Meet Our Team

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Kyle Akers, CFP®, AIF®

Senior Advisor

Troy, MI, Bingham Farms, MI

Kyle Akers, CFP®, AIF®

Senior Advisor

Troy, MI, Bingham Farms, MI

Department: Advisors

Experience: Started career in 2009

Education: B.S. Finance

Kyle is committed to ensuring that his clients are holistically cared for and thriving. He feels blessed and fortunate to work with great people and team members.

Kyle lives in the country and is happily married with four children. One of his favorite activities is helping his kids raise pigs, chickens, and turkeys. God, family, and clients are the three most important things in his life. He enjoys an active lifestyle that includes hunting, fishing, golfing, and coaching his children’s sports teams.

When it comes to giving to charitable causes, Kyle is a proud supporter of his church, three different missionaries, and Oakland Family Services.

Sandra (Sandy) Alexander

Operations Associate

Calabasas, CA

Sandra (Sandy) Alexander

Operations Associate

Calabasas, CA

Department: Internal Operations

Experience: Financial services since 1992 

Education:Associate of Arts from Moorpark College  

Sandy joined the team in April 2025 when Planned Asset Management became Modern Wealth. She places trades, prepares documents for new accounts, prepares monthly investment research, and assists with client money movements. Joining Modern Wealth gave Sandy the opportunity to serve clients more efficiently with updated technology and resources.  

Sandy has gained valuable knowledge and customer service skills throughout her career, which she believes is essential for providing exceptional support to clients. She approaches all aspects of her job with a positive, hard-working mindset, and is passionate about helping find solutions to any challenges.With her diverse background in various roles within the industry, she is confident in her ability to contribute as a resourceful member of the team.   

Sandy was born and raised in Thousand Oaks, California. She is a proud mother to her son, Justin, and daughter, Olivia. Sandy enjoys cooking, drawing, hiking, and traveling. 

Maranda Arcuri

Client Service Specialist

Lenexa, KS

Carrie Baker

Office Administrator

Mooresville, IN

Carrie Baker

Office Administrator

Mooresville, IN

Department: Tax

Experience: Started career in 2005.
Education: Bachelors of Business Management – Purdue University

Carrie joined the team in October 2023 when Martin James Investment & Tax Management became a part of Modern Wealth. She plays a big role within our tax department through internal accounting/bookkeeping, client communications, first and last touch of client tax documents (SurePrep & then E-file), project management, and serving as a technology consultant.

Carrie and her husband, Andy, have two daughters, Lottie and Doria. Their kids’ activities keep them busy, as Lottie plays travel soccer and Doria is on the robotics team (been to World’s twice in Dallas). She loves to vacation at the beach and spends free times with friends and family.

Cydney Barber

Client Service Specialist

Lenexa, KS

Cydney Barber

Client Service Specialist

Lenexa, KS

Department: Client Service

Cydney has a wide range of responsibilities, including answering technology questions, processing deposits and withdrawals, updating any account paperwork, processing charitable donations, and answering client questions.

Before Modern Wealth Management, she worked in service to U.S. veterans who were looking to obtain or increase their disability benefits. Her favorite thing about Modern Wealth is the firm’s community and family feel. She’s thankful that every person in the organization has the clients’ best interest at heart and are always looking on how they can make the client experience better.

Cydney loves going to Table Rock Lake with her family, traveling, hiking, surfing, and reading. She moved to the Pacific Northwest to be able to do my favorite hobbies when she’s not working.

Dean Barber, RFC

Managing Director

Lenexa, KS

Dean Barber, RFC

Managing Director

Lenexa, KS

Department: Advisors

Host of America’s Wealth Management Show and The Guided Retirement Show

Dean Barber is a managing director at Modern Wealth Management. After serving as the CEO and founder of Barber Financial Group, he was thrilled to team up with Modern Wealth co-founders Jason Gordo, Mike Capelle, and Gary Roth in effort to provide a full scope of wealth management services to people nationwide. 

Dean has always had the goal to help as many people as possible with getting them to and through retirement. He accomplished that and more with the team of CFP® Professionals, CPAs, estate planning specialists, insurance experts, and other professionals he built at Barber Financial Group.  

Under Barber’s leadership, the Barber Financial Group brand became a staple of the financial services industry in the Kansas City area. In 2009, Barber Financial Group took a big step forward Bud Kasper’s Lee’s Summit, Missouri-based team from Kasper Steck Wealth Management came aboard. Kasper and former Osiwala Financial Group President and CEO Ken Osiwala joined Barber as managing directors of Modern Wealth.  

Dean enjoys that his work quite literally has a family feel to it at Modern Wealth. His brother, Shane, is an executive advisor, two of his five children, Nic and Cydney, are on the client services team, and his nephew by marriage, Chad Webb, is the head of growth operations. One last fun act about Dean is that his career began with Waddell & Reed on October 19, 1987, also known as Black Monday, which marked the worst stock market crash in Wall Street’s history. 

