Click on any of the photos or names below to learn more about the individuals who work at Milestone Financial Associates.
David S. Coult, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, CPFA
President
David S. Coult - "The Business Owner's Wealth Manager"
When I was eight years old, I discovered the magic of combining two lifelong passions: business and fishing! My wonderful mother spent many dark, rainy nights outside holding a coffee can and a flashlight while I learned how to catch nightcrawlers I could sell to local anglers and supply my own fishing habit! I have never met a fish I didn’t like, from the salmon of Alaska to the peacock bass of Brazil, but I feel most at home fly-casting to trout on the creeks and rivers of Pennsylvania and New York. Whether a gurgling brook or the sound of the surf, I have always found peace on the water.
As a kid growing up, I found out that if I looked for a job in the yellow pages and started calling from “A”, there was generally work to be had. I delivered newspapers for Berks-Mont News, labored for Bratt Tree Company and Dane K. Masonry, and started my own landscaping business in college. I learned from early on how to recruit and manage a high-performance team!
I was raised to value continuous learning. I started kindergarten at 4 years old, skipped 4th grade, and no one was more surprised than my parents when I was named high school valedictorian at 16. I attended Bethel College for my undergrad and continued my financial education at the American College in Bryn Mawr, PA. My father is an optical engineer and Lehigh grad with multiple patents who has worked for AT&T Bell Labs, Infinera, and other tech companies. Education and the ongoing drive to learn remains a core value at our firm today and may be why we work so well with engineers, business owners, and people who love to learn, solve problems, and overcome obstacles.
I started my career more than 25 years ago at a large financial services firm in Philadelphia and returned to the Lehigh Valley to found Milestone Financial Associates in 2003. Seeing the meteoric rise of health insurance costs, I developed two divisions of the company – one providing comprehensive wealth management for successful families and the other providing group health benefits. The health insurance business allowed me an inside look at well over 100 unique businesses. I got to see how they delivered value to their customers, the impact a business’s culture has on team dynamics and performance, and levers they could pull to increase profitability. I found that many owners are frustrated by the fact that they only keep a small percentage of the dollars that move through their hands in their business, and in their personal lives. It is incredibly rewarding to help business owners set personal financial goals, develop leaders in their companies so they can spend more time on what matters most, and maximize, not just profitability, but net worth and passive income to them personally. My team and I have helped many business owners through transitions to next-generation owners, key employees, or outside sales of their company, and the transition to “what’s next” while ensuring lifelong retirement security for their families. This is my passion, and I’ve been through it myself! I’ve founded or co-founded several successful businesses, take great pride in their success, and in 2009, I sold that health insurance division of Milestone Financial to National Penn Bank, now Truist. That successful exit allowed our team to have the freedom to be selective in working only with clients we like, for whom we believe we can have a meaningful impact. That was a game changer.
I’ve had my share of failures and disappointments as well. I am divorced and have lost several close friends, clients, and family members to cancer at young ages. As I reflect on the pain of those experiences, I realize that I am able to relate and have tremendous empathy for all who have suffered loss and who must now try to revise their financial plans for a future that seems impossibly different than the one they envisioned. I embrace widows, widowers, and divorcees in my practice.
The greatest joys in life are my three boys: Ben, Nate, and John. Over the years, the activities have evolved from sports practices and games, to Boy Scout campouts, food drives, and hikes, to college visits and Penn State football games (where Ben attends)! There is never a dull moment!
I am also passionate about The Wildlands Conservancy, a local organization working to conserve natural land, clean air, and water, and provide environmental education. I am a past Chair of their Board. I am also a past president of a local Rotary Club. Rotary is the largest service club in the world, working to eradicate diseases such as polio, and to provide food, clean water, shelter, and education to our friends and neighbors worldwide. Together with a group of fellow CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals, I volunteer on the Kutztown University Personal Financial Planning Advisory Board, helping to guide young people entering the financial services profession.
So now that you know a little bit about me, I’d like to learn more about you! How can our team at Milestone help? Let’s sit down together and talk. Let’s see what we can do together.
Justin R. Miller, CFA®
Chief Investment Officer
Justin Miller – Specializing in Corporate Executives and Retirees
“It’s the start that stops most people.” This quote by Don Shula made me pause when I first read it. It resonated in me and has settled into my consciousness since. Starts can be scary and seem unmanageable or overwhelming. However, taking certain risks and working towards set goals while exercising self-discipline can lead to the most rewarding pieces of life’s puzzle. This is the mentality I try to live by in my career and personal life as they seem entwined and so much a part of who I am.
