Elizabeth Shabaker, CFP® CDC®
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Specializing in wealth management, I serve Versant’s clients through relationships based on mutual trust, integrity, and intimacy. My expertise and experience with family governance and next-generation planning are extensive. I engage with clients in a discovery process to identify the factors that impact and preserve their wealth. By uncovering short and long-term goals and concerns, I get to know the structure of people’s financial assets and their exposure to and tolerance for risk. I also focus on investments, estate planning, tax planning, and philanthropy.
Women experiencing a transition in life, such as professional advancement, divorce, death of a spouse, or inheritance, often seek my help. Women want their reality to be acknowledged and their financial situation to be recognized. I understand the hardships of many women’s reality: managing jobs and children and looking for security and flexibility in managing our investments and planning for the future. As a member of the Female Advisor Network, I have access to support, initiatives, and programs for women in financial services that can be beneficial to serving my clients.
As Co-CEO, I manage the firm’s strategic direction, delivering Versant’s mission of helping individuals and families reach their financial goals and cultivating and building Versant’s talent for continued growth. I also direct, administer and coordinate Versant’s operations per the policies, goals, and objectives of investment operations, client management processes, and human resources. I work closely with my business partner Royce Ramey, Co-CEO, and Tom Connelly, CIO, as a member of Versant’s Investment Committee.
I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, a member of the Financial Planning Association, and a member of the Institute for Preparing Heirs. From 2017 to 2019, I was appointed to the national Schwab Advisor Services Advisory Board.
Dementia Care Certified®, I have been trained to recognize early signs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias in clients. I provide financial advice for those facing dementia (and their families), lessening the anxiety associated with financial issues while planning for the future.
I am committed to citizenship, helping others, and my community. I am appointed to the ASU W. P. Carey School of Business Dean’s Council — a national group of business executives invited to play a leadership role in shaping the future of the W. P. Carey School. As a member of the Grant Review Committee for Women and Philanthropy through the ASU Foundation, I help determine grant funds for students and programs that invest in our future. As a long-time volunteer for Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona, I am the treasurer of the board of directors and the executive committee. As a Professional Advisory Board member of the Arizona Community Foundation, I help provide the ACF strategic planning, guidance, and oversight.
TGen works to shape the future of medicine by funding ground-breaking scientific discoveries. I am excited to be an ambassador and women’s philanthropy council member of that organization. I am also an Arizona Endowment Building Institute member through the Arizona Community Foundation. I am also a member of The Planned Giving Committee of Phoenix Art Museum; a member of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute, an organization that works toward policy decisions affecting our future; and BoardSource, an organization that supports excellence in non-profit governance.
In 2021, I was a national finalist in the Invest in Others Charitable Organization for their Community Service Award for my work with Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona. I am a member of the National Charity League, Inc.’s East Valley chapter, with my daughter Kate and the organization’s past president. NCL comprises mother and daughter members committed to community service, leadership development, and cultural experiences.
Before joining Versant in 2010, I was Director of Investment Operations and Relationship Manager for GenSpring Family Offices (formerly Inlign Wealth Management). I was a Senior Associate with KPMG’s Personal Financial Planning Practice.
I attended Golden Gate University in San Francisco and received a business management degree from the University of Phoenix. Completing the Client Psychology and Executive Leadership programs at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Aresty Institute of Executive Education, has been instrumental in my professional leadership development.
A native of beautiful Carmel, California, I have lived in Arizona since 1999. When not helping people plan for their financial futures, I enjoy spending time with my daughter, gourmet cooking and collecting wine, traveling, working out, and exploring Phoenix’s cultural organizations and activities.
