be reduced proportionately.
Once your free consultation is complete and we have agreed to work together, we charge a simple flat fee for the first year of service, based upon your specific complexity of needs and the nature of your current situation. This fee is paid in two installments. The first half is due at our first official meeting (not at your free consultation), and the remainder due when our firm’s recommendations are made.
At the 1 year anniversary of our professional relationship, we will reassess the need for our services. Many of our clients continue to work with us on an ongoing basis, with pricing less than year 1 costs. We provide semi-annual or annual financial check-ups, planning and accountability sessions, continued access to your personal financial website, ongoing Ambient Ecosystem access, and full text, call and email communication to our team at any time. Life, and the plans we make, change quickly. We want to be your financial team...for life.
We price for Ambient Engagement and Investment Management separately, as we do not require families to have investable assets held with us. During our process, if investment management becomes agreed upon, we will charge by the method that is in our client’s best interest. We conduct most investment management fees as a fixed percentage of managed assets ("Assets Under Management") in advisory accounts. This helps us reduce conflicts of interest. If an account grows, both the client and our team benefit. If an account shrinks, our team is paid less. In an advisory account, you pay one simple fee regardless of what happens in the account. You do not pay a commission for each transaction.
If a client prefers (or gets a better deal with) a commission-based account (sentimental holdings, buy and hold strategy, specific insurance policies), we can use that method with proper disclosure and education.
| < $250,000 | 1.50% |
| $250,000 - $500,00 | 1.25% |
| $500,000 - $1 Million | 1.00% |
| $1 Million - $2 Million | 0.85% |
| $2 Million - $5 Million | 0.75% |
| > $5 Million | Complexity Based |
*The above fees do not include any special portfolio options that may be added, such as separately managed accounts, multiple model managers, etc.
We have developed an ecosystem of professional service providers who share our values and people-first approach so we can confidently connect clients with complex needs to a trusted partner who can provide services outside our scope of engagement.
Current | Prospective Ecosystem Partners Click Here.
As niche advisory practitioners, our specialization lies in helping people prepare for, or repair from, transitions where financial turmoil stands in the way of healthy emotional processing. We understand that you may be in need of our services, but the label "griever" may not be a label you prefer. If you find our services to be at all relevant to your situation, we invite you to start a conversation with us.
We have decades of experience working virtually with families all over the world, including video conferencing, screen sharing and telephone communications. That being said, we set a high value on sitting face-to-face with people during the more trying times of life. Money, by itself, is a very emotional topic, and our ability to understand intricacies of your past stories and future hopes through body language elevate our trusted relationships.
CFP® stands for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, a professional certification that has been the standard of excellence for financial planners for more than 30 years. Before anyone can call themselves a CFP® professional, they must meet rigorous education, examination, experience and ethical requirements and commit to CFP Board's ethical standards that require them to act as a fiduciary, putting their clients' interests first. CFP® professionals take a holistic, personalized approach to bring all the pieces of your financial life together. You can read more HERE.
The Certified Financial Transitionist™ mark is a post-CFP® professional designation awarded to financial professionals who have extensive training and experience in helping clients navigate major life transitions. These transitions can include events such as divorce, retirement, job loss, death of a spouse, or a sudden windfall of money. The CeFT® designation requires financial professionals to have a deep understanding of the financial implications of these transitions. They must also be able to provide clients with the emotional support and guidance they need to make sound financial decisions.
LPL Financial is the independent broker/dealer we have aligned ourselves under for more than 30 years. This “mothership” provides us, as independent financial advisors, tailored back office, compliance, training and research assistance so that we can spend more of our time interacting with the families we serve. Instead of requesting us to provide proprietary services and products to our clients, LPL makes it possible for us to be truly product and service agnostic, as we operate under our own firm DBA structure. LPL has been labeled the largest independent broker/dealer in the nation*, and recently received the Equality 100 Award, satisfying all the CEI's detailed criteria which rates companies under four central pillars: non-discrimination policies across business entities, equitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families, supporting an inclusive culture, and corporate social responsibility. We love LPL.
The cases for pure investment advice/management are few and far between in our firm. We find it unwise and unethical to make investment recommendations without holding a more holistic picture of a family’s finances and an understanding of their behavioral habits, tendencies and history with money. However, we realize that especially before or shortly after a major life event, the management of investments might be first and foremost in someone’s mind. We are always open to a conversation about this.
No to both. We believe that every person should have access to financial advice, regardless of net worth, income or lifestyle choice. Therefore, we do not require any investment minimums, nor do we require clients to invest with us in order to engage. We also do not charge for our initial consultation, where we discover the journey that has brought you to today, and determine whether our firm is a good fit for your needs.
We do. In fact, this is our favorite type of engagement. Intergenerational planning is something we are personally passionate about and is something we encourage each of our clients to consider. With pleasure, we will play the middleman in financial conversation, helping each family member understand a healthy way forward depending on the situation at hand.
We are available to come speak to groups of all kinds. As CFP® professionals, we are knowledgeable in all areas of personal finance, however it is our specific experience in holding both the emotional/behavioral and the financial in proper tension where we find most meaning. We enjoy speaking with professional groups about the implications of transition, grief, and loss when it comes to their clients making important financial decisions too. If you are interested in setting up a speaking engagement, you can send an email to team@ambientfinancialadvisors.com.
As advisors, we wear countless hats, as real people’s lives are not perfectly compartmentalized. However, we will be the first to tell you that many of the hats we wear are put on with humility, knowing that we are not formally trained or certified in those areas, and with the knowledge to understand the line between giving general advice, and our client’s need of another professional.
For example, we may be the first to notice and mention cognitive decline or insipient Alzheimer’s in our client relationships. We are not equipped or certified to give in-depth advice about health or medical topics, and will refer someone to their doctor. Similarly, we spend significant time in conversation about a family’s estate planning, and have developed a strong knowledge base for how a family can take action now to take care of those they love later. We are not, however, attorneys who practice law.
So, yes, we will work closely with your family’s trusted professionals when appropriate. We also have specific relationships with local professional partners (we call this network our “ecosystem”) whom we have spoken with and vetted so that we are confident in referring you when needed.
We do not believe in the notion of using multiple financial advisors to achieve money diversification. One of the reasons we shy away from offering stand-alone investment management without our Ambient Engagement is due to the lack of in-depth discovery and holistic information needed to give recommendations that are in our client’s best interests. It is the same for using multiple advisors. We believe that having one advisor who knows much is better than having many advisors who all know a scattered little. We are also not fans of poaching clients from other advisors, on principal. If you come to us unhappy with your current advisor, we will ask many questions about your previous advisor relationship before moving forward in a new engagement.
If your question was not addressed in our FAQs above, leave us a message here and we will get back to you during normal business hours. If you would like to schedule a free introductory consultation, please use our “Free Consultation” button.
You can reach us by using any of the methods below. Please use the “Free Consultation” button to schedule an appointment. We are not able to accommodate drop-ins currently.
2919 Valmont Rd. Suite 109
Boulder, CO 80301
Call or Text 303-747-5688
