Meet Our Team : Voyage Wealth Strategies | Sheboygan, WI

Meet Our Team

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Bradley Wessel

Founder, Financial Advisor

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Brad is the Principal of Voyage Wealth Strategies. For over eighteen years, his practice has revolved around comprehensive financial planning and goal based wealth management. Brad excels at understanding the goals and desires of his clients and is passionate about creating comprehensive solutions that address their overall needs. Brad specializes in retirement planning, risk management, and investment advisory services.

His belief is that a focused approach, passion, and commitment lead to a favorable client experience. Brad takes great pride in the fact that the majority of his clients have been with him for over a decade.

Brad is active in his community and serves as a board member for George D. Warriner Schools, a project based learning charter school in Sheboygan. He also volunteers and supports a number of local non-profit organizations that work with children, education, or veterans.

He and his wife Amy live in Sheboygan where they were both raised. They have five children.

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Kirstin Jensen

Registered Service Assistant,
Associate Financial Adviser

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Kirstin has been affiliated with Voyage Wealth Strategies as an assistant to Bradley Wessel since 2011 and is a vital addition to the daily operations of the organization. Kirstin works closely with Brad during the creation and revision of financial plans and assists in the preparation of internal reports and client reviews. She also supports our clients with administrative and service related needs.

As a Registered Service Assistant and Associate Financial Adviser, she is currently licensed in Life, Health and Accident Insurance. She also has the FINRA Series 7 and NASAA Series 66 licenses. Kirstin has an Associate of Arts degree from Lakeshore Technical College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carthage College.

Kirstin and her husband, Scott, currently reside in Sheboygan where they enjoy spending time with their children and families.

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Jeannine Shelby

Administrative Assistant

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Jeannine Shelby is the Administrative Assistant for Voyage Wealth Strategies. Coming to our office with over 20 years in the financial and customer service industries, Jeannine provides great support to our advisors. A Sheboygan native, she is using her organizational and administrative skills to help with the office planning processes and client satisfaction.

Jeannine believes in giving back to the community and the Tourette Association of America holds a special place in her heart. She is an active member on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Tourette Association and is a WISE HOP TS Facilitator.

Jeannine and her husband, Bryan, have been married for over 20 years and have 2 wonderful girls, Emily and Katie. The family enjoys horseback riding, sailing, and spending time together.

Our History

Our firm was founded by Robert C. Huhn, who began his career in the financial services industry in 1988 when he contracted with New York Life as an agent. In 1989, he earned his securities licenses and began to offer investments through NYLIFE Securities. In 1997, RC recognized a shift in the industry that was beginning to occur. Clients were looking for a new type of relationship that revolved around goal based holistic planning, comprehensive risk management, and investment services that were fee based rather than transactional. Basically, people wanted a long-term relationship where an overarching plan was created, risks and opportunities were well identified, and strategies were developed that had a clear and identifiable purpose in forwarding the client’s interest. Thus, he joined Eagle Strategies LLC in 1997 and began operating under RC Huhn Financial Advisers. The firm operated under this name until 2004, when Bradley Wessel joined as a partner.

Brad began his career in April of 2000 as an adviser with AXA Advisors. During the formative years of his career, the stock market and economy were in the midst of a significant decline as the tech bubble and roaring economic expansion of the 1990’s came to an end. As a new adviser, Brad saw firsthand the impact these shifts were having not only on clients, but advisers as well. Advisers that built their practices on a transactional based business model were suffering as asset values dropped and fear permeated the populace. At a time when clients needed their advisers the most, many were unavailable as they were trying to maintain their livelihoods. Many closed their practice altogether. Clients that lost sight of what was truly important felt lost and unprepared for what was occurring. Many didn’t have a comprehensive plan to reach their goals, but rather a disjointed portfolio of various financial instruments and investments. The strong market and economy of the ‘90’s masked the inefficiency and inherent risk of the lack of coordinated strategy. In many cases, both advisers and their clients failed to follow a disciplined asset allocation model leaving them particularly exposed to the lofty valuations of the tech sector.

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RC and Brad met for the first time in 2003, as Brad and a group of AXA Advisors were considering a change. When New York Life was mentioned as an option, Brad was one of the most outspoken against as he stated “I never want to become a life insurance agent. Our clients need us to be planners.” Brad was introduced to RC as an example of a practice that was built around financial planning and investment management, through RC’s affiliation with Eagle Strategies LLC. They spent hours together that fall as Brad was tasked by the group with vetting the opportunities that Eagle provided for comprehensive planning. The group joined New York Life in late 2003.

In 2004, RC approached Brad to join his firm as a partner, as he was interested in pursuing a business opportunity outside of the financial industry and did not want to leave his clients unattended. He felt a partnership with Brad made sense as the similarities of beliefs, values, and commitment to the client’s interest was clear from their earlier discussions. Thus, Huhn, Wessel & Company was born. RC stayed on through the transitional period and resigned from the industry in March of 2006. The firm is very proud that over 80% of its clients remained with the firm through the transition. The firm operated under this name until mid-2018, at which time it rebranded to Voyage Wealth Strategies.

