Financial Planning's 2025 Rising Stars award winners

Meet Financial Planning's 10 Rising Stars of 2025

Financial Planning is excited to announce our 2025 class of Rising Stars. These 10 standout professionals represent the next generation of leadership in wealth management.

Every year, we honor advisors with less than a decade of experience in the industry who combine talent, creativity and an unwavering commitment to clients and the profession.

Chosen from nearly 150 nominations nationwide, this year's Rising Stars are more than just planners — they're entrepreneurs, educators, advocates and community builders. Some launched their careers straight out of school, while others pivoted from completely different fields. What they share is a bold approach to innovation and a passion for making an impact.

Keep reading to get to know the 2025 class of Rising Stars.

Curious about past honorees? Explore the winners from 2024, 2023 and 2022.

JW Harris

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JW Harris didn't start in a financial planning career, and he thinks his job diversity has equipped him to excel with clients from all backgrounds.

After he earned a bachelor's degree in religion from Wofford College, Harris held leadership roles in nonprofits and worked in corporate retail, as well as being a lecturer at Clemson University. In 2017, he became the founder of JW Financial Guidance in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

His practice centers around integrating financial planning with psychology, focusing on clients' values and beliefs and offering his clients personalized interventions as part of their financial plans. Harris said his practice's focus stems from his Ph.D studies at Kansas State University, where he spent four years studying the intersection between finances and psychology.

He's also a contributor to peer-reviewed journals like the Journal of Financial Therapy and Journal of Financial Planning, where he hopes his work can influence more advisors to practice emotionally intelligent and personalized planning. Currently, he also serves as an assistant professor of finance at his alma mater and the secretary of the Financial Therapy Association.

Dinon Hughes

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A stock investing game in his high school economics class first unlocked Dinon Hughes' curiosity about growing wealth. Then, after taking a personal finance course in his junior year of college, he decided to pursue a financial planning career as a way to help others.

Hughes, now a partner at Nvest Financial in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, serves as both a board member and leader of the Financial Planning Association NextGen of Maine and New Hampshire and the on the board of FPA of New England's NexGen Committee. He is also a member of his local Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club.

Financial literacy courses are not required in the school curricula of his home state of Maine. Because of that, every year Hughes returns to his high school, and in that same economics class that sparked his interest, he teaches students about basic financial literacy.

"I'm just one person, so there's only so much of a dent that I can do," Hughes said. "But it feels really empowering to know that at least a couple hundred kids every year are getting this financial literacy education that I wish I got when I was growing up in Maine."

Hughes, currently pursuing a master's degree in personal financial planning, has been featured as an expert in outlets such as CNBC, CBS, Reuters and MarketWatch.

Daniel Kopp

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Losing his wife was a painful experience, but the grieving process ultimately led Daniel Kopp to discover his calling in financial planning.

Kopp, who served in the Air Force for nearly nine years, saw the emotional support and guidance financial planners can provide during times of grief after he hired one to help sort through his wife's estate.

In 2019, he became the founder of Wise Stewardship Financial Planning, focused on serving military service members, widows and widowers. His firm also provides financial therapy for widowed clients, helping them navigate grief by leveraging their personal strengths.

Through the Department of Defense SkillBridge program, Kopp's firm has hired five military spouses in various roles in the financial planning industry as their first jobs in the profession. He is the founding board member of the Military Financial Advisors Association and an adjunct professor in Regent University's Certified Financial Planning program.

"My proudest accomplishment is seeing clients who come in disempowered and then later on encouraged, and then sharing that with other people in their own life," he said.

Collin Lyon

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Across two years as a missionary in Florida, Collin Lyon witnessed firsthand the economic struggles of hundreds of families, including one he remembers well that lost their home and was forced to move constantly after failing to budget efficiently.

That experience shaped Lyon's view of financial planning. He thought of the contrast with his own family, where his father found stability through the guidance of a financial advisor while serving in the Air Force. The difference made Lyon appreciate how critical sound advice can be in providing families with financial security.

Before helping families transform their portfolios as an advisor, Lyon worked as a certified nursing assistant who oversaw the CareGiver Training Institute in Tucson, Arizona. He transitioned into financial planning in 2021 and now practices at Dayton, Ohio-based Anderson Financial Strategies, focusing on service members.

In partnership with the Financial Planning Association, Lyon has provided pro bono planning to more than 20 families a year with an emphasis on helping disabled veterans facing economic challenges. This summer, he launched his firm's weeklong Private Wealth Internship Boot Camp to provide mentorship and training to six college upperclassmen.

"You can see the impact of these little 'aha' moments," Lyon said. "The growth that you see in them is what's really rewarding to me."

Patrick Marcinko

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Raised outside Baltimore, Patrick Marcinko witnessed how financial literacy could impact the lives of working-class families.

Marcinko had his first industry exposure as a summer analyst at Merrill Lynch in 2015. He later worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs from 2020 to 2022, during which time he obtained his certified financial planner mark. In 2022, he began his career as a financial advisor with McLean, Virginia-based Bogart Wealth, where he is today.

