Wendy Trout

Wendy Trout is a Partner, Vice President, Secretary, and Senior Financial Advisor at Summit Financial Strategies, Inc., an independent, fee-only wealth-management firm based in Columbus, Ohio. She entered fee-only financial planning in 1994 while completing a Bachelor of Science in Business Operations, and earned her CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) certification in 2002. Before joining Summit, she worked as a financial planner at the Columbus-area firm Budros, Ruhlin & Roe.

She has been with Summit Financial Strategies since roughly 2004–2005, becoming a Senior Financial Advisor in 2011, a Partner in 2015, and Vice President and Secretary in January 2016 — making her one of the firm's managing principals alongside colleagues such as Samantha Macchia, Brian Sutliff, Luke Salcone, Michael Scherer, Steven Cavalieri, and Timothy Swain. In 2025 she marked a 20-year anniversary with the firm.

Her practice specializes in wealth management for non-traditional families, income-tax and estate planning, and building comprehensive plans for families approaching retirement. In 2015 she added the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) designation, reflecting a strong interest in charitable and philanthropic planning. She is a member of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), and the Professional Council of The Columbus Foundation.

Summit Financial Strategies itself was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1995, growing from two associates to more than 20 associates and staff serving clients across the country as a fee-only fiduciary firm.

• Discipline: Personal financial planning and investment management for individual and family clients — a fiduciary, fee-only advisory model, not startup equity investing.
• Client focus: Non-traditional families, high-net-worth households, and families planning for or entering retirement.
• Service areas: Comprehensive financial planning, portfolio/investment management, income-tax planning, estate planning, and charitable/philanthropic strategy (backed by her CAP® designation).
• No verifiable startup/seed thesis: No public evidence was found of angel or seed-stage startup investing, check sizes, or a startup portfolio associated with Wendy Trout. If she does angel-invest personally, it is not documented in any accessible source.