Nic Barber

Client Service Manager

Lenexa, KS

Nic Barber

Client Service Manager

Lenexa, KS

Department: Client Service

Nic’s job duties range from completing the morning alerts every day to working on client paperwork for Required Minimum Distributions, Roth conversions and model changes, to assisting with servicing the annuity accounts. He really enjoys the small business and family atmosphere that Modern Wealth provides for its staff and clients. It’s rewarding for Nic to help people in a way that helps them feel more secure about their future.

Working at Modern Wealth has shown Nic that it is possible to work hard, do a good job, and have a great work-life balance. He enjoys spending time with loved ones and family, collecting records, cassettes, and movies, going to concerts, bowling, surfing, and working on cars. Nic is an avid heavy metal fan and will take almost any opportunity to see live music.

Shane Barber, RFC

Executive Advisor

Lenexa, KS

Shane Barber, RFC

Executive Advisor

Lenexa, KS

Department: Advisors

Shane dedicates himself to helping his clients achieve financial independence, allowing them to retire with more confidence that they’re doing the right things with their money, freedom from financial stress, and time to spend doing the things they love. As a father and a grandfather, Shane understands that there are far more important things in his clients’ lives than money, and he works diligently to ensure that they can focus on those things.

Having spent nearly 20 years behind the scenes in the manufacturing industry, he gained a deep and unbiased knowledge of how the real economy works. Because of that experience, he believes that understanding the complex relationship between the economy and the financial markets is paramount in managing risk, providing sound advice and implementing wise solutions. His approach, of building a well-crafted wealth management plan that integrates the four pillars of asset management, tax planning, risk management, and estate planning puts the focus where it should be, on the clients’ best interests.

For Shane, the saying “you only get one life, so you should live it the best way you can” is the driving force behind his work for his clients…helping them to live their lives, the best way they can. Shane holds the Registered Financial Consultant (RFC) designation and has passed his series 7 and 66 exams.

Sadie Barker, SHRM-SCP

Vice President, Human Resources

Lenexa, KS

Sadie Barker, SHRM-SCP

Vice President, Human Resources

Lenexa, KS

Department: Internal Operations

Experience: Human Resources since 2014

Education: Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from Fontbonne University; Master’s degree Human Resources Management from Webster University.

Sadie’s core areas of responsibility are organizational development, change management, employee engagement, development and training, HR operations and compliance, and talent acquisition and retention. She joined the Modern Wealth team in March 2024—just under a year after the firm was founded. Sadie loves the process of designing, building, and integrating people programs, so the idea of joining the firm during its building phase was very appealing to her.

She has worked in human resources—supporting startup and growth stage companies—since 2014. After attaining her master’s, Sadie joined an outsourced HR firm and functioned as a fractional HR director for various small companies in the Kansas City area. She then moved to lead the HR department as one of her clients grew and was with them through their sale in 2020.

Following their successful transition, Sadie joined TVH Parts to lead the Americas Team on a three-year project. She helped to align their global HR processes and implement a new HRIS tool. Sadie worked with teams in EMEA and APAC to create a consistent employee experience across the company and modernize their People Practice. Following this project, Sadie joined Modern Wealth Management. She loves being back on a fast-paced and growth-oriented team.

Sadie’s family is the most important thing to her, especially her three sons. Her favorite hobbies include baking and spending time outdoors. She loves camping, fishing, going to the zoo, and traveling.

Suzanne Bartling, CPA

Tax Advisor

Lenexa, KS

Suzanne Bartling, CPA

Tax Advisor

Lenexa, KS

Department: Tax

Education: Bachelor of Business Administration and Accounting; Master’s degree in Account with a tax focus

Experience: Tax since 1998

Suzanne enjoys meeting with clients to discuss their tax planning options. She has spent much of her career as a tax manager at regional CPA firms. Outside of work, Suzanne enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, walking, quilting, and volunteering.

Luke Bauer

TPA Associate

Rochester, NY

Rachael Bellah

Managing Director

Campbell, CA

Rachael Bellah

Managing Director

Campbell, CA

Department: Internal Operations

Since joining the team in March 2025 via the acquisition of Wade Financial Advisory, Rachael has worked closely with the leadership team to shape and carry out the firm’s long-term strategy and goals.

Rachael’s career began at WFA in 2001. She worked closely with WFA Founder Rodney Wade and learned something valuable from each person on the Wade team that has contributed to her professional growth. Rachael held many roles during her time with WFA, including various administrative positions, client service associate, paraplanner/tax preparer, portfolio management assistant, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Compliance Officer.

She was born and raised in Northern California. Rachael and her husband, Phillip, live in San Jose and are thankful to have most of their family nearby. Her son, Matthew, lives in the Sacramento area, her brother and his family also live in the Bay Area, and her parents still spend a lot of time in Lincoln, which is near Matthew. She’s grateful that her family stays connected and makes the most of their time together.

Rachael has a pretty wide range of hobbies. She loves reading daily and is a big fan of The New York Times puzzles. When she’s feeling a little more hands-on, she loves building Lego sets—it’s surprisingly relaxing! Rachael enjoys camping and being in the wilderness—there’s something about getting outdoors that helps her recharge. And, of course, she’s always up for a pool day with some great music playing in the background.

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