Headshot of Cheri Stein.

Cheri Stein

Partner CPA, CFP®, CIMA®, Plante Moran Trust, N.A. Managing Director, Senior Trust Officer Grand Rapids Wealth Management

My first job was cleaning the office at my dad’s accounting firm; I later moved on to updating the books. I guess accounting runs deep in my family: my brother is an accountant in Australia, and my sister is an accountant at a local school district. My 14-year-old son seems to be headed in this direction too with the way he tracks his earnings from lawn mowing jobs!
Cheri Stein
Partner, CPA, CFP®, CIMA®, Plante Moran Trust, N.A. Managing Director, Senior Trust Officer

Experience

As a partner in Plante Moran Trust, N.A., I help lead the Plante Moran Trust team and serve clients nationwide. For nearly 25 years, I’ve been providing comprehensive, objective financial guidance, and education to high-net-worth individuals and families to assist them in meeting their long-term, philanthropic, and financial planning goals. I specialize in holistic wealth management, trust administration, estate settlement, sophisticated wealth transfer techniques, philanthropic advice, and income tax planning.

Prior to serving as a trust officer with Plante Moran Trust, I was a relationship manager with Plante Moran Financial Advisors where I provided investment consulting and holistic planning to my clients. I developed expertise in 529 plans and education savings alternatives and served as Plante Moran Financial Advisors’ internal expert on those topics. As a "Smart Money Expert," I frequently appeared on WZZM's TV segment "Take Five," educating the Grand Rapids community on personal finance. 

At Plante Moran, I’ve been encouraged to grow and pursue a variety of opportunities. I’m a member of our Community Involvement Committee. I’ve also helped put many programs in place to support our women’s initiative in both Grand Rapids and the wealth management group.

My greatest accomplishments at the firm focus on how I’ve helped my clients. The work I do is individualized and, frankly, quite confidential. But it’s the “aha moments” that I lead clients to that give me great satisfaction. It’s about easing the burden of losing a spouse, sharing the joy of finding a new one later in life, empowering children and teaching them to be good stewards, making an eternal impact with a philanthropic gift, helping an aging parent, ensuring the legacy of the family business, and the list goes on. I’ve had the privilege of having hundreds of these moments in my career.

I’m the past president of the West Michigan Estate Planning Council, and a member of the Financial Planning Association, the Investments & Wealth Institute, the American Bankers Association, the MICPA, and the AICPA. As an active member of my community, I’ve previously served as the chairperson of the Beacon Hill Foundation board, on the advisory council of Michigan Women Forward, and I volunteer at Forest Hills Public Schools and my church. I have a B.A. in accounting and business administration from Taylor University.

CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investments & Wealth Institute®. For more information about the Institute and the CIMA certification, please visit investmentsandwealth.org.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.