Piershale Financial Group S Grove Ave, Barrington

I’ve been with Piershale Financial for over 15 years! Mike Piershale and his staff are wonderful! They are attentive and always available. They have my financial well being at heart and they did a marvelous job navigating my investments through the pandemic! I highly recommend this company!

I am new to the Piershale Financial Group, having recently left another firm that was not handling my portfolio well. I have been very impressed with the firm. Ben Barzideh, my portfolio manager, explained their system of asset management, “Advance and Protect,” in a way that was easy to understand and made sense. The staff has been first-rate, immediately returning calls if I have a question, helping me through some technology issues and keeping me posted on my portfolio. They offer in-person meetings as well as virtual. Everyone in the office is friendly, courteous and professional. I’m very glad I made the switch!

I am a very new client but have been extremely confident that with their astute focus on the current market trends, Piershale Financial Group will oversee and protect my investments. Everyone that I have met with has been professional, knowledgeable and friendly. Coming from another investment firm, I am appreciative of the weekly newsletter providing market commentary, and having access to my accounts with the Charles Schwab app. I wish I would have known about this group a few years ago, but as Ben said when I expressed this in my last meeting, it’s never too late!

We recently switched to Piershale Financial Group after being with a large firm for 20+ years and find the personal touch of a smaller firm to be much more comforting, especially while we are going through such a trying time. Mike and his team are professional, friendly, courteous and very helpful and responsive to our needs. Most recently we attended their annual customer appreciation dinner and had a wonderful evening! Mike is very knowledgeable and highly respected in the industry, which is why we choose his firm. Thank you to the Piershale Team!

All the staff at Piershale Financial Group have been very attentive and helpful from day one. When it comes time to the portfolio reviews and financial planning, everything is thorough and comprehensive and explained in a way that makes you feel confident in the short and long term plans that align with your goals.

My wife and I enjoyed our meetings with Matt and Trish at Piershale. Mike's presentation really provided new insight on wealth management with the Advance and Protect strategy. There was no hard sell or pressure to join Piershale Financial Group as the facts did all the necessary selling for them. We look forward to a great relationship with Piershale.

Piershale Financial firm has provided excellent service to grow my investment portfolio. Mike Piershale's commitment and communication about the complex money markets is a key component of his business. Mike and his team provide WORLD CLASS service. The level of uncertainty in the world is so high but you can trust that they will manage your investments for your best interests. Mike loves talk with his clients about his companies plan to deal with all the market ups and down. Thank you to all the Piershale team staff members.

Piershale Financial is a top notch financial advisor. They are very knowledgeable about what is going on with financial markets and have investing systems in place to maximize portfolio gains when markets are favorable and protect your assets when they are not. I have also found the staff to be very friendly and easy to work with. The fees are reasonable for the services they provide.

Be careful, the good financial results Piershale provided us were not their actual performance results and our account experience significant performance gaps: My husband and I invested in Piershale’s Advance and Protect Model because it was our understanding that they provided us with actual performance results. In the second half of 2021, our investment experienced significant under performance relative to the S&P 500 index that they provided us as the benchmark for their model. After we experienced this underperformance, we found out that they provided us NO actual performance results prior to investing. Instead, they provided us back tested results that represent what their performance results would have been with their most recent model update. Although the financial performance results from their Advance and Protect Model looks good, their results should be expected to be good since they have the benefit of knowing exactly how the stock market performed when they generated these back tested results with their model. Paragraph 3 in the detailed performance report they provided us states that their performance results prior to 2018 are hypothetical. However, this report does not state that the performance results from 2018 through 2021 are hypothetical. Also, my husband and I recall their financial advisor stating that some of the performance results were actual results. As a Fiduciary, I would have expected Piershale to be more clear about what is included in their performance results. Piershale’s staff are very professional and responsive; however, I would only recommend that investors consider their Advance and Protect Model if they provide actual performance results. They refused to provide us actual performance results after we found out they provided us NO actual results prior to investing, claiming their compliance department would not allow them to provide actual performance results. I don’t know how any new client can evaluate how their Advance and Protect Model may perform in the future without knowing how they actually performed in the past. There are other fiduciary advisors with similar momentum-based investment models with downside protection against stock market crashes that will provide you 20 years of ACTUAL HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS. In the five months that we were a client, Piershale made two significant changes that will supposably address the performance gaps that we observed: 1. In these five months, their short-term indicator turned negative four times, which caused Piershale to sell a portion of the stocks/ETFs in our account. In each case, 1-2 weeks later, Piershale bought additional stocks and ETFs when the overall stock market was higher (whipsawed). With Piershale selling when the stock market was down and buying when the market was up, my account lost value each of these four times while the overall stock market increased in value. 2. After experiencing significant underperformance with their Break Out Stock, Piershale informed me that the prices they were buying and selling these stocks were impacted by the purchases and sales from other investment firms. Also, Piershale never disclosed to me that they had less than one year of experience with their Break Out Stock Model prior to investing. As a Fiduciary, I would have expected Piershale to disclose to me their limited experience with this model. With the significance of these changes to their model, we started to question what other performance gaps Piershale’s Advance and Protect Model may experience in the future, so we withdrew the funds from our account. All of the feedback that is provided in this Google Review was provided privately to Piershale. Piershale never responded to our feedback.

My wife and I have been with Piershale for almost 2 years now. We are happy with the performance of our investment so far and appreciate the ease of communication with this group. I was drawn to them by their investment model they refer to as “Advance and Protect”. I believe they execute it well and it fits our risk/reward comfort level. I would encourage anyone looking for investing help to take a good look at this firm. J. Harman

I came to Piershale & Associates after my savings took a beating in the 2020 Covid market crash. I have been happy with the investment results since then, but more important is the confidence I have that Piershale will get me out of the market on a timely basis when the next crash comes. I base this confidence on the track record they have had during the last 2 major market crashes. Ask to see their performance numbers during the past 20 years. The numbers tell the story.