Our Team
Every member of our team brings a unique set of skills to the table, allowing us to serve you in a truly comprehensive way. We strive to build relationships that are the perfect blend of professional and personal, and we pride ourselves on being highly responsive and providing exceptional service every time.
Our clients deserve the best, and that’s why we’re very particular with who joins the Gould Financial Group family. We look for relationship-centric people who are exceptional at what they do and are passionate about serving others, and we believe our team is one of our greatest strategic advantages.
Our Team
Daniel W. Gould , CLU®, ChFC®, CFP®
Founder and Private Wealth Advisor
Daniel W. Gould , CLU®, ChFC®, CFP®
Founder and Private Wealth Advisor
WORK & EDUCATION
Daniel Gould works with successful businesses, professionals, and high net worth individuals and families with complex financial pictures. What he values most is developing and building personal relationships with our clients. Daniel can provide you with risk protection and investment solutions that can help make your financial goals a reality. He helps clients, throughout their lifetime, to understand what situations they need to prepare for and which assets they need to protect. Daniel will help you qualify your goals and objectives, identify your assets and liabilities and compare what you have to what you want.
Daniel graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. He has been with Northwestern Mutual since 1991 and has earned the Chartered Life Underwriter(CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant(ChFC) designations as well as the Certified Financial Planner(CFP) certification.
PERSONAL
Daniel lives in Northbrook with his wife, Amy and their children, Hannah and Sophie. In his free time Dan enjoys visiting his cabin in northern Wisconsin where he swims, boats and camps with his family and friends. He also enjoys playing golf and cards and has become quite a bourbon connoisseur.
WORK & EDUCATION
Raj Desai graduated from the University of Illinois-Champaign in 2004, with a degree in Finance and Marketing. Raj has over ten years of experience with Northwestern Mutual and teamed up with Dan in 2011. He specializes in helping physicians and other high-income, high net worth professionals. Raj works with clients all across the country, helping them create and maintain long-term financial game plans.
PERSONAL
Raj has been married to his wife, Veronica, since 2014. Their daughter, Jasmine, decided to surprise them in December 2016 by arriving two months early. They currently reside in Lincoln Square. In his free time, Raj loves playing and watching sports; he is a die-hard Cubs, Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, and Illini fan.
WORK & EDUCATION
Zakry Levitt graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington in 2020 with a degree in Finance. Upon graduation, he teamed up with Dan, Raj and Nancy.
Zakry is a passionate person driven to work with his clients for the long term. He values developing relationships to best understand his client's unique needs, desires, and goals. Doing so gives him the ability to work alongside his clients to meet both short and longterm objectives.
PERSONAL
Having grown up in Winter Park, Florida, Zakry now lives in Chicago. In his free time, he loves visiting his family in Utah where he enjoys Skiing, Rock Climbing, and all things Outdoors, along with spending time with his friends.
WORK & EDUCATION
Alex Rothschild graduated from Indiana University with a focus in financial management in 2020. Following graduation, Alex worked at Morningstar for two years where he helped advisors find the right ESG tools to run their practice and serve their clients.
Alex is driven to help his clients achieve their most significant personal milestones and life moments. Alex uses a combination of both short and long-term wealth management solutions to help his clients deal with today's challenges while preparing for a secure financial future.
PERSONAL
Alex moved to the city of Chicago with his fiancé Hannah following graduation. Alex loves sports, both at the collegiate and professional level. Football, basketball, baseball, and Formula 1 racing are his favorites. Alex also enjoys spending time outside fishing and playing tennis with family and friends.
Joel Brodsky became a client of GFG over twenty years ago when he was a young lawyer and his wife, Amy was a dermatology resident at the University of Chicago. Joel graduated from Indiana University in 1992 and the University of Illinois College of Law in 1995. He litigated from 1995 to 2006 and spent most of his legal career at Quarles & Brady LLP. Thereafter, Joel recruited lawyers from 2006 through 2015 while also helping his wife, Amy, run her dermatology practice, The Derm. In 2015, Joel took over running The Derm full time as President and helped build it to three offices with over 50 employees. Joel and Amy partnered with Forefront Dermatology in April 2021, which is a private equity backed dermatology platform. Joel enjoys building client relationships and providing strategic advice to help promote company growth and objectives. Joel is very excited about his new position as the Director of Business Development of GFG. He looks forward to using his experience to provide strategic advice to Dan and the team on how to execute on growth objectives while still focusing on superior client service as a core value of GFG. He also looks forward to building new relationships and bringing new clients to GFG.
Joel lives in Deerfield with his wife, Amy, and their children, Nicole and Jake. In his free time, Joel enjoys playing golfing and going to Cubs games. He also enjoys traveling with his family.
WORK & EDUCATION
Kathy joined Northwestern Mutual in June of 1986 working at the Granum Agency now Northwestern Mutual- Chicago until she joined forces with Dan in June of 2004. Her experience includes application processing, client relation services and training & support for new associates in the New Business, underwriting and client service areas.
Kathy works behind the scenes at GFG and focuses her attention on the operational efficiencies of our team to ensure that the day to day operations run smoothly.
PERSONAL
Kathy lives in Lindenhurst with her husband, Dave. In her free time Kathy enjoys spending as much time as possible with their enormous family and friends. She also enjoys to read, bake and live music, especially if it’s her husband Dave playing drums.
