About the Founder

Ryan lives in Crozet, Virginia (outside of Charlottesville) with his wife, Brittany, and their three children, Zachary (6), Grayson (3), and Anyela (1) – goes by “Ella”.  He received his BS in Business Marketing from Grove City College in Pennsylvania where he played Division III men’s soccer.  Ryan was an intern with Northwestern Mutual in 2009 and began building his wealth management and financial planning business/practice full-time in 2010. Today, he and his team of six are laser focused on serving and impacting clients that are high earners, physicians, business owners, or retirees and serve clients in 27 states across the country.

 

Ryan is on the UVA Children’s Hospital Advisory Board and involved at their local church, Center Church in Charlottesville.  For fun, Ryan loves travelling, cooking, anything to do with food and beverage, anything to do with water (pool, boat, lake, ocean), and public speaking.  He’s also a duel-citizen and an avid skier (and just taught his son Zachary over the past couple of years).  Ryan did some deep work around Dan Sullivan’s Unique Abilities concept early in 2023 and this is the output:

Ryan Lesser leads by example, inspiring people to live intentionally by engaging deeply and connecting them with the resources, people, and knowledge to flourish.

Ryan's Family

Lending a hand in my community.

As part of Northwestern Mutual, I'm proud to help accelerate the search for better childhood cancer treatments while supporting families undergoing treatment, and survivors from late effects. One of our Core Values is Altruism and inherent to that is generosity. Ryan and team believe that those who sow generously will reap generously. Here are some of the organizations we partner with:

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF)

ALSF funds cancer research, raises awareness, and supports the families of children with cancer. Since 2012, Northwestern Mutual, its employees, and financial professionals like me have donated more than $20 million to support ALSF and fund over 400,000 research hours.

Visit partner website

Alex's Lemonade Stand logo

Beads of Courage

Beads of Courage is an art-in-medicine program that helps kids with cancer tell their unique treatment story through colorful beads that are symbols of their courage.

Visit partner website

Beads of Courage logo

UVA Children's Advisory Board Member

UVA Children's Advisory Board members assist in raising funds, provide valuable advice and serve as ambassadors for UVA Children's programs

Here are my areas of expertise

The Ryan Lesser Financial Group specializes in serving and impacting clients that are Business Owners, Physicians, High-Income Earners, and Retirees. 

Education

Grove City College - Marketing Manager (Bachelor of Science)

Awards and Recognition

  • 2024 Forbes Top Best-In-State Financial Security Professionals
  • National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors Quality Award 2013-2015
    • Award recognizing commitment to excellence in service to clients and industry
  • MDRT Producer

 

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) Quality award is primarily based on sales production.  Advisors must be a NAIFA member and pay an application fee.  Award is based upon production from the prior calendar year.  For more information see:  naifa.org/membership/awards/quality-award.

Financial Planning

Investment Planning & Strategies

Life Insurance Strategies

Retirement Planning & Income Strategies

Education Planning & Funding

Disability Planning

Multigenerational Planning

Estate Planning

How Northwestern Mutual helps you live the life you want.

When people feel better about their money, good things happen—they become more confident and feel more secure. For more than 160 years, Northwestern Mutual has helped people achieve the financial flexibility they need to live more and worry less.

Being a mutual company means Northwestern Mutual reports to its clients, not Wall Street. They don't believe in chasing fads or taking undue risk for short-term gains. Instead, they take a long-term approach—both in the way we help people plan to reach their goals, and in the way they do business. This has served their clients (and mine) well through all kinds of economic ups and downs, including wars, recessions, even the recent pandemic.

It's why I'm happy to be part of a company that's in it for the long-haul and prioritizes clients over profit.

Downtown Milwaukee, WI Skyline