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 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 management elbows on recommendations didn't sit well with me. Learning from that experience, I founded Ashland Advisors as an independent, fee-only fiduciary to offer clients objective financial & tax advice that's free from outside influences. 

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 simple, effective plans that deliver clarity and results.

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 in true financial fashion I designed it myself in Excel.