Fully committed to your success

With you in the center

At CTB Financial Services, Ltd., you are in the center.

Only by having your desires and plans as the starting point can we align our advice with your choices to help you actualize your goals. A good investment strategy, the best mutual funds, a positive rate of return, low taxes, good insurance and up-to-date wills are all important (yawn) to keeping your money safe. But it's just one side of the coin, the boring side.

You are the other side of the coin: your desires, plans, perspectives, experiences and values. In order for your money to work, connect it up with the real meaning behind your money.

It’s not all about money.

We believe in academics and in education. But in order to make a real and lasting, positive difference in your life, bring your finances into alignment with all the other, more important areas of life. That is why we're here. You bring your stuff. We’ll bring ours.

Focus: You

Committed to your
success and goals.

Strategy: Synchronized

Aligning your advisors
into one team.

Results: Maximized

Investing and tax efficiencies through unified strategy.

Do More.

By connecting all of your professional advisors together – your investment person to your CPA to your estate attorney to your insurance agents, etc. – we corral your money choices together for a truly comprehensive set of strategies. This leads to greater sophistication and efficiency. For qualifying clients in what we call our "Personal CFO" program, we take it even further by shepherding each professional advisor to ensure accurate implementation. And we can work with your incumbent professionals, or help install new relationships from among our network of experts – bringing them all together for a more efficient and harmonious strategy set.

Grow More.

We have a fresh approach to investing that offers attractive return targets on a risk-adjusted basis, diversification you can actually see, and powerfully effective rebalancing tools. Leaving the murky world of traditional investing, our portfolios function well under a bright light and profit by what works in capital markets, rather than what doesn't. And by working with outside custodians (such as Charles Schwab), we can provide that bright light – for reliable performance reporting, strength of professional reputation and accountability.

Have More.

For more than ten years, CTB Financial has pioneered the melting together of tax costs with the "applied science" of investing. By thoughtfully crafting your tax return from the ground up, we maximize the unique opportunities that exist for you, leaving nothing on the table so you can keep more. The process works equally well working with either your own tax expert or ours - for the best tax cost and investment return combination.

About CTB

Independent. Committed. Different.

You want someone by your side, someone who is committed to you and your success, someone capable and independent, with only one loyalty: You.

Do more.

Grow more.

Have more.

Founded in 2002 and 100% employee owned, CTB Financial can help you actualize your goals. Sophisticated financial advice contributes to your success. But these technical aspects are just one side of the coin. The other side is comprised of all of the human "intangibles" that is you. You bring your stuff. We'll bring ours.

One Focus: You. Multiple Perspectives: Coordinated.

We would be happy to meet with you to discuss these topics in more detail. Just let us know what works best for you.

O. Charles (Chuck) Brown, CPA, CFP®

President, Caldwell, Taylor & Brown, Ltd., Certified Public Accountants
President, CTB Financial Services Ltd., Registered Investment Advisor

Having worked with a variety of CPA firms, primarily in the area of tax and management services, Chuck Brown, along with Ed Caldwell and Bob Taylor, founded Caldwell, Taylor & Brown, LTD., a CPA firm in 1979. He became the sole shareholder and President in 1992. Today, the CPA firm is owned by Chuck and two other CPAs inside the firm.

Chuck graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a double major in Economics and Accounting, as well as a minor in Business Administration in 1973. He received his CPA certificate in 1980 and his CFP® certificate in 1994. Chuck is a member of the AICPA and the Personal Financial Planning Section of the AICPA.

In 2002, in response to the demands of his clients, he started CTB Financial Services, LTD. Chuck believed that by marrying tax, accounting and investment advice, CTB Financial would be able to raise the bar to a whole new level. Even he didn't know how right this idea was at the time.

Chuck is active in his community, including a long-standing membership in the Minnetonka Lions Club, where he served as Treasurer. He served on the Executive Board of Twin City Christian Homes for eight years and has also served as Treasurer. He has served on the Resource Committee of Ridgewood Church for 10 years and has been involved in various outreach programs to Mexico, Costa Rica and the Ukraine.

In his free time, Chuck likes to hunt, travel and collect old junk. Chuck has three grown daughters and resides in Minnetrista, Minnesota.

“I originally got into accounting because I loved economics. I have been advising clients for over thirty years pulling their taxes, estates and investments into alignment. For nearly a decade, we have been directly managing their investment portfolios.

“I began managing my clients’ investment portfolios because I hated what brokers were doing to my clients and their tax situations. The further down the road we travel, the more ways we find to make the marriage of taxes and investing better.”

