Money decisions are rarely about numbers alone. They are shaped by emotions, life transitions, and the relationships that surround them, often long before logic enters the conversation.

In this episode, Jude Boudreaux and Caleb Arringdale sit down with Cicily Maton, Partner at The Planning Center, to explore why meaningful financial planning starts with understanding people first. Cicily reflects on her decades-long career, her role in shaping a values-based planning approach, and what retirement has taught her about clarity, connection, and intentional living.

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Cicily Maton is a Partner at The Planning Center and the founder of its Chicago office. With decades of experience in financial planning, she is widely known for her work helping individuals and families navigate major life transitions. Cicily has been a longtime advocate for understanding the emotional side of money, contributing to the evolution of financial planning as a people-centered profession.

What does it mean to grow with a firm and a family over 22 years?

In this heart-centered conversation, host Jude Boudreaux, CFP®, and co-host Caleb Arringdale, EA, sit down with senior planner and shareholder Matt Sivertsen, CFP®, CeFT®, to explore a personal journey that began with music and evolved into a vocation of mentorship, leadership, and financial guidance.

From $8-an-hour beginnings to becoming Director of Financial Planning at The Planning Center, Matt shares how the mindset of a musician—practice, performance, and mastery—shaped his approach to client relationships and team mentorship. He reflects on lessons learned from firm founder Marty Kurtz, how financial values get passed through generations, and the importance of slowing down to teach what really matters.

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Matt Sivertsen is passionate about helping clients understand the complex world of finance, and giving them the knowledge and tools to better understand their financial lives. Among his long-term goals as a financial planner is to be a catalyst for creating conversations about money for multiple generations of families. One of his biggest accomplishments has been pioneering a net worth and income compensation model that better aligns their fee with how they work with their clients. The model works well across various income and asset levels enabling them to serve people of all ages and generations, achieves a totally conflict free situation and can potentially reduce management fees to deliver greater value for their clients. The highlight of his career has been appearing in a feature article about retainer models on the cover of Financial Planner Magazine with his Moline partners.

What does it really look like to serve clients with empathy, attention, and heart?

In this episode of Living Beyond the Numbers, hosts Jude Boudreaux and Caleb Arringdale sit down with two of the warmest voices at The Planning Center, Jenessa Ritchie and Krystal Gilliam, client service associates from the Quad Cities and Anchorage offices. Together, they pull back the curtain on what it takes to deliver meaningful service that goes far beyond transactions, discussing the human side of financial planning and how listening, care, and follow-through create trust that lasts for generations.

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Jenessa Ritchie is a Client Service Associate at The Planning Center’s Quad Cities office in Moline. At the heart of financial planning is trust, and Jenessa takes great pride in fostering meaningful connections with clients. Her goal is to provide a welcoming experience, guiding individuals and families through the technology and logistics of their financial journey while helping them feel confident and supported every step of the way.

Krystal Gilliam serves as a Client Service Associate at The Planning Center’s Anchorage office in Alaska. Krystal believes that excellent service starts with genuine care and clear communication. Her role allows her to support clients with everything from scheduling to navigating account technology—always with a focus on helping them feel heard, valued, and taken care of.

Achieving financial stability brings a new set of challenges, especially when it comes to supporting adult children. How do you help without creating dependency, and when does generosity cross the line into enabling?

In this episode of Living Beyond the Numbers, Jude Boudreaux and Caleb Arringdale are joined by Ashley Quamme, LMFT, FBS®, CFT, Owner and Founder of Beyond The Plan®, for a thoughtful conversation about the emotional and practical sides of intergenerational wealth. Ashley shares strategies for starting money conversations with adult children, the difference between fairness and equality in gifting, and how to build meaningful family traditions that transcend financial resources.

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Ashley Quamme is recognized as a leading voice in financial psychology, with nearly 15 years of experience at the intersection of human behavior and money. Trained as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Financial Behavior Specialist®, her work has been shaped by a deep understanding of how emotions, relationships, and biases influence financial decision-making.

Her expertise has been sought by advisory firms, financial institutions, and professional organizations across North America, where she has guided advisors and leaders in embedding behavioral insights into their systems, conversations, and client strategies. Known for bridging the gap between technical advice and human behavior, Ashley’s approach has been instrumental in transforming client experiences, advisor confidence, and firm-wide impact.

Her work has been featured on leading podcasts, industry conferences, and corporate trainings, where she is consistently recognized for making complex behavioral science both practical and actionable.

Family game nights can do more than bring people together. They can build connections across generations, teach resilience, and create memorable moments that outlast the scoreboard.

In this episode of Living Beyond the Numbers, Jude Boudreaux and Caleb Arringdale are joined by Rob Baner, Tax Advisor, and Abney Fortino, Tax Analyst at The Planning Center, for a fun and surprisingly thoughtful conversation about why play still matters, especially for busy families.

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About our Guests: 

As a CPA, Rob Baner’s responsibilities focus primarily on taxes and tax matters. Rob joined The Planning Center in 2015, after working with a full-service Quad Cities CPA firm from 2010 to 2015. Though his duties vary based upon the needs of our clients, Rob works collaboratively with our financial planners to provide integrated tax preparation and tax planning services to our clients. It’s important to remember that tax planning is a year-round job and April 15th is simply the culmination of our work. Nothing gives Rob greater satisfaction than knowing that we have helped our clients navigate the maze that is our tax system.

Abney Fortino joined The Planning Center in 2018. Abney’s responsibilities as a tax analyst include tax planning, preparation, and reviewing tax forms for individuals. In addition to those duties, Abney assists with accounting and operations within the company.

When markets move fast, having a disciplined process matters even more.

