Charles L. Cooper Has Led The Masters Financial Group Since 1989, Building a Two State Practice for Families and Business Owners

GREELEY, Colo. In 1989, six years after he gave up his badge with the Greeley Police Department for a career in financial planning, Charles L. "Chuck" Cooper became president of The Masters Financial Group. He has held the job ever since. More than three decades later the firm runs offices in two states, with a team of agents and specialists that includes his son.

The firm's motto makes a promise about staying power: "Where quality begins and service never ends." It frames its work as financial strategies built on each client's personal values, with integrity, service and trust as the governing ideas.

The main office is on 29th Street in Greeley. A second office operates in Grandville, Michigan, just outside Grand Rapids. Mr. Cooper holds insurance and securities licenses in nearly 30 states, stretching from Alaska and Hawaii to Florida and Virginia.

Michigan is familiar ground. Mr. Cooper earned degrees in criminal justice and psychology at Michigan State University, and he paid his way through college as a brakeman on the Grand Trunk Railroad.

For households, the firm's work follows the full arc of a family's finances: saving for the years ahead, planning for a child's education, preparing for the unexpected, protecting retirement and protecting an estate. A Medicare specialist on the Greeley staff helps clients with coverage choices.

Business owners are the other half of the practice. The Masters Financial Group advises companies on protecting the business itself, on employee benefits and retirement plans for staff, and on succession, the question of who carries the enterprise forward when its owner steps back.

The team has grown up around him. In Greeley he works alongside agents including his son, Spenser Cooper, while Tim Elzinga and Justin Katt staff the Grandville office. Mr. Cooper and Mr. Elzinga serve as the firm's financial advisors.

Mr. Cooper holds the Certified Financial Planner designation and is listed by his firm as a Registered Investment Advisor. He qualifies for the Million Dollar Round Table, the international association of leading life insurance and financial professionals, and he has taught seminars on estate and investment planning and written on money matters for his hometown paper.

Greeley is home for Mr. Cooper, his wife, Pam, and their sons, Spenser and Mitchell. Away from the office he likes to travel, tinker with cars and motorcycles and follow sports, and he volunteers with his church and with charitable groups.

Dynamo Times recognizes Charles L. Cooper for more than three decades at the head of The Masters Financial Group, and for building a firm in two states that plans for families and businesses with equal care.