Our Support Staff

Our Support Staff

Our client relationship managers are an indispensable part of our team. In each office they handle dozens of client questions on a daily basis, expedite processing of all types of forms, maintain accurate client information, and assist with business management processes. They are committed to providing the very best customer service, communicating with clients clearly and graciously.

Michelle Lasko

Operations Manager, Olympia Office

Michelle is from Lynnwood, Washington, and now lives in Lacey. After getting her AA degree in accounting from Edmonds Community College she moved frequently with her husband, James, when he was in the Army. They lived in North Carolina, Hawaii, California, Arizona, Virginia, and Germany before settling back in the Northwest in 2005 when James’ last assignment was at Joint Base Lewis McCord. Along the way, Michelle prepared tax returns during tax season and took the occasional unusual position, such as being inventory control manager at a chili pepper processing plant in Arizona.

Michelle started working for Zale in 2008, and her background in accounting has been a big asset in her position as a client relationship manager. She’s very familiar with the tax terms and documents that Zale’s clients navigate through each year. She knows how to efficiently use Commonwealth's services, and provides Zale with all types of adminstrative support.

James now works as a military contractor, so he’s usually gone for two months, then home for two months. During the two months he’s home, he is actively working his new job as a Realtor. He and Michelle like to go hiking or tandem kayaking in the lakes around Olympia or in Puget Sound. They have hiked trails on Mt. Rainier, and up the very steep Mt. Elinor on the Olympic Peninsula.  They have two children, Morgan and Thad. Morgan is currently a nursing student at Northwest University in Kirkland, WA. Thad is starting a new career as a salesman for Weatherbuilt Homes.

Michelle has been concentrating on physical fitness for the last few years and has completed 2 "Run the Year" challenges and is currently walking her way through her 3rd year of the challenge.

Gerrilynn Lindley

Office Manager, Olympia Office

Since Todd moved his business to Pillar Financial Group in late 2016, Gerrilynn has continued in her role as his Operations Manager. She has worked side by side with Todd ever since they started Lindley Financial in Montesano 33 years ago. She is intimately familiar with every aspect of the business, and knows Todd’s clients nearly as well as he does. When they first started, she and Todd were the only two people in the office, but over the years, they added other staff members, and now she is able to focus primarily on operations, making sure the business is running smoothly. Still, their clients are her primary interest, and she feels honored to share their life experiences.

Gerrilynn grew up in Shelton, and met Todd while they were both attending Western Washington University. They were married before Gerrilynn finished at WWU, so after they moved to Montesano she finished her degree in Management and the Public Interest at The Evergreen State College.  

While they lived in Montesano, Gerrilynn served the community in many roles, primarily with her church and the Montesano Youth Soccer Club. The volunteer position that currently energizes her is serving as Emeritus board member for the Alumni Association of Western Washington University. As a member of the scholarship committee, she loves helping to choose which students will receive one of the 70+ scholarships awarded each year.

In her spare time, Gerrilynn is a member of a Bible study group, and she is an avid reader, enjoying a wide genre of books. She, Todd, and everyone else from the Olympia office of Pillar Financial Group are huge Seattle Seahawks fans. 

Katherine Butcher

Client Service Manager, Olympia Office

Katherine is from Aberdeen, Washington, where she returned to in 2009 after receiving her bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Chaminade University of Honolulu. While completing her degree in Hawaii, she aslo competed as a scholarship athlete on the women's collegiate basketball team before playing for three months on a semi-professional international team in norther Italy.

Just a few months after moving back to the area, Katherine started her business career as a receptionist for Todd. Since then her role has expanded continuously, and she now works primarily as his financial planning assistant. In this role she works with Todd to understand each client's goals and takes the client-service lead in implementing what is needed to ensure those goals are realized. She is a registered representative, having passer her FINRA Series 6 and 63 securities exams. 

In late 2015, Katherine adopted twin girls, Elisa and Eloisa. New freshman in high school (2021-2022), the three of thems are kept busy with work, academic, and athletic pursuits, and Katherine volunteers as an assistant coach to the high school girls' basketball program.