WORK & EDUCATION
Chuck is our Director of Wealth Management Services, and head of our investment department. He has been with Northwestern since 2000, and joined Dan’s team in 2002. In that time he has been actively involved with all aspects of Dan’s work with his clients, from tax planning and investment management, to insurance and estate planning. Because of his years of experience, and familiarity with all aspects of Dan’s work with his clients, he should be your main point of contact after Dan, for anything you need regarding your overall financial planning. Chuck and his investment team can also help you with making deposits, getting copies of statements, or understanding your investment portfolio.
PERSONAL
Chuck lives in Chicago with his wife Kate, and their two cats and two dogs. When he’s not helping you with your financial planning, he has a multitude of hobbies that include running, bicycling, working on old cars, designing and building custom lamps, or rehabbing a room of his old Chicago two-flat.
WORK & EDUCATION
Alison joined Gould Financial Group in 2015 and manages all correspondence, communication and scheduling for Dan’s clients as well as any insurance related inquiries and processes. Her responsibilities also include managing the workflow of a lot of behind the scenes work to ensure the satisfaction of each of our clients.
PERSONAL
Alison enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, along with other family and friends. In her free time, she enjoys concerts, festivals, traveling and is a sucker for reality TV.
WORK & EDUCATION
Heather joined Gould Financial Group in the beginning of 2013. Heather is the main point of contact for Raj’s clients and is responsible for all client correspondence, communication and scheduling. Her day to day activities include helping with any client inquiries, scheduling, prospecting, monitoring current policies, setting up presentations for residency and fellowship programs, and organizing client events. Heather is here to manage the workflow of Raj's practice to ensure all clients' needs are met.
PERSONAL
Outside of the office, Heather enjoys spending time with her husband, 2 daughters and boxer pup. In the little free time she has, she enjoys taking her dog on runs and tries to get outside as much as possible. Once warm weather hits, she loves barbeques and summer festivals.
WORK & EDUCATION
Jessica has been a member of the Gould Financial Group since January 2016. She holds a Life and Health Insurance license in Illinois.
Jessica works behind the scenes preparing materials for each client meeting. This includes binding review packets, updating personal planning analyses and running new illustrations. In addition, she is responsible for making sure client insurance and investment summaries are accurate and up to date.
PERSONAL
In her free time, Jessica enjoys watching & attending sporting events (Go Bears! Go Cubs! Go Blackhawks!) She also loves spending time with her friends, her husband Nickolas and her pets.
WORK & EDUCATION
Sarah has been working for Northwestern Mutual since 2007 and with the Gould Financial Group since 2018. She holds her Illinois Life and Health License as well as Long Term Care.
Sarah handles the life and disability submission and underwriting processes, client service requests as well as all meeting preparation for Raj.
PERSONAL
Sarah lives in Libertyville with her husband, Jeff and their two kids, Mason and Riley. In her free time Sarah enjoys traveling to warmer weather, exploring the great outdoors, cooking and spending time with her friends and family.
WORK & EDUCATION
Lisa has been working for Northwestern Mutual since 2015. She holds her Series 6 and 63 and Illinois Life and Health licenses.
Lisa handles onboarding and servicing of new and existing investment accounts.
PERSONAL
Lisa lives in the suburbs with her family. In her free time she enjoys boating and being outdoors with her family and friends.
WORK & EDUCATION
Debbie has been with Dan for almost 15 years. She performs various office administrative duties such as: license renewals, income and expense tracking, database maintenance and makes sure our client files are kept organized and compliant.
PERSONAL
Debbie lives in Buffalo Grove with her husband, Dave and their children, Brittany and Zach. In her free time she enjoys long walks, playing mah jongg, watching and playing sports and hanging out with friends and family.
WORK & EDUCATION
Before joining Gould Financial Group, she studied at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. She graduated in May of 2020 with a degree in Applied Health Science. This past summer, she became a certified yoga teacher upon completing a 200 hour training course.
PERSONAL
When she is not working, she loves to travel, practice yoga, play with her puppy and spend time in the kitchen.
WORK & EDUCATION
Sara attended school in New York City, at Baruch. She graduated with a Bachelor’s in Corporate Communication and a minor in Law and Policy. She started working in the fitness industry as a trainer out of school and then moved to the corporate sector a few years ago.
PERSONAL
In her free time she is an avid cycler and loves spending time with her new niece.
Work and Education
Eric recently graduated from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and holds a Life and Health Insurance license in Illinois.
Eric handles the onboarding of new investment accounts and servicing of existing accounts.
Personal
Eric currently lives in the suburbs and enjoys spending free time with friends and family, playing and watching sports and loves to travel.
WORK & EDUCATION
Katie transitioned into finance after working in healthcare for several years. She earned a Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Boston University in 2015. Katie always had a passion for helping people meet their wellness goals, and now uses this philosophy to assist clients in obtaining their financial objectives. Katie was intimately involved in the operations of NorthShore HealthSystem’s rehabilitation department. At Gould Financial Group, she oversees the coordination between the investment, insurance, and advisory teams.
PERSONAL
Katie lives in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. She enjoys teaching Pilates, going for walks with her Bernedoodle, Enzo, and travelling to both new and familiar places.
WORK AND EDUCATION
Nicole transitioned to the investment team at Gould Financial Group after a career as a licensed healthcare professional in Wisconsin and Illinois. She obtained two degrees and certifications in Nuclear Medicine and Mortuary Science in Chicago and used that to passionately serve people during their time of need. Nicole carries her passion to serve clients to GFG where she handles new investment accounts and servicing of existing investment accounts.
PERSONAL
Nicole lives in Buffalo Grove with her husband and dog and in her free time she enjoys cooking, travel, fishing, boating, a day at Wrigley and other parks, or just hanging out with family and friends.