THE
TEAM
Wealthspan Advisors is a group of highly experienced financial advisors and aging scientists whose passion is helping people understand inter-related health and wealth so better decisions can be made concerning the planning surrounding the risks that longevity can bring to both.
KIRK ASHBURN
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder
Kirk Ashburn is a highly trained professional with over 15 years of industry experience. He has successfully been involved in helping individuals and families in Illinois and across the country to change how they save and plan for their future and generations to come.
Kirk focuses on providing retirement income planning services to educate clients on meeting their current financial needs, achieving their long-term financial goals, avoiding common retirement-planning mistakes, and enjoying a lifetime of financial freedom. This approach helps his clients have confidence in their financial affairs, now and throughout their retirement.
JEFFREY STUKEY
President, Co-Founder
Jeff has been in the financial services business for over 20 years. Most of his time has been spent in executive-level roles, helping train hundreds of financial advisors nationwide on how to better plan for and serve their clients. He has a deep understanding of financial planning and the financial products that can be used to create the desired outcome for clients.
After watching his parents work hard but struggle financially for most of his childhood and early adult life, Jeff set out to help clients become more educated and get better advice to really help them grow and protect their wealth so they could live their best lives. Because of the experience gained over the last 20 years, Jeff communicates well with clients, understands what they are trying to accomplish, and helps put them in a position to thrive in and through retirement.
scientific advisors
S. JAY OLSHANSKY, PhD
Chief Science Officer
S. Jay Olshansky received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1984. He is currently a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Chief Scientist at Lapetus Solutions, Inc.
The focus of his research to date has been on estimates of the upper limits to human longevity, exploring the health and public policy implications associated with individual and population aging, forecasts of the size, survival, and age structure of the population, pursuit of the scientific means to slow aging in people (The Longevity Dividend), and global implications of the re-emergence of infectious and parasitic diseases.
Dr. Olshansky is on the Board of Directors of the American Federation of Aging Research.
STEVEN AUSTAD, PhD
Director of Scientific Breakthroughs
Steven Austad is a distinguished professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. After earning an undergraduate degree in English literature from UCLA, he left academia for several years, during which, among other things, he drove a taxi cab in New York City, worked as a newspaper reporter, and trained large cats for television and movies.
His animal training awakened his interest in science, and he returned to academics to study animal behavior more formally, receiving his Ph.D. in biology from Purdue University. He is the author of more than 200 scientific articles and more than 150 newspaper columns on science.
His book Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering about the Body’s Journey Through Life has been translated into 8 languages.