Spraker West Wealth Management, Inc. (SWWM) was founded literally in the middle of the Great Recession when Susan S. Spraker and her clients left the Maitland firm she co-founded with two other financial advisors 10 years earlier. The mission of that new firm, founded in February 2008 as Spraker Wealth Management, was to offer high-touch, flexible, fee-only, active portfolio management.​

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Before leaving her prior firm and before the stock market crash, Susan was systematically selling stock in her client portfolios, reaching 50% or more in cash well before the bottom. This management decision was based on macroeconomic research, just as it was when she made the same investment decision the Fall of 1999 before the tech bubble burst.

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In March 2009, Susan called a bottom and began investing her clients’ cash back into stock funds. This active portfolio management approach, based

on this ongoing study of economic trends and client risk tolerance sensitivity, is the foundation of and one of the reasons for the firm’s success. The same approach was implemented in early 2020 at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic when the SWWM Investment Committee made the decision to overweight cash and then later add to stock positions at depressed levels in April.

 John M. West, III, CFP® joined the firm in June 2009 as a Senior Financial Analyst, Inc. He soon thereafter completed his MBA and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification and became an Advisor in 2012. For the past 11 years, John has been the Chief Operating Officer, and through 2022 served as Chief Compliance Officer.

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In July 2021 he became an equal shareholder and the name changed to Spraker West Wealth Management. He now is President of the firm and in January of 2023 became majority shareholder when Susan passed the torch and began her well-deserved, well-planned retirement.

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The SWWM Team is comprised of five full-time professionals, including two CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professionals who work directly with clients and a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) who leads all the investment research. The culture of macroeconomic analysis as a focal point of client portfolio management in the ever-changing investment landscape continues to distinguish this firm.

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Together with exceptional personal service spearheaded by a full-time Client Service Manager and a Client Service Assistant, ongoing financial counseling to help clients understand and realize their personal goals, and a solid history of giving back to the community in time, talent and treasure, goes to the heart of this female-founded, empathy-driven wealth management firm.