The Chlupp & Hall Group story begins with an entrepreneurial spirited man taking a risk. In 1980, my father Fred Chlupp decided to make a major career change and leave his post as the head of the Washington County Land Use Department and pursue a career as a Financial Advisor at Baird. He worked extremely hard and showed promise in the industry so in 1982 he convinced Baird that he could create a successful branch office in the city of West Bend. His main purpose for this bold request so early in his career was to avoid uprooting his family that he moved to West Bend in 1973. He knew that with two young children “failure was not an option.” So he spent many evenings and weekends working to ensure that would not happen. Thankfully, it didn't.

In 1987, I remember hearing about the “stock market crashing” one day at school. I had grown up around and owned investments for most of my life, so I knew this was going to be a tough day for my dad. He got home a little later than usual that day but much to my surprise he was calm. He told us around the dinner table that corrections like this have happened in the past, they will happen in the future but they almost always represent a long term opportunity. He and my grandfather had the same conviction about thinking long-term when it comes to investing in stocks and they both enjoyed much success with that mindset. Dad was one of the elite advisors at Baird for many years and I will always be grateful for the foundation of clients that he created which is still the heart & soul of the Chlupp & Hall Group today.

In 1997, I graduated from UW-La Crosse and applied for a position in the operations department of Baird in Milwaukee. I did not have any clear intensions of joining my father’s practice at that time, but I always knew that Baird was a highly regarded company that had been very good to my family. I was offered the job in the operations department and it was a perfect place for me to understand how everything worked at an investment firm.

My father never steered my sister or I towards his practice which he knew to be a highly stressful career path. After working at Baird in Milwaukee for a couple of years I saw how financial advisors could really make a difference in their clients' lives and be a guiding light through the most uncertain times. Being an investor since I was 3 years old, it became clear to me that I wanted to leverage this experience to others. We were visiting my sister in Salt Lake City in 1999 when I asked my dad if he needed a partner in his practice. He said "Yes, I think you are ready now".

In November of 1999, I joined the West Bend Office of Baird. Fred relinquished his duties as the Branch Manager and he and I formed The Chlupp Group. I was fortunate to have a seasoned Client Relationship Assistant in Samantha Kuehn, who knew our clients and my father’s business practice extremely well. My first day at the West Bend Office, my dad said "I put a little welcoming gift on your desk". He led me to the office that was affectionately known as "the closet" and there on my desk was a stack paper that stood about 4 inches high. On each sheet of paper were about 20 names, addresses and phone numbers of people for me to call and find out if they'd like my advice. When I eventually completed that task I had a much better understanding about how difficult it is to start in this business and how valuable our existing relationships were.

The Technology Bubble (and burst) taught me valuable lessons early in my career. At that time people wanted to talk to a young advisor about "tech stocks" and so I attended conferences and read books and research reports to become knowledgeable about the tech industry. Ultimately this period shaped my strong conviction about why it is so important for clients to adhere to their own risk-tolerance and time horizon. It also led me towards a phenomenon that was relatively new to the industry, which was to introduce clients to fully diversified and actively managed accounts. Above all it was my first (but not my last) real life exposure to counseling clients through a tough market environment. This was also when I started to recognize that I would be a better advisor for clients that were looking for stewardship of their investments and not just investment home runs.

In 2003, my father decided that he'd like to retire by 2005. It was then that he started to introduce me to more of his established relationships. Because I spent my first few years prospecting on my own, I truly knew what a treasure it was to have warm introductions to existing clients. I didn't take that lightly then and don't take that lightly now and try to show appreciation to our clients at every opportunity.

My father retired in 2005 and has left a lasting legacy of a successful Baird Office in West Bend. I am proud of his accomplishments and am always thankful for the foundation of our practice that he created and we continue to build upon today.

Around the time of dad’s retirement was when it had become clear to me that in order to maintain and attract families that had significant wealth, I needed to deepen the expertise within my team. After a two year process, I earned my Certified Investment Management Designation (CIMA®) from The Wharton School of Business, which focuses on managed investment strategies for wealthy families. I knew when my father retired that I would earn more money by not bringing on a partner, but I also knew that our clients that had entrusted me with the stewardship of their wealth deserved to have an expert not only on the investment side, but the financial planning side as well. So, at no extra cost to my clients, I decided to arrange for a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM practitioner to join my practice. Thankfully, I knew someone that would be a perfect fit. Brandon Hall and I grew up playing sports together in West Bend and also attended UW-La Crosse together. He started his career at Baird helping advisors and their clients with complex strategies that could help with the risk associated with holding concentrated stock positions. During this period Brandon was helping many of Baird's highest net worth clients throughout the firm. In 2004, he decided to embark on the two-year process of earning his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNINGTM designation. He eventually joined the financial planning department at Baird and was advising on about 15 financial plans a week for Baird clients throughout the country. As impressive as Brandon's experience was, it was equally important to me that I had known him for most of my life and knew that he had the same moral and ethical values that I did. It would have been more difficult for me to involve someone into my practice if I didn't have this trust and respect already established from early on. He also made a huge decision that wasn't purely based on money. Brandon had opportunities before joining my practice to join much bigger teams at Baird. He and I both believed strongly that the financial plan should drive investment decisions and we both had a mindset to methodically grow this practice together and so he decided to join my team instead of the other more lucrative opportunities. Thus, The Chlupp and Hall Group formed in 2006.

In 2007, we were approached by another team in the office that that had 40+ years of combined experience to help them transition into retirement. We were honored by the opportunity and Brandon especially worked diligently on that transition until it was complete in 2012. We are delighted to have met some of our favorite families through that 5 year process.

In 2010, we were fortunate to bring Katie Draeger into the team as a fully licensed Client Relationship Assistant (CRA). She holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and brought experience from working at some cutting edge local companies. Katie took care of the marketing and events as well as much of the outbound communication with clients that included appointment scheduling. Katie was instrumental in elevating the quality of our team events as well as our marketing efforts especially on our website. In 2012, Paula Jensen joined our team. She is also a fully licensed CRA. Paula had owned her own company and also worked in the Tool & Die industry for years before joining Baird in the Milwaukee Office. Paula has become our operations expert for projects that take an enormous amount of time, diligence and organization to accomplish. She excels at complicated tasks like overseeing estate distributions, onboarding new clients and the operations that goes along with changing investment strategies. For about a year and a half, we were fortunate to have these two part-time CRA’s that complemented each other so well. In 2014, Katie made the decision to become a stay-at-home mom for her two young children. Our family-oriented team fully supported her decision even though we were sad to see her go. Katie’s efforts to create top-notch events as well as capture the essence of our team on our website allowed Paula to carry on those major aspects without the huge undertaking of creating them. Paula is now our full-time team member and is really the final component that we needed to become a premiere team in Southeastern Wisconsin.

We now have a crystal-clear view of the families that will be a good fit to work with our team. Since it typically takes two months for us in time and energy to successfully integrate a new client to the Chlupp & Hall Group, we only bring on about 6 new families per year. These families typically have $2 Million or more in investable assets. We are also open to a free consultation for any family and have referred some families willingly to other Baird Advisors that would be a better fit for them.

Our "roots" and this story is the foundation for The Chlupp and Hall Group Mission that we established in 2013:

"We help family-oriented people with the stewardship of their wealth".
-Chris Chlupp