Jonathan Liang, MA, CFP®

Vice President and Partner, CTB Financial Services, Ltd., Registered Investment Advisor

Liang Jonathan began his financial services career in 1996, working around the globe at UnitedHealthcare, American International Group and Allianz Life. Although he enjoyed his broad and international experience with these companies, he decided to redirect his focus toward an area that would have an immediate and more meaningful impact in people's lives by starting Rock Creek Financial Strategies in 2000, a comprehensive financial planning firm.

In 2006, to enhance service to clients, he merged Rock Creek with CTB Financial Services LTD. Throughout his career, Jonathan has focused on helping successful individuals and their families carve the optimal path from wherever they are to where they want to be.

Jonathan completed his Master's Degree in International Business in 1996 at Indiana University and achieved his Certified Financial Planner® designation in 2004. Jonathan is also a member of the Financial Planning Association.

Jonathan lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife and two children. He enjoys traveling and spending time with his family. Jonathan is active in his church and is a board member and treasurer for Anurag Society, a non-profit corporation that works to bring hope for a promising future to the lives of impoverished families and individuals in India. He also serves on the Board of ICCM Life Center, which works with the broken and hurting urban poor in Minneapolis, MN.

“Today, we all have the greatest opportunity for achieving our financial goals of any time before. The vast, interconnected mechanisms for getting things done, however, have never been so complex. This complexity has grown into a new kind of obstacle facing people with wealth.

“If you decide not to come in and let us educate you, please learn from credible sources only. Today’s popular media is more than wrong or misleading. It is dangerous. To you personally. If you must read magazines or self-help books, surf the internet, or whatever, take it for the entertainment it is. Not real information. Accept nothing less than academic research, objective, scientific and peer-reviewed. Get educated.”

John Winberg

Special Technical Expert

Winberg John is semi-retired after a 40-year career in retailing at Dayton’s, Wilson’s Leather, Rainforest Café, Gander Mountain, and others, and is now pursuing his true love of numbers and investing. Born before computers and calculators, he was forced to learn simple math functions, and can still do them. John loves to look at screens and reports to see if the numbers make sense, and researches the ones that look strange. A life-long Minnesotan, his hobbies include most sports as a spectator, and golf as a participant.

Sarah Berggren

Client Service Specialist

Berggren “My desire is to provide our clients with the highest level of service possible.”

Sarah is a graduate of North Central University and holds a degree in Cross-Cultural Studies and in TEFL. Her work reflects strong organizational skills coupled with the ability to juggle several demands efficiently and effectively. She routinely anticipates the operational needs of our business before the principals do, thereby serving a critical role in helping us meet our strategic and organizational goals.

She joined CTB Financial in early 2007. Her role as a Client Service Specialist entails all the detailed, nit-picky jobs that are so important to our clients, as well as marketing related project management, communications and event coordination. Sarah administers client service requests, is responsible for all client paperwork and applications, along with meeting set-up and client review preparation.

“I strive to be a dependable resource for our clients.”

Sarah grew up in northern Minnesota and enjoys frequent visits with her family in Moose Lake. Sarah enjoys exotic travel with her husband, doing global missions work, and visiting her husband's family in Sweden. Sarah enjoys music, is an accomplished painter/artist, and is very active in her church.

Erin Chambers

Client Service Specialist

Chambers Erin is the newest member of the CTB Financial team. Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, Erin came to Minneapolis to study at the University of Minnesota. She graduated summa cum laude in 2010 and joined the CTB team in February 2011 after a stint with the Geek Squad doing what Erin likes to call “computer triage”. She is excited to grow into her role at CTB.

As part of our team of Client Service associates, she strives to provide excellent care and service to our clients while serving as a support to our principals and her fellow staff members.

Erin is a woman of diverse interests. She is an accomplished pianist and can often be found dabbling in hiking, painting, print design, and even a little backyard horticulture. Erin and her husband, Eric, married in August 2011 and are involved in worship and tech support at their church in Northfield, MN.

Jamie Hansen

Client Service Specialist/Marketing

Hansen Jamie joined CTB Financial in October 2010. She earned a BA in Athletic Training from Bethel University and made progress towards a Masters in Kinesiology. Her interest in the Financial Services Industry, piqued by her dad (Chuck Brown) led her to explore opportunities to use her skills at CTB Financial.

Her entrepreneurial spirit, coupled with her previous experience in other small businesses, has enabled Jamie to become a strong asset to the clients and advisors at CTB Financial. In addition to supporting our back office, Jamie is responsible for implementing our Circle of Friends program of events and for event planning. She is excited to be a part of providing excellent service to our clients.

Jamie’s husband Scott and son Jesse keep her on the move. They enjoy traveling to see extended family and friends in California several times a year. She would rather be outside than in, sleeping than cleaning, and loves the combination of good food + good wine + good friends.