Mark Carlton

Mark Carlton is the founder and president of Trademark Financial Management, LLC, an independent investment-management firm he established in 2000 and based in Bloomington, Minnesota. He created the firm to act as an outsourced investment partner for wealth advisors, RIAs, nonprofits, and foundations — handling asset allocation, account management, due diligence, trading, market updates, and reporting "behind the scenes" so advisors can focus on their clients and their business. Today the firm describes its offering around third-party asset management, OCIO (Outsourced Chief Investment Officer) services, and investment consulting built on a "disciplined, fiduciary investment approach."

Carlton is a long-tenured public-markets portfolio manager rather than a startup financier. According to the firm's biographical materials, he has managed bond mutual-fund portfolios since 1987 and stock mutual-fund portfolios since 1991. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter in 1998 and remains a charterholder. Earlier biographical versions of the firm's site state that he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1986 with a B.A. in history and a minor in anthropology. Outside of work, his stated interests include reading history, nature photography, and baseball.

The firm's small team includes Sam Glubka, CIMA® (Portfolio Strategist), Jennifer Lutz (Director of Operations & Chief Compliance Officer), and Juliet Amwoma (Operations Specialist).

Important accuracy note: The original stub classified Mark Carlton as an "Angel Investor" focused on "Seed Round" deals. Public sources do not support this. Every verifiable source — the firm's own website, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo/RocketReach, and the unbiased.com advisor-firm listing — identifies him as the founder/portfolio manager of a public-markets investment-management firm, not as an angel or seed-stage venture investor. No startup angel investments, fund vehicle, check sizes, or seed-stage activity could be verified for this individual, so those fields are intentionally omitted below rather than invented.

• Operates in public markets, not venture/angel investing: disciplined, fiduciary management of bond and equity (stock) portfolios.
• Positions Trademark as an outsourced investment desk for financial advisors, RIAs, nonprofits, and foundations — delivering "focused, adaptive, and diligent investment management while integrating seamlessly behind the scenes."
• Emphasis on a repeatable, research-driven process (asset allocation, manager/security due diligence, ongoing market commentary), framed as relieving advisors of investment-research and oversight burden.
• No verifiable stated thesis around startup stage, check size, or sector bets typical of an angel investor.