Katherine bought her first home in early 2019, a "rehab fixer-upper". The interior was completely gutted and rebuilt, including a lot of projects undertaken by Katherine and her dad. It was a chaotic endeavor, but well worth the experience of living through and completing a remodel. Now, Katherine is looking to relocate closer to the Lacey office and her daughters' school and is even considering the possibility of finding another fixer-upper!

Marisa Lindley

Client Service Specialist, Olympia Office

Marisa joined Pillar Financial Group in early 2016. Over the last 6 years, she has taken over the role of Practice Manager, which oversees a variety of tasks, such as planning client events, office needs, specializing in alternative investments and annuities, and client services. Her extra attention to detail really helps to assure that all client needs are met quickly and accurately.

After high school, Marisa went to Western Washington University where she graduated with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Business Administration in 2015. The business minor experience is key to her job every day, and the focus of her sociology studies was race and ethnicity, background that is very relevant in today's world.

 

Allison Bafus

Client Relationship Manager, Spokane office

Allison has been working part time alongside her husband, Chris, and Keith Radmaker in the Spokane office since February 2017. Since she has listened to Chris and Keith talk about their work for the past 20 years she was quite familiar with what the job requirements would be, and has been delighted to get to know their clients. As their Client Relationship Manager, Allison coordinates work flow in the office, handles follow up after client meetings, and provides ongoing support and service for Chris and Keith and their clients.

After getting her degree in marketing at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Allison worked for Zak Designs, a children's dinnerware company located in Airway Heights, a Spokane suburb. When her daughter, Chloe, was born in 2004 she left the company to stay home with her. Twins Gwen and Cole joined Chloe in 2006, and Allison's life has been filled with her children's activities ever since.

Besides volunteering for the Booster club and Senior All-Nighter committees,  Allison is very involved with their sports teams. All three of them participate in premier soccer clubs (the hightest level of club soccer competition). Chloe and Gwen played on their high school varsity team (Chloe the last 3 years and Gwen made Varsity as a freshman this year). Cole is also looking forward to representing his school when boys high school soccer starts up in February.  All of that equates to a lot of practices and games! Chris and Allison are preparing for Chloe's graduation from high school this Spring and will then send her off to Walla Walla in the Fall of 2022 to continue her soccer career as a Walla Walla Warrior. Gwen and Cole hae started their first year in high school and are looking forward to all that will come from these next 4 years.

In fact, Allison and Chris make every effort to create family memories. Every summer they camp or rent a vacation house with a group of friends, some of whom they ave known since childhood, all with children of their own. They snow ski every weekend they can in the winter (which is every weekend they don't have a soccer tournament to go to), and they go to Allison's family's cabin at Lake Cocolalla in North Idaho as much as possible in the summer for boating, water skiing, tubing and fishing. Allison's extended family all live in the Spokane area, and so does Chris's, and they are thankful for the support and camaraderie this provides.

Ashley Raynor

Client Relationship Manager, Anchorage Office

Ashley joined Avi and Neal in 2016 after graduating from Western Oregon University with a degree in music performance. Ashley was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska and is the eldest of her six siblings. Her mother and Avi are long-time friends and met in a youth symphony in high school.

She enjoys her position as client relationship manager because it gives her the opportunity to develop long-term relationships with clients. She handles all the paperwork and follow up needs for Avi and Neal very proactively, and works hard to ensure that the office is running efficiently.

Ashley was married in September 2016 to Nico, in Seward, Alaska. Nico is originally from South Carolina but has fallen in love with the state and now works in a local shipping company in a sales and coordination position. In their spare time, Ashley and Nico are both avid gamers, playing both online games and in Dungeons & Dragons together. They are also enthusiastic travelers, and dream of visiting Scotland again.

Liu Hsiu Kuo

Client Relationship Manager, Anchorage Office

Liu Hsiu hails from the other side of the world, having grown up in Taiwan. Her musical talent was evident from an early age. She learned to play the piano by age four and spent nearly all her evenings throughout her childhood practicing the piano and the harp. She completed her basic college education In Taiwan, emphasizing music, and subsequently moved to Germany to continue her studies. Eventually, she completed a PhD in music at the Cincinnati Music Conservatory and is now an internationally recognized harpist. She has played at multiple important events; the most recent was the inauguration ceremony held at the Taiwanese Consulate in Seattle for the new Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen.

