Our History
Though the name Purposeful Wealth is new, the foundation of our firm reaches back to 1981. What began with Ruth Guillaume’s dedication to client service has grown into a firm built on independence, trust, and a commitment to guiding families with wisdom and care. The timeline below reflects the key steps in that journey.
1981 – Ruth Guillaume joins Griffin, Kubik, Stevens and Thompson where she sold government and municipal bonds.
1983 – In order to offer her clients more investment options, she joined Channer Financial Services in Itasca.
1987 – Channer Financial Services merged into Rodman & Renshaw.
1988 – Ruth leaves Rodman & Renshaw and joins The Chicago Corporation in search of a firm that was more client-centric.
1993 – Ruth, along with two others, opened a branch office of LPL Financial on LaSalle Street in Chicago.
LPL Financial, founded just 4 years earlier, was a little-known broker-dealer that sought to be the independent alternative to traditional Wall Street firms. It was this independence and support for advisors who seek to focus on the best interests of their clients that attracted Ruth to LPL.
1996 – Ruth hires Judy Clark as branch operations manager.
1999 – Ruth and Judy move the office from downtown Chicago to Inverness.
2000 – Ruth hires Eric Freckman as the business continues to grow.
To hire, Ruth had to obtain the necessary registrations to oversee another financial profession. The more she learned about monitoring for illegal actions, the more convinced she became that she wanted to hire someone right out of school, without any bad habits from previous work. She made the decision to hire Eric and committed to teaching him how to care for clients on a daily basis.
2005 – Eric and Ruth’s partnership leads to changing the business name to Guillaume & Freckman, Inc.
2007 – Ownership begins to transition from Ruth to Eric.
The transition was structured to be a multi-year transition with the goal of giving Ruth the flexibility to work a little bit less and spend more time pursuing personal and philanthropic interests.
2008 – Eric and Ruth hire Michael McKevitt to assist in financial planning and portfolio management.
2010 – Ruth is fully retired from day-to-day operations, but remains a part-time consultant.
2015 – After nearly 16 years in Inverness, Guillaume & Freckman moves 5 minutes down the road to downtown Palatine. The office is a 100-year-old home that was renovated for business use.
2017 – Mike became a partner at the beginning of the year.
Having Mike as an owner in the firm provides stability, should anything happen to Eric, as well as signifies the commitment of Eric and Mike to provide their clients advice for the long term.
2024 – Judy retires after 28 years of outstanding service
2025 – Guillaume & Freckman officially became Purposeful Wealth on October 10th. The name was chosen to better reflect the work we do together – not simply building wealth, but building it with intention while pursuing contentment and generosity.