Enthralled by his clients’ stories and their history, Peter has a singular focus on helping craft a financial journey that plans for the future but maximizes the now. After more than 20 years as a Financial Advisor, Peter has honed his craft and concentrates on serving business owners, skiers, and Gen X’ers.
Peter draws upon a team of experts and extensive resources in developing unique and comprehensive financial plans. It could be creating an investment plan with significant tax savings, exploring digital currencies and other new frontier investment opportunities, designing an asset protection strategy, or developing income strategies, which will last a lifetime. Whichever path and priority fit his clients, Peter leads the way in building trusting and loyal relationships that transcend and morphs into deeply personal friendships.
Armed with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History of Science from Georgetown University, Peter is a dedicated lifelong learner. For a professional in the financial services industry, this is key. The investment horizon is ever-changing, and the need to marry historical knowledge and experience with foresight is a skill honed over many years. But Peter didn’t head straight from the halls of Georgetown to Wall Street. His love of adventure led him to travel the world for three years following graduation before partnering with his brothers to found a real estate development company in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Seizing the opportunity to make a difference in his community, the Ruh brothers bought boarded-up houses in blighted neighborhoods, renovated them, and sold or rented the finished product. When the market went south in the early 1990s, Peter turned his attention and mind for finance to purchasing non-performing mortgages from the FDIC and RTC. He restructured them for a profit discovering his love of finance in the process. Through these experiences, Peter developed a deep passion for investing that continues to drive him today. In addition to learning first-hand about real estate investments, mortgages, pricing cash flows and assets, tax implications, and operating a small business, Peter took away life lessons in those early days as a real estate investor and work-out specialist that informs the advice he provides to his clients today.
“Discovering value, imagining reconstruction, bringing resources together to make a plan, and then executing against the plan to bring the vision into reality, these are the lessons I learned with my brothers in my early work years. Our Dad taught us that the master word in life is WORK, so we persisted through the inevitable setbacks adjusting the plans to accomplish the goals. Today, I still love looking for value and opportunity for clients, working hard to build and adjust financial plans in service to clients.”
After spending the first half of his life on the East Coast, Peter and his wife Susan were called by the bluebird skies and siren song of the West. They moved to Boulder, Colorado, at the dawning of the new millennium in 2000. There he turned his love of investments, and his experience gleaned in his prior life to the securities industry. He began his career as a Financial Advisor at AG Edwards, followed by 16 years with H & R Block Financial Advisors and Wells Fargo Advisors before taking the bold leap into independence and founding his firm Bluebird Advisory.
“The world is changing, especially the financial and investment world. I need the freedom, the tools, and the right team to gear up for the decades ahead, to guide my clients expertly through their journey.”
In 2021 Peter earned the Certificate in Blockchain and Digital Assets® from the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals and New York Institute of Finance.
Two daughters, Sarah and Lucy, bless Peter and Susan. In the winter, Peter enjoys chasing snowstorms while letting llamas carry his pack on summer sojourns. Peter loves traveling, reading*, yard work, and attending concerts at the iconic Red Rocks amphitheater.
Two causes close to Peter’s heart, the Buffalo NY-based children’s scholarship Bison Fund and the Vail-based Colorado Snowsports Museum will each receive 1% of Bluebird gross revenues. Bluebird clients can be proud of the mission of each organization.
*Peter’s Top 5 Must-Read Books include:
Shannon Spotswood is a 25-year industry veteran in financial services with an outstanding reputation built on leadership roles in investment banking, hedgefund management, and business development. At RFG Advisory, Shannon oversees all aspects of RFG 2.0, a fully integrated platform designed for independent financial advisors and the implementation of strategic initiatives contributing to advisor success. Joining RFG Advisory in 2015, Shannon recognized the opportunity to combine her entrepreneurial experience with her passion to build an innovative, advisor-focused RIA of the future.
Under Shannon’s leadership, RFG Advisory was named Best Places to Work for Financial Advisors in 2021 and a Finalist for the InvestmentNews Innovation Awards 2021. In 2020, Financial Times named RFG Advisory a Top 300 RIA out of 13,000 firms. In 2020, Shannon was named 2020 Women to Watch Honoree by InvestmentNews and received industry-wide recognition for StrongHer Money, a turn-key education and advisor referral platform focused on serving women.
In an industry marked by accelerated change and disruption, Shannon is a standout. She is a frequent speaker at conferences, podcasts, and industry events on strategic execution, operational excellence, technology, and best practices on leading, recruiting, and mentoring next-gen talent and financial advisors. She also has experience talking about start-ups, having built a luxury children’s clothing brand Busy Bees Kids from the ground floor up. With her partner, BusyBees grew from a trunk-show business based in a garage to a successful brand featured in Vogue and carried in more than 150 stores and online.