Liu Hsiu can play virtually any instrument, but her favorites are the harp and the piano. In 2008, she started working as a music therapist at Providence Alaska Medical Center. She roamed the hospital, playing her harp for all the patients who wanted to hear her, tailoring what she played to each person’s music preferences. Her music was often transformative, helping the patients to acknowledge the unspoken emotions that are present during illness, injury, or the dying process.

She met Neal Martin in 2009 at music event, where she spontaneously began accompanying him on the piano as he was playing the Native American flute. They were married six months after they met. She works with him now in their home office in Republic, helping him particularly with planning and with relationship building. She hopes to start a music retreat center on the lower floor of their home, where people can come to nurture and explore their own personal connections to music. In preparation for this, she has developed a program she calls “A Music First Aid Kit,” which she has taught several times, most recently at Spokane Community College.

Like her husband Neal, Liu Hsiu has studied at the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. Viktor Frankl was a German psychiatrist who survived four concentration camps in World War II. After the war he developed logotherapy, a type of therapy that focuses on how people search for meaning in their lives, and wrote his classic textbook, Man’s Search for Meaning.

Brittany Perske

Client Service Specialist, Vancouver Office

Brittany was born and raised in the Bothell, Washington area.  Her background in the financial industry started in 2003 when she began working for an estate planning attorney, and she expanded on this in 2005 when she moved to TD Ameritrade as a Client Service Specialist.

In 2007, she and her husband, Matt, relocated to Vancouver when he was offered a new position in Ridgefield.  At that point Brittany took a leave to raise her young family and became deeply involved in her children’s activities, especially Pop Warner.  Her daughter, Lexi, attended a cheerleading class at age 6, loved it, and joined a Pop Warner cheerleading team right away.  Brittany volunteered to be the coach even though she had no experience with cheer.  Fast forward a few years and in 2015 Brittany was voted Female Coach of the Year.  Over the years, Brittany held several different board positions for Vancouver Pop Warner.  

Raising children and community service commitments kept Brittany busy until returning to TD Ameritrade in Vancouver in 2018 as a Client Service Specialist. She now splits her free time between the gym where her daughter, Lexi (now a sophomore), plays high school and club volleyball and the field where her son, Logan (a fourth grader), plays Little League baseball.  Matt now works in Vancouver as a heavy equipment mechanic.  In any downtime, Brittany and her family enjoy camping at the ocean, especially on the Long Beach peninsula, and visiting family in Lake Chelan.

Brittany is excited to now be part of the Pillar Financial Group team and looks forward to establishing and building relationships with clients, as well as growing more in the financial industry.

Sammantha Lewis

Client Relationship Manager, Tri-Cities Office

Sammantha was born and raised in Eastern Oregon/Washington. In February of 2022, Sammantha, and her husband Darrell were married on the beach of Kauai, Hawaii. In addition to being a wife, Sammantha has two beautiful daughters, Kamerann who is 16 years old and Ellerie who is 8 years old.

From volunteering for the Booster club, to being a member of the PTA, to running a non-profit, Sammantha is very involved with her community, daughters, their schools and competition dance teams. Kamerann continues to participate in Studio competition dance, and has for almost 8 years now, where she has made many trips to compete in dance at the National Level. She also enjoys dancing on the Richalnd High School Goldrush Dance Team. Ellerie is just starting her dancing endeavor, she has been dancing for 6 years now, but has chosen not to take the competition route but instead dance for fun. If Sammantha is not at work, you will most likely see her at one of the kid's schools volunteering or out supporting richland High School.

Sammantha joined Ted in his practice in early 2023. Having a background in Accounting and Finance has helped Sammantha and Ted in assisting their clients. She enjoys her position as client relationship manager because it gives her the opportunity to develop long-term relationships with clients. She handles all of the paperwork and follow-up needs for Ted, very proactively, and works hard to ensure that the office is running effeciently.

Sammantha is excited to now be part of the Pillar Financial Group team and looks forward to establishing and building relationships with clients, as well as growing more in the financial industry.