Marcinko currently serves as the director of NextGen for the Financial Planning Association's Washington, D.C. region, where he organized career day events that connected over 150 internships and full-time job seekers with financial planners. At his alma mater, Virginia Tech, along with other universities, Marcinko provides mentorship to future financial planners.

Devoted to improving the financial literacy of young people, Marcinko also educates high school students through the nonprofit organization Bripaths and Carroll County's Finance Academy.

"When you think about the future of financial planning, that evolution is really going to be driven by the next gen of advisors," he said. "I want to help lead that evolution and make sure that it gets stronger for decades."

He has also been quoted in outlets such as Barron's, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, Business Insider and Fortune.

Steve Oniya

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To Steve Oniya, financial planning is about making resources accessible to people of different communities.

Oniya, the president of OM Investments in Houston, worked in advertising and sales before transitioning to the financial planning industry, in which he previously held positions at Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab.

Last year, Oniya volunteered over 100 hours of pro bono advice with the CFP Board for underserved communities. He has won the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors Pro Bono Heroes Tournament for the South region and this year received the NAPFA Foundation Pro Bono Service Award.

"I've learned so many different ways to help people not just financially, but also emotionally, mentally," he said about his pro bono work. "I've learned how receptive people are from various backgrounds to have someone that is willing to give really insightful perspectives."

Young Po

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Growing up in a family that owns an accounting and wealth management practice gave Young Po an early appreciation for the importance of helping people understand their finances.

Po, now a partner at Paxel Financial Consulting in Arlington, Texas, entered the industry in 2017 after a stint in banking. His front-row seat to the operations of his family's firm showed him how financial advisors can empower communities by helping local small businesses.

Continuing his family's legacy, Po centers his work on personalized tax planning. His dedication to supporting the Chinese American community drives him to promote financial literacy among immigrant families through culturally relevant methods and to educate aspiring entrepreneurs every year at the Dallas-Fort Worth Chinese Youth Camp.

"As a Chinese American advisor, Young plays a vital role in increasing representation in the financial planning profession," said Po's nominator, Koshia Silver of marketing firm Radicle Strategies. "His ability to connect with clients on a personal level reflects a deep understanding of both cultural context and financial nuance."

Monique Street

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Monique Street has built her career around supporting the financial well-being of military families. Early in her career, she worked as a Department of Defense-contracted financial counselor, helping service members and their spouses understand budgeting, debt management and military benefits on Army bases.

Over the years, her commitment has taken her through multiple roles — from joining Zeiders Enterprises in 2019 as a personal financial counselor, to serving as the 2023 J.P. Morgan Chase DEPLOY Financial Wellness Fellow with Blue Star Families. Today, she continues that mission as a relationship manager for military families at AAFMAA Wealth Management & Trust.

But for Street, her day job is just the tip of the iceberg. Alongside her one-on-one work with military families, she has become a fierce advocate for military members and their spouses, working with government officials and corporate partners to address systemic issues such as employment challenges for military spouses, retirement policy gaps and food insecurity.

Earlier this year, Gov. Wes Moore appointed Street to serve as the first military spouse member of Maryland's Military Installation Council, where she works to raise awareness about financial challenges faced by military families.

A military spouse herself, Street said she feels uniquely positioned to advocate for change in the community.

"I think it has just been kind of ingrained into who I am as a person," she said. "I just enjoy kind of bridging those gaps where necessary."

READ MORE:

For Monique Street, an FP Rising Star, advocacy shapes every move

Jared Tanimoto

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Jared Tanimoto decided to pursue his certified financial planner designation after selling life insurance for a few years, right after graduating from the University of California, Irvine. Today, he is a financial advisor at Savvy Wealth in New York City.

Once the youngest president of the Financial Planning Association of Orange County, Tanimoto provided pro bono services by offering one-on-one advice at local community centers and food banks.

A guest lecturer in Cal State Fullerton's personal financial planning program, he is also a consultant for fintech platform Wing, as well as an active member of Advisors Growing as a Community, which provides mentorship to future financial advisors.

"I like the community aspect," Tanimoto said. "There's a really strong community of people that really care and really try to make a difference and shape the trajectory of our career path."

David Tassone

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David Tassone, the principal of Solidi Wealth Advisors in El Segundo, California, was inspired by his father's financial advisor in high school after learning the inner workings of the profession.

That led Tassone to begin his career in 2018 as an associate advisor for KPMG's operations risk department. By 2024, he had founded his own firm, finding joy especially in helping business owners "optimize what they're building."

As a board member of the Financial Planning Association of Los Angeles (and 2021 president), he served as director of the NextGen program, helping to launch monthly study groups to support new advisors and collaborating on a jobs board that connects local firms with emerging financial advisors. His pro bono efforts focus on helping those impacted by natural disasters to restore their finances.

Committed to supporting rising financial planners, Tassone serves on the board for the University of California, Los Angeles Personal Financial Planning Program, providing mentorship opportunities. He is also establishing a curriculum at his alma mater, Loyola Marymount University, to expose students to the field.

"This is extremely powerful for young people to know," Tassone said. "We leverage what [people are] doing to not just help themselves, but to help the next generation or their next generation as well."