I did not always know I wanted to be a financial advisor. I grew up in a small town nearby and learned my work ethic from blue-collar parents. My father was a truck driver and spent a decent amount of my childhood “on the road.” This left my mother, a payroll manager, in charge of running the day-to-day tasks for my sister and me. They sacrificed and worked very hard to provide a comfortable home where I had a wonderful childhood. While they were busy like all parents are, they managed to keep family and important core values I carry with me today at the center of our lives.
As a kid, sports were always of great interest to me. My first love was racing! I enjoyed how competitive racing is and all the work that goes into getting a car to go just a little bit faster. I would build elaborate race tracks at home with my toy cars and do time trials to keep track of how fast they could go. I also enjoyed football and learning everything I could about it. As much as I liked the game, I liked the numbers behind the game even more. I learned the statistics of all of my favorite players and most from other teams as well. Looking back, I believe this sort of passion was the bud forming in my analytical mind.
By the time I got to high school, I had found something else I loved – music! I began to learn guitar from my father around age 8 but my interest and skill level soon led to weekly lessons. I spent most of my free time focusing on mastering songs from my favorite bands. Luckily, my closest friends also played instruments and had the same level of enthusiasm. Before long, we formed a band and were writing our own music. We played many local venues and even toured several states on the East Coast the summer after our senior year. My first business experience was renting out fire halls for our band to play. It was my first time making a bit of my own money and I began to learn its value. It is nice earning money doing something you love!
After high school, I decided to attend Kutztown University and major in business. By my sophomore year, I knew I wanted to concentrate on finance and economics. That summer, I began working as an intern at Milestone learning everything I could about financial planning. By my senior year, I was invited to join the AIM group at Kutztown which is an exclusive finance team that manages a portion of the school’s endowment and was awarded a scholarship from Kutztown to pursue the CFA designation. My wife (Stephanie) and I got married the summer after college and began planning our future.
The CFA charter is viewed as the gold standard in investment management and is one of the most difficult series of exams in finance. Studying for the CFA took years of some of the most challenging work I’ve ever taken on and required a lot of sacrifices. It requires three levels of success in excruciating 8-hour-long exams offered only once a year. Maybe that’s why less than 3% of financial advisors have earned the charter. It was the first time achieving what I set out to do was much harder than I thought. Still, I pressed on and while studying for my second attempt at level 2, we found out we were expecting a baby. The greatest lesson I have ever learned came from that experience.
Our daughter, Ellianna, was born with a brain injury. She spent 3 weeks in the N.I.C.U. and her health was very fragile. To our amazement, she made a full recovery and is a healthy, energetic seven-year-old today. This time in our lives tested our marriage, rocked the foundation we had been building, and taught me that as thoughtful as we may be, sometimes life has other plans for us. My mentality changed and I learned a higher level of respect for life and the unknown – and empathy toward others. I use these lessons in my career as I keep in mind that while we are analyzing the best options for clients, some solutions don’t come from a book. The relationships built with our clients help us to relate and roll with life’s ups and downs. I passed level 2 of my exams while Steph was pregnant and level 3 the year after Ellie was born. It turns out she was just the push I needed.
We’ve since added another little one to our crew. Emma was born in 2019 in a much different fashion. She arrived to the sound of Prince’s “Party like it’s 1999” and wow was that a leading indicator! She can go 0-60 in 0.21 seconds!
Now, as the firm’s chief investment officer, I get to spend every day relating to our clients – understanding their goals, building the best portfolios to achieve them, and monitoring their investments so they can be free from financial anxiety. I also lead the investment committee at Milestone which is focused on providing the highest quality investments to our clients and monitoring markets to determine when changes are necessary.
For most people, their investments are represented by confusing terms with numbers on paper. My favorite part of our planning process is bringing life to those numbers so clients can confidently enjoy the opportunities and freedom their investments can provide. Whether you are already working with a financial advisor or have been doing it yourself for 30 years and need help, I know you’ll find our approach to be down-to-earth and eye-opening. Beginning a new relationship can be intimidating, but don’t let the start stop you!
Sam Feiser, ChFC®
Wealth Advisor
Sam Feiser, ChFC® - Overseeing the stewardship of generational wealth - Focused on inheritance planning
I am very thankful for my “old school” childhood. When it snowed, my parents kicked me out the door at 7 a.m. and gave me a sandwich and some water at lunchtime. I would come inside after dark to eat dinner. Over the summer, we were outside most of the time. Other than periodically checking in with them, we were free to wander around the neighborhood and woods. I developed a strong sense of independence. With freedom came no shortage of responsibility and discipline. A common phrase used by my father was, “You know what will make you [fill in the blank with anything that was important to us at the time - stronger, better at swimming, etc.]??? If you weed the garden!! Or mow the grass!!”
