About Luke Speltz & Ashland Advisors

I grew up in Rollingstone, Minnesota: population 597, no stop lights, and related to about half the town. I was a college track athlete in the artillery division, where I threw a variety of heavy objects for sport. There, I met my future wife Tona who shared the same interests. We've been married over 20 years and have four great kids, two spoiled dogs, and a passive-aggressive cat who tolerates us on his good days. I've been an Iowan since 2008 and have called Van Meter home since 2018. #RollDawgs!

Outside of work, you'll usually find me chasing my kids' sports schedules, manning the grill, getting in a morning boot camp or yoga session, or spending time outdoors. We're members at Gloria Dei in Urbandale and I'm a volunteer coach with the high school artillery division here in Van Meter. I enjoy dark roast coffee in the morning and an IPA or rye at happy hour.

If finances or accounting make your eyes glaze over, I probably beat you to that finish line. I took one accounting class as an undergrad and completely changed majors to avoid having to take a second one. Ten years later with a little more perspective, I found myself picking up where I left off, this time motivated to translate the jargon that put me to sleep into plain English. 

Early in my career, I was a Registered Representative with a subsidiary of a large national financial firm. I loved working with clients, but the sales quotas and regular management elbows on recommendations didn't sit well with me. Because of that experience, I founded Ashland Advisors as an independent, fee-only fiduciary to offer clients objective advice that's free from third party influences and sales pressure. 

I’ve spent the past two decades in corporate financial roles managing teams in financial modeling, pricing, forecasting, budgeting, and P&L oversight with lots of zeroes involved. I also co‑founded and sold two small businesses along the way. That mix of real‑world financial and entrepreneurial experience gives me a practical approach to managing dollars and cents and implementing plans that move the needle.

Investment is a long term process to build sustainable wealth. To that end, I design simple, straightforward plans that avoid unproductive noise and have long track records of delivering sustainable results. Base hits win ball games in finance too. I also recommend clients pursue enough instead of more. If your goal is more, you'll never get there. Better a handful with peace than two handfuls without (Ecc 4:6). 

As for the name Ashland Advisors, when I started at Auburn for my accounting degree we lived on Ashland Parkway and I liked the alliteration. The double-diamond logo is clean and simple, matches Auburn's font and color scheme, and for better or worse I designed it myself in Excel. 

If I can answer any questions, reach out anytime!