While the name may be relatively new, the firm still stands on the core beliefs and values that were developed and strengthened over its 30 years of existence: understand our clients’ goals and objectives, identify risk and opportunities, create comprehensive solutions, educate, be transparent, put the client first, and our purpose is to serve.

We measure our success on the strength of our relationships and if our clients are achieving their goals. The vast majority of our clients have been with our firm for over 10 years, and many predate the partnership. Obviously, revenue is important as it keeps our doors open, awards and recognition are fine as it is always nice to be recognized by our peers, but what really matters to us are the thank you cards, emails of appreciation, and kind words our clients express regarding our efforts. That is why we do what we do. We will be your partner, not just your adviser.

30 Years, 6 Presidents, 1 Firm

August 2, 1988

Robert C. Huhn Joins New York Life

 
July 25, 1989

R. C. Joins NYLIFE Securities

 
 
 

September 15, 1997 - R. C. Joins Eagle Strategies

August 2, 1998

The Firm celebrates its 10 year anniversary

 
 
 
November 13, 2003

Bradley Wessel Joins New York Life

May 19, 2004 - R. C. & Brad Form Partnership

 
March 22, 2006

R. C. Retires from Industry

 
August 2, 2008

The Firm Celebrates its 20th anniversary

 
 
 
 
 
February 3, 2012

Kirstin Jensen joins Huhn, Wessel & Company

 
 
 
 
 
August 26, 2015

Kirstin earns the title of Associate Financial Adviser

 
 
May 10, 2017

Jeannine Shelby Joins Huhn, Wessel & Company

 

May 30, 2018 - Huhn, Wessel moves and rebrands as Voyage Wealth Strategies

August 2, 2018

The Firm Celebrates its 30th anniversary

 
 
May 19, 2019

The firm marks its 15th year anniversary under Bradley Wessel

 
November 8, 1988

George H.W. Bush Elected President

December 31, 1988

US National Debt Reaches $2.7t

October 13, 1989

Black Friday Mini Crash

November 3, 1992

William Jefferson Clinton elected President

January 1, 1994

NAFTA Inforce

1995

Tech Bubble Begins

November 5, 1996

Bill Clinton is reelected President

 
December 31, 1999

US national Debt Reaches $5.6t

March 10, 2000

Stock Market Peaks

November 7, 2000

George W. Bush elected President

September 11, 2001

Terrorist attacks on the United States

October 9, 2002

Market Bottoms

March 11, 2003

Stock Market approaches lows of October 2002

 
November 2, 2004

George W. Bush reelected President

June 1, 2005

Stock Market trading halted over a systems communication issue

October 9, 2007

Stock Market Peaks

September 15, 2008

Lehmann Brothers Fails
Financial Crisis Begins

 
November 4, 2008

Barack Obama Elected President

March 5, 2009

Stock Market bottoms at over a 50% decline from the highs of 2007

December 31, 2009

The US National Debt reaches $12.3t

March 23, 2010

The Affordable Care Act enacted and was reconciled 7 days later

May 6, 2010

Flash Crash DJIA down 9% for about 30 minutes

October 3, 2010

US TARP Program Expires

August 5, 2011

S&P Downgrades long term US Debt to AA+

August 8, 2011

Black Monday – Market responds to S&P downgrade S&P down 6.7%+

 
April 4, 2012

Stock Market fully recovers losses

November 6, 2012

Barack Obama is reelected President

October 1, 2013

The US Federal Government enters a shutdown that lasts 16 days

December 3, 2013

City of Detroit was allowed to file for bankruptcy protection

January 1, 2014

The Affordable Care Act implementation begins

December 17, 2014

President Obama announces the beginning of normalizations with Cuba

June 12, 2015

A sell off in the Chinese stock market begins as the Shanghai Composite Index reaches 5,166

August 18, 2015

The DJIA began a selloff and was down 1,300points in 4 days, by Monday August 24th all of the previous gains for the year were erased.

January 28, 2016

The Shanghai Composite Index shows signs of stabilization near the 2,760 range marking a decline of 46% from June

June 23, 2016

Voters in Britain pass a referendum to leave the European Union marking the beginning of Brexit

November 8, 2016

Donald J Trump is elected President

March 29, 2017

Britain triggers Article 50 initiating the formal negotiations to leave the EU

December 22, 2017

Tax Cuts and Job Acts signed into law

December 31, 2017

While down for the day the S&P 500 Closes at 2,673.61 marking a gain of almost 22% for the year

 
September 28, 2018

S&P 500 index peaks at 2914 in itraday trading then begins to slide.

December 24, 2018

The 2018 bear market reaches its bottom as the S&P 500 reaches 2,347 marking a decline of 20.2% from September highs.

February 13, 2019

US National Debt reaches $22t

March 22, 2019

Yield curve inverts as 3 month Treasury Bill yield tops the yield of a 10 year Treasury note