Shannon’s career is characterized by a blend of leadership, vision, and grit. Before joining RFG Advisory, Spotswood served 20 years in San Francisco, working as an Investment Banker, Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager, and Entrepreneur. For 10 years Shannon worked at Symphony Asset Management, an $18 billion hedge fund acquired by Nuveen Investments in 2001 where she spent six years as the Portfolio Manager of a long-short equity hedge fund. Before that, she worked as a Research Analyst/Trader at EGM Capital and an Investment Banking Analyst and Associate in M&A at Volpe, Brown Whelan & Co, a technology-focused investment bank.
Shannon earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from the University of Arizona. She currently serves as Vice Chairman (Chairman beginning July 21) for the Birmingham Education Foundation and serves on the Advisory Board of Alabama Futures Fund, an early-stage VC fund.
Shannon lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she and her husband have raised their son and two daughters.
Rick Wedell joined RFG Advisory as Partner and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) in 2016. As CIO and leader of RFG's Investment Team, Rick manages multi-asset portfolios and provides strategic insights on asset allocation and portfolio construction. Rick also leads the design and enhancements of RFG's custom-built, institutional-caliber, client-focused investment platform known as "Bluemonte", currently managing over $3 billion of assets under management.
Rick's guiding principle is simple, straightforward analysis coupled with a consistent, rigorous investment process. Recognizing that foundations and family offices often enjoy a significantly higher level of access and sophistication around portfolio management, Rick designed an innovative investment experience focused on bringing that level of service and direct accessibility to financial advisors at RFG Advisory.
Before joining RFG, Rick spent 12 years at Bain Capital Credit, where he rose through the ranks to become Executive Vice President, Head of Fixed Income Consumer Investments, and Assistant Portfolio Manager. Rick played an instrumental role in helping Bain grow to become a global investment powerhouse, serving client assets in excess of $30 billion.
Managing portfolios through the volatile markets of 2001 and 2008, Rick experienced firsthand the importance of portfolio diversification and the trade-offs between risk and portfolio return. He applies those same lessons today to managing client and institutional portfolios at RFG Advisory.
Recently named a 2021 LUMINARY by ThinkAdvisor for Thought-Leadership & Education, Rick conducts client events, seminars, and workshops around the country and a bi-weekly series called Market Commentary with Rick Wedell on YouTube. From customized asset allocation recommendations to detailed investment analysis, he also works one-on-one with our Advisors and their clients to construct customized portfolios that help meet their defined goals.
Under Rick's leadership, RFG Advisory was named a Finalist for the InvestmentNews Innovation Awards 2021 and Best Places to Work for Financial Advisors, in addition to other industry accolades from Barron's, Financial Times, Money Management Institute, and WealthManagement.com.
Rick has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was awarded the Henry Ford II Scholar. He earned a B.A. in Applied Mathematics & Economics from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude.
Barb comes to Bluebird Advisory with years of experience building strong co-worker and client relationships and a passion for serving her community.
Barb graduated from Calvin College, a small liberal arts college in Grand Rapids Michigan, with degrees in Art and Psychology. She then spent several years working with adults with severe mental illness in a residential setting, an experience that made a great impact on her. She also served at a fine art reproduction company coordinating artists and production development efforts.
She maintained and improved the donor database system for the Conservation Fund, a national non-profit land conservation group. This taught her great client service skills and utilized her attention to detail attitude. Barb complements her artistic urgings with a love for numbers and a passion for creating systems. She was a bookkeeper for many small companies in the Boulder area. She continues to manage their AirBnb property in northern Michigan.
Stepping back from a "paid job," Barb opted to be at home raising her two boys, Oscar and Jake while finding time in the margins to flex her artistic and creative muscles in various mediums (clay, film, and textiles). Most recently, she has been pursuing her love of metals and metalsmithing. What remains consistent in all her endeavors is her desire and commitment to building positive relationships.
In her free time, Barb, her husband Eric, and their two boys play in the Colorado and Michigan outdoors as much as possible. They love water, hiking, biking, gardening, and most importantly, spending time with family and friends.
Graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, MO with a degree in Elementary Education in 2012. I realized a few years in that I had a passion for finance and decided to go back to school to get my MBA. I graduated from Lindenwood University in St. Chares, MO with my MBA in 2016 and started working with another firm in St. Louis shortly after that.
I love building relationships with clients and helping them with one of the most important aspects of their lives. Knowing that I am able to help them with this is very rewarding.
Personal Information:
I absolutely love Northern Michigan. My grandparents have owned a home on Crystal Lake for many years and I have been traveling there all of my life. I never pass up an opportunity to be in Michigan!
* Digital assets offered to advisory clients must be registered securities with the SEC and trade on one of the recognized major exchanges.
Money back guarantee is valid for six months after the date of engagement letter is signed. Contact BlueBird Advisory at (303) 477-1144 for further information.