My parents preached commitment while I was growing up. I started swimming at 10 years old and I stopped after graduating college- walking away as a 9-time collegiate All-American. There were plenty of times I wanted to quit, plenty of days I did not want to practice, plenty of days I thought I hated swimming. Well, they pushed me to keep showing up...usually by saying “just go to practice today and let’s talk about it tomorrow”. At some point, I grew up and no longer need the conversations about commitment, discipline, work ethic. I took it upon myself and it is something I cherish.
There are endless mentors, awesome coaches, and great friends I have met throughout my swimming career. The amount of support I received still shocks me!
While learning the standard of responsibility, discipline, and hard work came an interest in being helpful. At age 10, I helped my dad disassemble a friend’s deck and while loading up some of the boards, I sent a 2x8x12 through his vehicle’s windshield. About a year later, my dad decided to turn an old pop-up camper of ours into a trailer and asked me to assist. He learned that day that it is all about the details. The job was to “demolish” the existing camper while leaving the frame intact. The first thing I “helped” with was smashing all the taillights. I was told later, in the form of a joke, the taillights were the only thing on the whole rig that was necessary to keep. In both cases, there was no yelling, no punishment, no hard feelings. His response was a simple pat on the back and a non-sarcastic, “Good job, Sam.” Today I look back and see the great value in the amount of encouragement he offered and the patience he had with me. He made it okay for us to fail and make mistakes. Failure and mistakes are always an opportunity to learn.
Throughout middle school and high school, I worked a couple of different jobs. From my own venture selling sodas at the local school ball games to landscaping and later life guarding. Looking back, I see the value and impact of what seem to be small decisions. Around my sophomore year of high school, I developed a strong desire to understand how businesses function, how money is transferred, and how taxes are or are not paid. That led me to make My decision to study accounting and swim at Bloomsburg University an easy one. I seek to understand things. I was THAT annoying kid who ALWAYS asked or wondered why. I found accounting to be a profession/science that can always keep a record and explain why. To give context to why small decisions are important, I taught swim lessons to the kids of the gentleman who hired me and exposed me to the world of financial planning after graduating college!
When I am not working you will find me spending time with family, friends, or my wife Laura, in the gym, hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, or anything outdoors!
I currently hold the SIE, Series 7, and Series 66 securities registration. I have earned my ChFC® designation and I am studying to earn the CFP® designation.
I feel I bring a unique perspective to the world of financial planning, especially on the business succession side! So now that you know about me, I’d like to learn more about you! Let’s get together to see what we can accomplish!
Jeffery W. Lanscek, CFP®, ChFC®
Wealth Advisor
Making the most out of any situation is how I live my life. Early on, I gravitated to playing sports, especially basketball and baseball, where I was always the smallest player on the team. No matter what the odds, my family, especially my dad who was my coach, pushed me to be the best. That drive to be the best and make the most out of myself guided me through my school years and continues today in my professional career.
I am a lifelong resident of Bethlehem. I attended Bethlehem Catholic High School and my first jobs included working for the City of Bethlehem and Bethlehem Steel. After high school, I went on to study at Lehigh where I graduated with a B.S. in finance. After college, I worked for two years at SEI Investments followed by a short stint at Guardian Insurance. At SEI and Guardian, I learned a lot about investment trading, portfolio management, and insurance. While I enjoyed my time there, it wasn’t the career I was looking for. A local independent financial planning firm offered me an opportunity to find my footing on the path I was searching for. It was there that I passed my securities license, paraplanner designation to build my financial planning skills, and finally my CFP® (Certified Financial Planner) /ChFC® (Chartered Financial Consultant) designations. Working full-time and maintaining a family balance with a wife and three daughters while achieving these designations is something I am very proud of. At my previous firm, I spent 18 years overseeing portfolio operations and trading while guiding clients through the financial planning process.
When I am not working, I spend my time with my wife, Annie, and my three daughters: Mckinzie, Mckayla (Coco), and Mckiley.
Our family enjoys staying very active each day. My wife is a stay-at-home mom and part-time piano teacher. She graduated from Fordham University’s pre-med program with a major in psychology and a minor in music (It’s not Lehigh, as I tease her). She is also a long-standing member of the Junior League of the Lehigh Valley, which promotes volunteerism specializing in educational disparity. My kids are in school and starting to develop their own personalities and grow into their own. Our kids participate in horseback riding, volleyball, and Girl Scouts of America.
For fun, I enjoy golfing as much as time allows. Every Sunday a few friends and I get together at a different course and challenge ourselves. I am still looking for that illustrious hole-in-one.
