Meet your partners in stewardship

The team guiding your financial life should bring more than expertise. We provide thoughtful leadership, clear perspective, and a commitment to helping you navigate complexity with confidence.

Our Team

The team behind your aligned future

The people you trust should bring more than just financial expertise. Our team provides clear guidance, coordinated thinking, and a long-term perspective across every part of your financial life.

ADVISORY

Jeremy Smith

Partner | Wealth Advisor

Jeremy has always been drawn to the conversations that happen beneath the numbers. What are you building? What are you hoping for? What do you want life to look like when the work pays off? Ultimately, he loves helping people get clear on what matters most and align their decisions to the life they actually want.

Since entering the financial services industry in 2005 and founding Seros Wealth Partners in 2011, Jeremy has spent his career helping people make sense of decisions that are often both financial and deeply personal. He works closely with business owners and entrepreneurs, especially those thinking through succession, the sale or transition of a business, tax considerations, and the question of what comes next after years of hard work.

Clients tend to appreciate Jeremy’s directness, steadiness, and old-school sense of responsibility. He believes good guidance should simplify the complex, tell the truth, and keep people focused on the life they actually want to live. More than anything, Jeremy sees his work as being a partner in stewardship — helping clients care well for what they’ve built and make thoughtful decisions about where they’re going.

Jeremy earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He currently holds a Series 65 securities licenses, along with various insurance licenses, and he previously held a Series 7 and Series 63 registrations.

An Arizona native, Jeremy enjoys coaching football and baseball, camping, and spending time outdoors with his wife, Shawna, and their five children.

Jill Baumes

Partner | Wealth Advisor

Jill knew early on that she wanted to spend her career helping people feel more prepared for life. She began in the insurance world after college in 2007, focusing on life and disability coverage, and quickly realized she loved the bigger conversations that came with the work: family, risk, retirement, change, possibility, and what people hoped their money would make possible.

Over time, her work grew into investment management and broader financial planning. Today, Jill helps clients sort through the moving pieces of their financial life and make decisions that feel grounded, practical, and true to what matters most. She especially enjoys walking with people through major transitions — preparing for retirement, changing careers, caring for family, entering a new chapter, or simply wanting to feel more organized about the road ahead.

More than anything, Jill is committed to helping clients create the highest probability of success for the life they actually want. For her, that starts with listening well, understanding what matters most, and helping people make decisions with more calm, clarity, and confidence.

Jill earned her Bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University. She holds her Series 65 registration, insurance licenses, and previously held her Series 7 registration.

Outside of work, Jill enjoys traveling, coaching youth sports, reading, exploring real estate opportunities with her husband, and spending time with her family. Most of all, she loves supporting her daughters’ interests and activities.

Jeff Wilcock

Partner | Wealth Advisor

Jeff has spent more than three decades helping people think carefully about the future. Over that time, he has learned that the best financial conversations are rarely just about accounts or investments. They are about timing, family, tradeoffs, priorities, and the kind of life someone wants to enjoy after years of effort.

As a Registered Financial Consultant, Jeff works with clients on retirement planning, portfolio management, and long-term decisions that deserve patience and perspective. He brings a steady presence to the table and helps clients avoid getting pulled too far into short-term noise.

Jeff’s clients value his experience, but also his calm. He helps people slow down, see the bigger picture, and make choices they can feel good about over time.

Outside the office, Jeff enjoys mountain biking, hiking, backyard barbecues, and volunteering with the Boy Scouts.

Katie Morgan

Wealth Advisor

Katie’s approach to financial planning is shaped by real life. After walking through a medically complex season with her own family, she came to understand how much stability, preparation, and thoughtful guidance can matter when life becomes unpredictable.

That experience continues to influence the way she works with clients today. Katie helps people organize the pieces, understand their options, and make decisions that support their family, their values, and the life in front of them. She is especially passionate about supporting families navigating disabilities, complex medical diagnoses, and seasons that require extra care, patience, and advocacy.

Katie holds multiple financial licenses and is continuing to pursue her CFP® certification. She was drawn to Seros because of the firm’s personal, values-centered approach to client relationships.

Outside of work, Katie loves reading, Pilates, chai lattes, and spending time with her four children.

Whitney Hendricks

Wealth Advisor

Whitney likes helping people bring order to things that can otherwise feel scattered. Financial life can involve a lot of moving parts — investments, retirement decisions, insurance, tax considerations, business questions, family priorities — and Whitney helps clients see how those pieces fit together.

She works with individuals, families, and business owners, bringing experience from both corporate trust services and independent advisory work. Her style is collaborative, practical, and grounded in real life. She wants clients to feel informed, supported, and less alone in the decisions they are making.

Whitney earned her BBA from Idaho State University and holds her Series 65 securities license, along with various insurance licenses.

Outside the office, Whitney enjoys making memories with her husband and their four children.

