Work with Our Team
CFA
Peter Newman
PRESIDENT & FOUNDER
Peter founded Peak Wealth Planning in January, 2014 to provide bespoke advice to a select group of families. Prior to founding Peak Wealth, Peter managed the treasury and investments at the University of Illinois System for two decades. He also spent 15 years as a real estate investor and developer. As a real estate investor, he learned about minimizing taxes and constructive use of debt.
Peter has experience growing and protecting pools of capital. At the University of Illinois he grew the endowment from $250 million to $700 million and increased operating cash from $700 million to $2.5 billion. From this experience Peter has learned how to create portfolios using unique building blocks (selecting from thousands of managers) to meet specific goals. Peter applies his unique background to help clients achieve their specific goals and enjoy peace of mind.
Peter grew up in an entrepreneurial construction family in the Northeast. He currently resides in Champaign, IL and frequently visits Chicago and Winter Park, CO. Peter enjoys skiing, vegetable gardening, and remodeling homes in unique locations.
Babette Hiles
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Babette joined Peak Wealth Planning, LLC after having retired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was an events planner for thirty years. Twenty of those years were spent in the Chancellor’s Office where she served as Director of Special events for the campus. Babette was lured out of retirement to assist Peter Newman, CFA with establishing office procedures and general organizational systems. Babette provides professional and courteous service to Peak Wealth Planning, LLC’s growing client base.
ChFC®, EA
Jami Barkley
PARAPLANNER
When she isn’t busy with tax work or planning, Jami enjoys nerding out on publications and podcasts, drinking hot tea, dark chocolate, healthy vegetarian eating, hanging out with her daughters, family, cats and one small dog, Ginger.
Jami started in the accounting world and then discovered that financial planning was a lot more fun. She worked in accounting after receiving her accounting degree at University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. Her two favorite people (daughters) came along for her to raise, homeschool, and then walk with through high school and now college. In 2010, she started doing tax preparation, eventually earned the EA and ChFC® designations. The CFP® is her ultimate goal! Jami loves to go behind the scenes of the financial planning engagement and do all the plan assembly and analysis.
Carmen Egolf
MARKETING DIRECTOR
Carmen comes from a background of design and education. For 15 years she worked with clients and more than 1,000 students, identifying their needs and motivations so she could navigate each towards a path of success. As marketing director for Peak Wealth Planning, Carmen develops marketing strategies, performs research and analysis, and creates media assets and campaigns. Carmen received her M.A. (2009) and B.F.A. (2003) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In her free time, Carmen is nurturing her read aloud channel Storytime Sunshine on YouTube, preserving stories for her son Sebastian as well as his sounds as they read together.