Meet Our Founder
Gunnar Dunbar
Founder and Wealth Manager
I grew up in the Northwoods and chose to build my life here with my wife and our young family. Outside of work, I spend most of my time with family, outdoors, and involved in the local community.
Before wealth management, I served in the United States Navy and studied Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both experiences pushed me toward the same habits I still rely on today: think critically, stay calm when things get complicated, and understand how individual pieces fit into a larger system.
That mindset carried naturally into financial planning. I like digging into the details, identifying where risk is hiding, and making sure decisions are not being made in isolation. My experience working with high-net-worth families, business owners, retirees, and professionals has only reinforced how important that broader perspective is.
I also believe strongly in being part of the community you serve. I stay involved locally through organizations and causes that matter to me, and I value the relationships that come from living and working in a place where people know each other.
At the end of the day, I am a husband, father, outdoorsman, and local business owner who happens to spend a lot of time thinking about money, risk, and how to help people make better decisions.
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Why I Started My Firm
I started my firm because I wanted to build a firm that felt different from the traditional financial services experience.
Too often, financial advice is either overly complicated or overly generic. Clients are handed investment statements, projections, and product recommendations without a clear understanding of how everything fits together.
That is not good enough.
My role is to help clients organize the moving parts of their financial life, understand the tradeoffs in front of them, and make disciplined decisions with their money. That includes retirement planning, investment management, tax-aware planning, insurance coordination, cash flow decisions, estate considerations, and the personal goals behind all of it.
The numbers matter. The strategy matters. But they only matter because of what they are meant to protect: family, independence, security, time, generosity, and the ability to make thoughtful choices.
A Local Firm With a Serious Standard
Rooted in community. Focused on your future.
I am a husband, a father, a business owner, and a member of my community. I stay involved locally through Ducks Unlimited, the Lions Club, and the LUHS District Foundation because I believe strong communities are built by people who choose to contribute.
That same belief carries into my work with clients.
Financial planning is personal. People are not just looking for someone to manage accounts. They are looking for someone they can trust with decisions that affect their family, their future, and the life they are trying to build.
That responsibility matters to me.
The Standard
Clients work with me because they want financial guidance that is steady, thoughtful, and direct. They want someone who can simplify complexity without dumbing it down. They want advice rooted in competence, not salesmanship.
That is the standard I built Dunbar Wealth Management around.