Our Team

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Neal Richards is the CEO and author of Axiom Wealth Strategies.  He founded Axiom in the desire to help families build true wealth.  He believes that there are lasting principles to wealth building that, if understood and embraced, yield fruit in this life and in the lives to come.  He believes these principles of wisdom are where true wealth resides. He named the firm “Axiom,” which means “self-evidently true,” with the hope of pointing to this wisdom and reveal where true wealth is found. 

Neal began his career in 2007 working in Bend during the financial crisis and the great recession for Northwestern Mutual, a Life Insurance company.  This experience helped refine his business as well as his personal financial planning.  In 2012 Neal began working for Wells Fargo Advisors where he worked helping clients invest and plan.  His experience at Wells Fargo Advisors amalgamized his investment philosophy as well as his conviction in the value of planning over product.  In April of 2017, Neal joined Cascade Financial Strategies, an independent RIA, where his practice blossomed into what it is today.  

Neal and his wife Lindsey, married since 2006, reside in Bend Oregon where he and his five kids (Lydia, Thomas, Hazel, Miles and Ambrose) Puppy, 20 chickens, 2 rabbits, 2 cats, a goose, 10 ducks, and a fish share life together.  When he isn’t working or at home he can be found running and biking the local trails and training for triathlons at the pool. 

Who he is can be reflected in the people in his life he is most thankful for:

1. His wife and kids: “I’m not sure where you end, and I begin.”
2. His mom and dad, Janet and Thomas Richards: “I am eternally grateful for you both.”
3. Working associate, John Aspell: “I owe you my career… thanks for taking a chance on me.”
4. Rene Girard, RC Sproul, Dave Ramsey, Nick Murray, Michael Kitces: “These people have given me the lens through which I see the world.” 

Text:   (541) 625-4196

Kem Rondeau is the Executive Assistant for Axiom Wealth Strategies. She has extensive experience in administration having held positions in human resources, teaching, license coordinator and a variety of management roles. The rapid growth of Axiom Wealth Strategies is an exciting and challenging adventure that utilizes all the valuable wisdom gathered through experiences. Her outgoing and warm-hearted personality makes it easy to connect and bring out the best in others.

Kem graduated from Northwest Christian University with a Bachelor of Arts with secondary education and currently studying for the SIE exam and Series 24.

Kem was born and raised in Oregon. She has lived in Bend for last six years with her three-year-old lab, Jadee. She is indescribably thankful for the people in her life including her children, grandchildren, family and friends.

Outside of work she enjoys hiking, traveling and photography as well as being a part of the community by giving back to the schools.

Text:  (541) 717-8739

Grant Finter is an Associate Advisor with Axiom Wealth Strategies’ Bend office.  Grant’s areas of focus are retirement planning, and generational wealth building.

His call to become a Financial Advisor was heavily influenced by the advisors he worked with while establishing his own families’ financial plan.  The value he saw these advisors add secured his decision to help people in the same way: through, measured, and thoughtful financial advice.  He is thrilled to be fostering the values centered growth of Axiom Wealth Strategies, serving clients well, and honoring his mentors.

Originally hailing from Kansas, Grant graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science Degree.  He then began his career within the banking industry in Kansas City in 2003.  Grant then moved to Chicago to open a new office for a wholesale mortgage banking corporation.  Through a few mergers he worked for several national banks such as Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

Grant moved to Bend with his bride, Erin, in 2011 when he decided to pause a career in banking to raise their family of three while his spouse’s busy surgical practice grew.  This time with his kids was invaluable and an investment that will surely pay dividends for decades to come.  When his three kids Kate, Charlie, and Caroline had all grown to school age he was anxious to get back to work in the financial sector.  

When not at work his family can be found at Lake Billy Chinook, Mt Bachelor, a local golf course, trail, or simply enjoying all that Central Oregon has to offer.

Who Grant is can be reflected in the people in his life he is most thankful for:

1. His family: “Nothing is more humbling than the responsibility of being a husband and parent.  The last 11 plus years of parenting have taught me a degree of love and patience I couldn’t have known otherwise.”
2. His parents:  “The principled upbringing I received wasn’t my favorite as a teen.  However, it prepared me for life as a man that I am eternally thankful for.  Love you guys!”
3. Mentors:
   1. “Vickie Sperry taught a young kid about professionalism and confident leadership by example.” 
   2. “James Fleck impressed upon me that a non-emotional approach to the markets is essential to success.  Pointedly, opportunity can be found in all market conditions.”

Text:  (208) 856-6808

George Luke is an Associate Financial Advisor with Axiom Wealth Strategies Moscow Idaho office.

He was raised in Illinois and is an avid learner.  He went to Vanderbilt University (Nashville) and received a B.S. in Child Studies as he pursued a degree in education. He received his M.A. from Bethlehem Seminary (Minneapolis) in Biblical and Pastoral Studies, and apprenticed at Greyfriars Hall while discerning a ministerial call and teaching at various schools. George has the heart of a teacher.

His passion for becoming a wise lover of people and their interactions drove him to study economics, analytics, and finances while he taught.  In 2024, George received a call to become a financial planner, a parallel application of his love for education, finances, and counseling.

George has tried to imitate Christ in the lessons of his mentors, his father’s work ethic and love for people and negotiations, and his mother’s faith in Christ and love for food with family. He loves spending time with the Lord above all, sitting under God’s Word at Church. He loves his wife’s laughs, his daughter’s enthusiastic hugs, working out, throwing his son in the air, and getting eggs from their chickens. He could be found analyzing Clone Wars or a Disney Princess movie with the family, marveling at his wife’s creativity in making deep dish sourdough pizza (and bread pudding recipes), and reading a never-ending list of good books with drink in hand.

Who George is can be reflected in the people in his life he is most thankful for:

1. His middle school teacher Casey Solgos taught George through Atticus Finch that Christian men courageously fight battles to make a world built on truth.
2. A minority  economist named Thomas Sowell in Discrimination and Disparities taught George to resist using race, social status, or any personal or societal obstacles as excuses for individual responsibility to manage ourselves well and to serve others.
3. Doug Wilson’s book To A Thousand Generations helped George think generationally while tending the vine that bears much fruit in this life and the lives to come.
4. George has learned three main lessons from mentors in his life: be courageous, take responsibility, think generationally.