EXPERIENCE

Bryson Merkley

Client Experience Coordinator

Bryson is often one of the first people clients connect with at Seros. He helps make the client experience feel smooth, prepared, and personal. He supports meeting preparation, reports, internal processes, and the coordination that helps the advisory team show up ready.

Before joining Seros, Bryson built a background in music education — a world that depends on preparation, timing, communication, and the ability to listen well. Those same instincts show up in his work with the team. He enjoys creating structure behind the scenes so that clients and advisors can stay focused on the conversation in front of them.

Outside of Seros, Bryson teaches, conducts, writes, and performs music professionally.

Ashlee Merkley

Client Experience Specialist

Ashlee helps clients through many of the details that make the planning process work in real life. Since joining Seros in 2019 and becoming part of the service team in 2022, she has supported clients with account service, onboarding, paperwork, operational needs, and day-to-day questions.

She brings a mix of knowledge, patience, and approachability to her role. Ashlee holds a Series 66 registration and previously held a Series 7 registration, along with insurance licenses. She understands that even small details can have a meaningful impact on someone’s financial life.

Clients and teammates know Ashlee as someone who follows through, communicates clearly, and helps make the process feel less intimidating.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter and participating in competitive speed jigsaw puzzling events.

Samanatha Merkley

Receptionist

Samantha brings warmth to each interaction, helping clients feel calm and cared for. She supports communication, scheduling, coordination, and day-to-day client needs.

Her background in music education gives her a natural sense of rhythm, attentiveness, and presence. She enjoys work that allows her to help people feel comfortable, whether they are walking through the door, calling with a question, or being connected to the right person on the team.

Outside of work, Samantha enjoys reading, musical theater, and performing as fairytale characters for children’s birthday parties and events.

OPERATIONS

Sherod Bigelow

Director of Operations

Sherod is the person who thinks about how things work — and how they could work better. Since beginning his career in financial services in 1997, he has spent decades supporting the systems, processes, compliance needs, technology, and behind-the-scenes structure that help a firm serve people well.

At Seros, Sherod helps keep the internal engine running. He supports advisors, improves processes, solves operational problems, and looks for ways to create more consistency for both clients and the team. His work often happens in the background, but it shapes much of the experience people have with the firm.

Sherod holds a Series 66 securities registration and has previously held Series 7, 24, and 63 registrations, which are now dormant. He also holds an insurance license and earned a degree in Business Administration.

Outside of work, Sherod enjoys creating moments that become memories with his wife and children, exploring technology and creative projects, and listening to music that tells meaningful stories about the human experience.

Dyan Abbott

Service Operations Specialist

Dyan brings care and consistency to the details. As Service Operations Specialist, she supports clients and the Seros team by helping keep important service and operational needs organized and moving forward.

She has worked in financial services since 2005 and earned a degree in Accountancy and Finance from Arizona State University. Her background gives her a strong appreciation for accuracy, preparation, and the quiet importance of getting things right.

Dyan enjoys helping create an environment where clients feel supported and teammates can rely on the process. Her work may often happen behind the scenes, but it plays an important role in the experience Seros is able to provide.

Outside of work, Dyan enjoys baking, reading, serving in her church community, and spending time with family and friends.

a message for you

If you’ve found your way here, there’s a good chance you’ve built something meaningful.

Success brings opportunity—but it also brings complexity. More decisions, more variables, and more at stake with each step forward. At a certain point, it’s no longer about access to information. It’s about having the right perspective to make decisions that truly align with the life you’re building. That’s the work we do here at Seros Wealth Partners.

We see ourselves as partners in stewardship. Financial advising is what we do—but guiding families through important decisions, over long periods of time, is who we are.

Our role is not to add more noise or complexity. It’s to bring clarity. To help you step back, understand the full picture, and move forward with confidence—knowing that each decision is considered, connected, and aligned with what matters most.

This is a relationship built over time. One where we come to understand not just your financial world, but your priorities, your values, and the people you’re building for. Because the best decisions aren’t made in isolation—and they aren’t made once. They’re made consistently, with intention, as life evolves.

Many of the people we work with are used to having a team around them—people they trust to execute, advise, and bring structure to complexity. We serve that role in your financial life. A steady partner who helps coordinate the moving pieces, think through tradeoffs, and ensure everything is working together over time.

What matters most to me is how you feel in that process.

You should feel clear on where you’re headed, confident in the decisions you’re making, and steady, even as markets and life inevitably change. That’s what we mean when we talk about stewardship. If that’s the kind of relationship you’re looking for, we’d welcome the opportunity to start a conversation.

Gratefully,

Jeremy Smith

Partner | Wealth Advisor

Take the next step toward a more aligned financial life

Every decision carries weight, especially over time. We help ensure those decisions are made with clarity, discipline, and full alignment with what matters most. A simple conversation is the first step.