Charles L. Cooper, CFP

The Master’s Financial Group · Greeley, Colorado

Charles L.
CooperCFP

  • Estate planning
  • Retirement
  • Tax-efficient investing
  • Insurance

In this business most people have moved on three times by now. He has been at the same firm since 1983, and running it since 1989.

Talk to him How he got here
Charles L. Cooper in a charcoal pinstripe suit outside his Greeley office, the firm's hanging sign behind him.

Charles L. Cooper, CFPPresident and owner since 1989

  1. 1983Entered financial planning
  2. 1989President of the firm
  3. 40+Years, one firm
  4. 29States licensed

The long game

Anyone can be good
for a quarter.

This is the same man, at the same firm, for more than forty years.

  1. Before 1983Grand Trunk RailroadWorking his way through Michigan State as a brakeman.
  2. To 1983Greeley Police DepartmentA law enforcement career, on a Criminal Justice and Psychology degree.
  3. 1983The Master’s Financial GroupLeaves the department and enters financial planning.
  4. 1989President of the firmAnd still is.
  5. 2024, 2025Professional of the YearStrathmore’s Who’s Who Worldwide.
  6. 2026Professional of the YearA third year running.
Charles L. Cooper in a charcoal suit standing beside a single-track railway line running away across open prairie at sunset.
He paid for his degree working freight.Grand Trunk Railroad, before 1983
A close portrait of Charles L. Cooper outside his Greeley office.

The path

A brakeman, then
a police officer,
then this.

  • The railroadGrand Trunk
  • The badgeGreeley PD
  • The ledgerSince 1983

Chuck worked his way through college as a brakeman for the Grand Trunk Railroad. He took his degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology at Michigan State, then started a career in law enforcement.

In 1983 he left the Greeley Police Department and entered financial planning with The Master’s Financial Group. He has been President of the firm since 1989.

Two careers spent responsible for other people before he ever touched a portfolio. That is not a detour. That is the training.

The work

Four questions he spends
his days on.

Charles L. Cooper at his desk under a green banker’s lamp, working through an open ruled ledger with a fountain pen.

Four decades in, the questions have not changed much. What happens to what you built. Whether the money outlasts you. How much of it the tax code takes on the way through. And what happens to the people who depend on you if you are not there.

The answers change constantly. The questions do not.

  1. 01Estate planning

    What happens to what you built, and who has to deal with it.

  2. 02Retirement solutions

    Turning a working life into an income that outlasts you.

  3. 03Tax-efficient investing

    Keeping more of what a portfolio earns.

  4. 04Insurance strategies

    The part nobody wants to talk about until they need it.

And the rest of what the firm does

  • Comprehensive financial planning
  • Income distribution planning
  • College planning
  • Cash flow management
  • Tax planning
  • Long term care planning
  • Medicare strategies
  • Legacy planning
  • Investment guidance
  • Portfolio rebalancing
  • Periodic risk reviews
  • Performance reviews
  • Screening of funds and managers
  • Due diligence and research

As listed by The Master’s Financial Group.

Every one of these depends on your own circumstances. Nothing on this page is investment, tax or legal advice.

Behavioral financial coaching

The expensive mistakes
are rarely investment mistakes.

They are decisions made at the worst possible moment by someone who is frightened. Selling at the bottom. Holding a stock because of what it once was. Doing nothing for eleven years because starting feels like admitting how late it is.

The firm names this as its focus in its own words: helping clients stick to the good decisions they already made, and not make the bad ones that derail the plan.

It is worth noticing what Chuck studied. Before any of the financial qualifications there was a degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology, and then a career spent turning up to other people’s worst days at the Greeley Police Department. Two careers in how people behave under pressure, then four decades applying it to money.

  1. 01Initial risk assessmentWhat you can actually tolerate, not what a form says.
  2. 02Management of expectationsNamed as a service in its own right, which is unusual and honest.
  3. 03Investor educationA client who understands the plan is far less likely to abandon it.
  4. 04On-going consultationThe conversations between the decisions, which is where this work happens.
Charles L. Cooper sitting across a table from a couple, listening, hands clasped.
Most of the work happens between the decisions, not at them.On-going consultation

The record

Four decades, on paper.

Credentials

  • CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™CFP®. Awarded by the CFP Board against education, examination, experience and ethics requirements, and held to a fiduciary standard when giving financial advice.
  • Registered Investment AdvisorAdvisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc.
  • Registered RepresentativeOsaic Wealth, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. His record is public at BrokerCheck.
  • Million Dollar Round TableMDRT. An international association whose membership has to be re-earned each year against production and ethics standards.

Honors

  • Professional of the YearStrathmore’s Who’s Who Worldwide, 2024, 2025 and 2026
  • Lifetime Achievement Award
  • American Achievement Honoree
  • Influential Business Professional of the Year

Education

  • Criminal Justice and PsychologyMichigan State University, before any of the above
Charles L. Cooper in a work shirt leaning on a classic American car mid-restoration in a home garage at night.

Away from the desk

  • Automotive restorationSomething with a bumper on it, usually in pieces.
  • Church and charitable volunteering
  • Family, travel and fishing

Before you call

The four things
people ask first.

Do I have to be in Colorado?
No. He is registered to conduct business in twenty-nine states, listed in full at the bottom of this page. If yours is not on that list he cannot transact with you, and he will tell you so on the first call rather than the fourth.
Who actually holds the money?
Not him, and not The Master’s Financial Group. Securities and advisory services are offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc., a member of FINRA and SIPC. He is a registered representative of that firm. The separation matters, and it is the reason the disclosure at the bottom of this page exists.
How do I check him out?
FINRA BrokerCheck. It is free, it takes about a minute, and it shows every firm he has been registered with, every exam he has passed and any disclosure event on his record. Check any adviser you are considering, including this one.
What does it cost?
There is no published price list, and this site is not going to invent one. Fees depend on what you actually need and how it is structured. Ask him directly on the first call. If an adviser will not give you a straight answer to that question, that is your answer.
Charles L. Cooper outside his Greeley office, the firm's hanging sign beside him.
He is easy to find. He has not moved in more than forty years.Outside the Greeley office

Get in touch

The first conversation
costs nothing and
commits you to nothing.

  • Greeley, Colorado6500 29th Street, Suite 210
    Greeley, CO 80634
  • Grandville, MichiganThe firm’s second office.
The Master's Financial Group hanging sign outside the Greeley office.
The sign on 29th Street. Look for it.

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