My family and friends try (and are fairly successful at) visiting every restaurant in the Lehigh Valley. So, if anyone has a foodie question, I am your guy.
I am really excited to join the Milestone team and work with such a talented and diverse group to serve our clients. I look forward to utilizing my 20-plus-years of experience to help guide our clients through the challenging financial decisions life presents. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to work in downtown Bethlehem where my family and I spend most of our time. Hopefully, this short bio gives you an insight into my life. I look forward to meeting you and hearing your story!
Carl Landis, CFP®
Financial Planner
Carl Landis - Financial Planner
Carl earned his BS (cum laude) in secondary education from Lock Haven University in 1970 and an MA in mathematics from West Chester University in 1973. Carl’s career started in education where he was a math teacher and instructor at the college level. He also had a vast career in engineering, engineering management, and electronics. Carl proudly served six years in the U.S. Navy, stationed out of Norfolk, VA, on destroyers. In 1987, Carl entered the field of financial services, obtaining the prestigious CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification. Carl addresses all facets of financial planning but specializes in retirement planning.
During the span of his career, Carl had the pleasure of serving on various boards including the Visiting Nurses’ Association of Pottstown, Berks County, Green Valleys Watershed Association, Schuylkill River Greenway Association, and Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Association. He was an active and founding member of the Pottstown Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) chapter for more than 25 years, as well as an active member, of the Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce.
Carl is a lifelong resident of the Pottstown area. He’s lived in North Coventry since 1974 with his wife, Sylvia, a retired Pottstown school teacher. His interests include gardening, fishing, biking, kayaking, 5K road racing, and competing in National Masters track and field competitions.
Tyler Watkins
Financial Planning Analyst
Tyler Watkins - Financial Planning Analyst
Growing up, hard work was instilled in me for as long as I can remember. My mother is a nurse and worked the night shift my entire childhood and my father started as a warehouse forklift driver and worked his way up to a plant manager. I knew from an early age that I wanted to go to college and work in a field I enjoyed. After graduating from Whitehall High School, I went on to West Chester University for three years where I majored in business. I then transferred to Kutztown so that I could be closer to home and ultimately graduated in 2016 with a BS in finance.
Following graduation, I took a different approach to the “real world” as two of my closest friends and I went to work in construction until we found jobs that we really wanted. I could not justify taking the traditional entry-level finance job where I saw people pushing unneeded products on unknowing consumers. Although my time in the construction field was the most physically demanding work I have ever done, that time taught me many valuable life lessons. After about a year of installing extremely heavy construction material, I found a job at SEI Private Trust Company. Throughout my time at SEI, I learned how to open investment accounts, maintain relationships with advisors, and how to trade various investments in order to fulfill disbursement requests. I climbed the ranks quickly and ended up on the most tenured team in the middle office department, where I became an expert in model changes and account rebalancing. SEI provided a great start for me, but it was never where I ultimately wanted to be. Having been born and raised only 20 minutes down the road in Whitehall and now a resident of Allentown, I love the small community vibe of Milestone and knowing that we are doing the right thing for our clients.
Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my family, fishing, golfing, and following professional sports. I am a PIAA football official and officiate games every fall from youth to high school varsity. Previously, before officiating, I was a coach for the Bath Lions youth football team and then became the head coach for Bethlehem Catholic’s middle school team. Being a new first-time homeowner and raising Judge (our 4-year-old Cur named after Aaron Judge on the New York Yankees) does not leave much time for relaxing, but when it does, we enjoy vacationing in Florida. My wife, Alexis, and I are both so happy that I found a rewarding career so close to home.
Kelly Cannone
Office Manager
Kelly Cannone - Office Manager
As the office manager at Milestone Financial Associates, I am enthusiastic and dedicated to ensuring a welcoming environment and a high level of service for our existing and future clients.
I graduated from Lock Haven University with a BA in international studies. During my junior year, I was extremely fortunate to participate in its exchange program and studied abroad in Paderborn, Germany. While there I was able to travel, meet many amazing people, and quickly learned how to be independent and resourceful – I did not have a cell phone, GPS, or Siri to rely on!
I strive to use my 20 years of experience in the financial services industry with both large and small institutions to deliver the best experience possible to our clients. Over the course of my career, I have developed strong relationship-building and technical skills. I have worked extensively with corporate executives, business owners, retirees, and retirement plan administrators.