In this episode of Living Beyond the Numbers, Jude Boudreaux and Caleb Arringdale sit down with Kevin Olson, Trade Desk Associate at The Planning Center, for a rare behind-the-scenes look at how portfolios are managed day to day and what really happens when markets swing. Together, they unpack how The Planning Center’s investment committee works, why rebalancing is one of the most important (but least understood) parts of long-term investing, and how their systems keep clients focused on what truly matters: peace of mind, not market noise.

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About our Guest:

Kevin Olson, CFP®, is a Trade Desk Associate at The Planning Center in Moline, where he brings 7 years of investment experience, having previously worked for The Vanguard Group in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is responsible for running our trade desk, which includes daily trades as well as weekly rebalancing of accounts. I also serve as a member of our Investment Committee.

Sometimes the path forward looks more like a winding trail than a straight line.

In this episode, Jude Boudreaux, CFP®, and Caleb Arringdale, EA,  sit down with Michael Branham, CFP®, Shareholder and Senior Financial Planner at The Planning Center’s Alaska office, to talk about career pivots, family priorities, and why retirement isn’t really an ending, it’s a transition into a more intentional way of living.

Mike shares how his journey, from the Midwest to Alaska and from chasing success to defining balance, has shaped his perspective on money, legacy, and fulfillment. Together, they explore what it means to build a financial life that’s resilient, values-driven, and grounded in real life.

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Mike embraces his fiduciary duty to clients and believes that the best path to help you reach your life’s goals is through an integrated planning approach that coordinates each facet of your financial life. We start each engagement with an in-depth conversation about your goals and aspirations. Next, we collaborate to customize a plan that incorporates your resources, current and future, into achieving your life’s dreams. From there, we continue our work together to maintain and adjust your plan as “life happens”, and to help you navigate each of your key personal and career transitions along the way.

When it comes to financial planning, it’s often the behind-the-scenes teamwork that makes everything work seamlessly.

In this episode of Living Beyond the Numbers, Jude Boudreaux and Caleb Arringdale sit down with two of The Planning Center’s client service specialists, Marisa Hardwick (Chicago) and Blake Murphy-Skelley (Moline), to spotlight the people who make sure every account, transfer, and detail is handled with care.

Together, they pull back the curtain on what it really means to serve clients well, solving problems quietly, building trust, and creating a sense of calm even during life’s most stressful moments. From handling RMD season to comforting clients after loss, Marisa and Blake share how empathy, precision, and teamwork bring The Planning Center’s mission to life every day.

What to expect:

Discover the care, coordination, and human connection that keep your financial life running smoothly.

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As a Client Services Specialist, Marisa Hardwick’s responsibilities include providing administrative support to our financial planners and excellent customer service to our clients. With a background in healthcare services and working in residential life as a Resident Advisor while in college, it has always been a passion of hers to help those in need. Marisa strives to foster a supportive environment for our team, assuring they can depend on her to deliver top-notch service to our clients.

Blake Murphy-Skelley’s responsibility as a Client Services Specialist is to assist all clients of The Planning Center and members of our team. He has been working in customer service since he was 14 years old and is glad to be bringing that knowledge and experience to The Planning Center. Blake wants to provide a safe space for clients to feel comfortable as soon as they walk through the front door.

College decisions reveal more than numbers; they reveal what we value most.

Discover how to align your financial choices with the legacy you want to build for your family.

Money meets meaning in this candid conversation between Jude Boudreaux, Caleb Arringdale, and Ron Lieber, New York Times columnist and author of The Price You Pay for College and The Opposite of Spoiled. Together, they unpack the emotions and realities behind one of life’s biggest financial crossroads: sending your child to college. From fear and guilt to social pressure and “rejective” schools, Ron reveals how hidden feelings often drive family choices more than finances do. He shares practical insights for making smarter, values-based decisions, asking for more aid without “negotiating,” and teaching kids responsibility through money.

What to expect:

It’s time to move beyond numbers and make decisions that reflect what truly matters to your family.

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About our Guest:

Ron Lieber is the author of The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money, which was an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller when it was released in 2015. “The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Roadmap for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make,” was published by HarperCollins in January, 2021.

Ron has been the “Your Money” columnist for The New York Times since 2008. Before coming to The Times, he wrote the “Green Thumb” personal finance column for The Wall Street Journal and was part of the startup team at the paper’s Personal Journal section.

Ron’s first book, Taking Time Off: Inspiring Stories of Students Who Enjoyed Successful Breaks from College and How You Can Plan Your Own, co-authored with Colin Hall, was a New York Times bestseller in 1996. He also wrote Upstart Start­-Ups, a book for young entrepreneurs, and was the co-author of a guidebook to the best entry­-level jobs in the United States.

Ron spent 14 years at the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago and graduated from Amherst College. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.

Every entrepreneur’s journey is filled with twists, failures, resilience, and reinvention. 

Few embody that better than Robert LeBlanc, founder of LeBlanc + Smith, whose 25-year career in hospitality began with a failed record label and evolved into a collection of acclaimed hotels, restaurants, and bars across New Orleans, Nashville, and beyond.

In this episode, Jude Boudreaux and Caleb Arringdale sit down with Robert to explore the lessons learned along the way about presence, parenting, building a values-based company, and raising the next generation to define success for themselves.

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About our Guest:

Robert LeBlanc is the founder and principal of LeBlanc + Smith, a New Orleans-based hospitality group known for creating boutique hotels, restaurants, and bars rooted in authenticity and community. Over the past 25 years, he has grown the company from a small music venture into a multi-city portfolio by combining creativity, resilience, and a values-driven approach. Passionate about presence, gratitude, and mentorship, Robert leads both his family and his business with a belief that true success is measured not in dollars but in relationships, experiences, and impact.