Transformational Philanthropy

Professional Biography
Justin D. Stets is President of Carlson Capital Management. As a Management Team member, Justin oversees the company’s day-to-day operations, providing direction to CCM’s functional areas, as well as leadership on the direction and vision of the firm. Justin is also actively engaged as an integrated wealth advisor. Before joining CCM in 1998, Justin spent 11 years with Wells Fargo Corporation. Principal experiences at Wells included lending to high net worth clients and brokering commercial banks. Justin graduated from St. Olaf College cum laude in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin, Greek, and religion. He is a Phi Beta Kappa alumnus. In 1987, he received his master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard University.

Justin is also Chief Compliance Officer for the firm and holds an Accredited Investment Fiduciary professional designation, awarded by the Center for Fiduciary Studies. The AIF designation affirms the highest in fiduciary standards of care for CCM clients. Combining expertise with a Zero Alpha Group colleague, Justin is co-author of Fiduciary Matters, Relationships of Trust, an informative paper outlining the role of a fiduciary within a wealth advisory relationship.

Community involvement and professional leadership engagement are a priority for Justin. In recognition of his significant contributions, Justin was named a 2021 Notable Leader in Finance by Twin Cities Business. He is a former chair and current board member of Zero Alpha Group. On the nonprofit side, Justin was a founding board member and is a current development committee member of Northfield Shares, an organization to advance philanthropy, inspire volunteerism, and promote collective leadership. Justin is also on the board of the Center for Courage and Renewal, a charitable organization grounded in the works of Parker Palmer and whose mission is to reconnect the heart and soul of who you are with how you live in the world. In addition, he is active in the Catholic community of St. Dominic in Northfield. Justin and his wife, Kristin, are also philanthropically committed to the success of international projects located in Iringa, Tanzania, and El Rosario, Guatemala.

Previous roles for Justin include serving as vice president of the board of Friends of Africa Education, board president of the Community Action Center of Northfield, as well as former president and board member of the Ronald McDonald House of the Twin Cities. He also completed a term on the Schwab Advisor Services Advisory Board. In addition, he co-founded 5th Bridge, a Northfield organization dedicated to promoting volunteerism, which later merged with Northfield Area Foundation to become Northfield Shares.

Justin and Kristin live in Northfield, Minnesota, where they raised their four children.

Personal Thoughts
I strongly believe that knowing someone’s personal history creates a window of insight for a client. Three pieces of information may help describe who I am. First, I am the last child of 10 college-educated siblings raised in northeast Ohio during the 1960s and 1970s. Second, our family of 12 lived in a three-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment above a store which was owned and run by my mother. Third, I was raised and educated until high school as a Catholic, graduated from a Lutheran college, and attended a nondenominational theological graduate school.

With these three data points, you and I can have a great deal of conversation. We can discuss the value of money, as represented by a household of 12 that rarely ate meat (because it was so expensive), drank powdered milk, and gave recycled birthday cards out as gifts. We can discuss hard work–a mother who simultaneously raised 10 children and ran a successful business. We can converse about the value of an education and the persistence and stick-to-itiveness required to accomplish such goals. We can talk about the political stress of the 1960s and the economic hardships of the 1970s. Our dialogue could cover sibling relationships, how to pay for college, how to care for elderly parents, and issues of ethical and moral responsibility. Because no one is immune, in my opinion, from the wanderings of the human spirit, we could enjoy conversation about the role of spirituality in one’s life, our community, and our global environment.

All of these conversations are part of who Carlson Capital Management is, but perhaps not identified in a traditional format. Along with the years of experience and hundreds of stories of my colleagues, all the influences and experiences that we have collectively received dramatically shape our current philosophy and relationship with our clients. Placing the client in the center of all our actions is not just a nice business slogan to have, it is rooted in the fabric of who we are as individuals, and what we believe as a firm. Advocating for a transparent, clear, and academically proven investment philosophy is not a marketing gimmick, it is the foundational equivalent of a “bible” for us as investment advisors. Establishing delivery channels for our trust, tax, and philanthropic work so that our clients are truly experiencing an integrative wealth management platform points to our philosophy of broad-based thinking and intelligent, holistic planning and action.

I am hopeful that when you come to Carlson Capital Management and meet our team, you experience not only competency and quality, but also deep care. This is what gets us up every day. To be of service to you!