My husband, Brian, and I are both originally from New Jersey, but in 2000 we moved to Macungie, PA, and have laid down deep roots here. We have two boys, Nick and Johnny, who are students at the University of Rochester and Emmaus High School, respectively. We enjoy supporting them in their diverse extracurricular and educational pursuits. As a family, we enjoy vacationing at the Jersey Shore or anywhere else warm and sunny. In my free time, I like to unwind by reading, cooking, and gardening. I am also guilty of binge-watching reality TV and listening to Bruce Springsteen (or any '80s music). Our two rescue dogs round out our family and live for their walks and trips to various parks on the weekends.
Diane Culver
Director of Client Relations
Diane Culver - Director of Client Relations
Have you ever heard the saying “She’s nothing if not tenacious”? That would most likely be the way many who know me would describe me. I am definitely determined and persistent. While I often drive my family, friends, and co-workers a bit crazy with this trait, they do seem to appreciate my desire to complete “the task” and do it with excellence.
My proudest accomplishment is staying the course to have our two beautiful daughters, Grace, and Andrea. My husband, Michael, and I traveled down a LONG and often painful path with infertility. We struggled through many unsuccessful cycles and at one point I almost gave up on having children. In 2000, we told our fertility specialist we would try one last cycle. The embryologist called me on the day of my embryo transfer and said she had never seen three more beautiful embryos. Nine months later, Grace Elizabeth, entered our world. What a joy and gift she is to our family. She loves to water-ski and now skis for Clemson University. Several years later, we did another cycle and Andrea was born in May 2004. Andrea and I share a birthday and I cannot imagine a more wonderful present! Her dancing brings us much joy.
I began my career with Kraft Foods in 1984. After seven years in corporate finance, I made a change to sales, where I spent an additional 10 years. After having Grace, I resigned from Kraft Foods and our family relocated to Pennsylvania, where I was born and raised. I look forward to being a crucial part of ensuring that we do the very best for all of our clients providing revolutionary service. I promise I will be tenacious, as I want our clients to be as grateful as I am that my family’s financial and estate planning “shop” is in order.
On a more personal note, our family has a love for snow skiing and boating. My boating skill is limited to slalom skiing, but the rest of the crew enjoys slalom skiing, wakeboarding, and wake surfing. I also am an avid reader. Oddly enough, I love mowing the lawn. While my tenacious side seeks perfect lines…I thoroughly enjoy the time alone to enjoy the nice weather and the beautiful scenery.
Jeffrey Hegedus
Financial Planning Assistant
Jeffrey Hegedus - Financial Planning Assistant
I was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA. I grew up right next to Yosko Park where my friends and I played sports, rode bikes, and swam from morning to night in the summertime. My core group of childhood friends and I are still very close to this day.
My father was a Teamsters Union truck driver and instilled a strong work ethic in me. My mother worked odd jobs but was mostly a stay-at-home mom. They divorced when I was young but maintained a great relationship to make sure my sister and I were well taken care of. My parents have had a profound impact on my life and have taught me what it means to be a good person, even when nobody is watching.
My path in the financial services industry was a little unusual. After high school, I obtained an associate’s degree in electrical maintenance and construction technology. I landed a job in the energy industry as a power plant operator where I worked for 10 years. In 2016, my father was diagnosed with cancer and it really made me reevaluate my life. I decided that I didn’t want a “job” where I just counted down my days to retirement; I wanted a career that I loved. I had a strong interest in investing and the stock market, and I loved helping my friends and family with their personal finances. With that in mind, I decided to pursue a degree in finance. I graduated from DeSales University with a bachelor’s degree in finance with a financial planning concentration. While finishing my degree, I started my career as a client relationship associate in the investment services department at Vanguard where I obtained my FINRA SIE, Series 7, and Series 63 securities registrations. At Vanguard, I gained valuable experience in client service and operations. When I was offered the role of financial planning associate with Milestone, I knew it was the opportunity I was looking for and was eager to join the team.
Outside of work, I enjoy a wide range of activities and hobbies. I love to travel – most recently to Madeira, Portugal, with my amazing wife, Victoria, for our 10th wedding anniversary. I enjoy golf, reading, hiking, spending time with my family, and listening to podcasts on a variety of topics, and I am a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan. I am also a member of Life Church Nazareth and a member of their “Fight Club” men’s fellowship group.
My wife is a registered nurse who graduated from Cedar Crest College with a BS in nursing. She has spent time working for St. Luke’s and Lehigh Valley Hospital in a variety of roles and is currently a post-anesthesia care (PACU) nurse for a private surgery office in the Easton area where she cares for patients before and after they have outpatient surgery. She is also a fitness enthusiast and instructs “hot yoga” classes in Bethlehem. We live in Palmer Township with our dog Bella. We were both born and raised in the Lehigh Valley and love calling this place our home.
