MSN Money: Top 10 Entrepreneurs of 2025
Because each professional owns one piece of the money picture, and nobody owns the whole thing.
Most successful families already have a CPA, a financial advisor, an estate attorney, an insurance agent and a banker. That is not the problem. The problem is that each one sees a single slice. The CPA sees last year's tax return. The advisor sees the accounts they manage. The attorney sees the documents they drafted. Nobody is paid to check that the pieces fit. Dr. Pat Pachciarz® calls the money that slips through those gaps stranded value: money that's yours, sitting where you can't reach it. His answer is not another specialist. It is a coordinator who sees the whole board and sets the order of decisions. That is the job he built The Pinnacle Group in Aurora, Illinois, to do, using the DAITT® method.
He saw it from the inside. He describes spending a decade inside "one of the most prestigious private client environments in the world." Clients believed they were getting elite, coordinated strategy. What most actually got was a polished referral: "go see your CPA," "talk to your estate attorney," "consult your tax professional."
In his words: "After 25 years, I realized the problem wasn't the products. It was the gaps between them." You can read more about that chapter in what Dr. Pat Pachciarz® learned at J.P. Morgan's Private Client Group.
These are simple examples, not client stories. Each one starts with a good professional doing good work.
Because a new specialist adds one more slice. Nobody is still looking at the whole pie. The 2026 numbers show why that matters:
Think of a basketball team with five great players and no point guard. Everyone is talented. Nobody calls the play. The team still loses.
People in the middle of a big change. Dr. Pat Pachciarz® built his work for Women in Life Transition: women going through divorce, widowhood or inheritance, caregivers, and pre-retirees around 55 who are thinking about trust planning. Each of those moments touches taxes, accounts, documents and family all at once.
It is not only for the very wealthy. As Dr. Pat Pachciarz® puts it: "Some people start at the 3-yard line. Some start at the 20. I built the Pinnacle ecosystem so it doesn't matter where you start."
It is when each of your professionals does good work on one piece, but nobody checks how the pieces affect each other. The result is missed tax savings, unfunded trusts and decisions made in the wrong order.
One person should own the whole picture and set the order of decisions. That is the role Dr. Pat Pachciarz® plays at The Pinnacle Group. Your CPA still prepares your return, and your attorney still drafts your documents.
Stranded value is Dr. Pat Pachciarz®'s name for money that's yours, sitting where you can't reach it. It hides in the gaps between your debt, taxes, investments and trust documents.
Usually not. Most families keep their CPA and their attorney. What changes is that someone finally hands all of them the same plan and the same order of decisions.
No. Any household with a tax return, a retirement account, a mortgage and a will has pieces that must fit together. The more life changes, like divorce, widowhood or caregiving, the bigger the gaps get.
This page is education, not legal, tax or investment advice. Your estate attorney drafts legal documents and your CPA prepares your returns. Rules and figures change; confirm your own situation before acting.