Our Team

Eric Chaney

Founder & Financial Advisor

Eric wants to live in a world filled with people who are at financial peace, unburdened by the anxiety that comes with trying to figure out how to never go broke. He also wants to live in a world where markets only go up, people never become chronically ill, and emergencies never occur. Unfortunately, that world doesn’t exist.

As a financial advisor and planner with more than 20 years of experience, he’s worked with clients as young as 1 and as old as 93. He’s seen clients' toddlers graduate from college, attended many retirement parties, and managed to navigate through some of the most tumultuous markets years in the history of our nation. That look in his eye is the look of someone who’s seen it all but is always looking to learn more and pass that knowledge on.

When he’s not helping families of special needs children and adults figure out how to make their money last two lifetimes, you’ll find him spending time with his patient and big-hearted wife, Heather, and their two wonderful children.  His oldest is autistic (and amazing) and that has been a driving force behind his goal to be a significant long-term resource for other families that want to know that (a) it’s going to be okay, (b) they aren’t alone, and (c) people are here to help. Eric knows first-hand how hard it is to plan for two lifetimes, let alone one.

You’ll sometimes find him on remote hiking trail, huffing and puffing his way up a mountain, dreaming of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Let him know if you’d like to come along! His kids aren’t as easy to convince anymore.  

In the meantime, reach out to Eric and his team for practical tips on how to achieve and maintain your vision of financial independence. We have a 100 percent success ratio of helping people, regardless of whether or not you become a client.

Matt Siegel, CFP®

Senior Partner & Financial Planner

If you received or will receive a financial plan from Spectrum Financial Partners, Matt probably developed it.  He is the primary planner at Spectrum and gets tremendous satisfaction from working with clients to solve the puzzle of their financial lives.  He views the discovery process with clients, learning about their goals and values, as the foundation of the plan. There are typically many ways to solve the financial puzzle: saving more, retiring later, more (or less) aggressive investments, etc. Matt engages clients in the planning process so that the choices match client preferences and it’s a tailored plan that they own and will implement. Some of the choices he can analyze within a plan include testing for the optimal Social Security benefit claiming strategy, understand the likely long-term impact of different asset allocations, and determine the best timing to start a pension benefit. Matt shows you the math of your plan, you choose the path.

In his free time, Matt can be found hiking a trail in the Cascades or along the coast. Among his (few) parenting successes, he counts training his teenage son and daughter to tolerate, and at times even enjoy, hiking in the woods. On Sunday afternoons, Matt will cook up a big pot of chili or chicken adobo or cacciatore to provide sustenance for the week.  If family and friends can join in the meal, so much the better.  He recently went to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota with a college buddy for a week-long canoe trip, reliving the highlight of his teen years. He aims for it not to be his last canoe adventure.  After work, he likes to drink one of our area's many delicious beers. (There are five drinking establishments between the Columbia City office and his home.) Although if you twist his arm, he’ll have a bourbon instead.

Matt holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University, and holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM certification in addition to a certificate of financial planning from Seattle University.  He has written financial plans for hundreds of clients over the past 10 years.  In the 10 years prior to that, Matt managed the marketing research team at Russell Investments. 

In a more distant past that seems from another life, Matt walked the halls of Congressional offices and international organizations in his job as an advocate for the environment in Washington, DC.  Even further back, Matt lived in Japan for the better part of four years where he studied the impact of foreign workers on Japanese society at Nagoya University, lived with two Japanese families, and taught conversational English.  Today his Japanese language skills are rusty, but he makes a mean okonomiyaki.  

Krista Morgenthaler

Director of Client Services

Krista has worked with Spectrum Financial Partners since 2015.  In 2018, she became the director of client services.  In this role, she keeps clients and the office organized and solve problems that arise. One of her favorite parts of her job is the interaction with clients. So talk to her! Krista is the go-to person in the office who answers most client questions—about where to get tax forms, where to see account balances, how to start or stop regular distributions, etc.  If you need to know about getting forms or money in proper places, Krista will have the answer or lead you to it.

Prior to joining Spectrum, Krista worked for 12 years at a medical practice.  She was the first person you saw as you walked in the door and loved greeting patients.  She prepared client records and did the billing for the office.

Krista is a purebred Anacortesian.  Born and raised there, she wouldn’t live anywhere else.  On the Sound or on the Pend Orielle, on the water is her happy place—catching salmon or whatever else is in season, when they’re not being stolen by seals.  Ask to see her photos of orcas off the stern and her latest big catch.  When not dragging salmon through the water, Krista and her husband, Andy, enjoy dragging their two teenage girls through the water on skis, kneeboards, and anything else that floats.  Weekends are spent driving across Washington state to soccer and basketball games.  On spring weeknights, Krista helps with the coaching of the sprints and hurdles for the Anacortes High School track team along with her former track coach.  Fun fact: Krista is still the current school record holder for the 100M hurdles.