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Karen Spero founded Spero Financial Planning in 1972. The firm name changed to Spero-Smith Investment Advisers in 1993. Karen became a Certified Financial Planner in 1978 receiving her certification from the College For Financial Planning. Her Ohio-based firm offered personal financial planning and portfolio management services to individuals and small business owners and their families. There was significant emphasis on retirement and succession planning for the firm’s small business owner base.
Karen earned her B.S. in Business from Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio. In later years, she served on the Lake Erie College Board of Trustees and remains an emeritus member of the board. She served on civic and economic development boards, including the Ohio Department of Economic Development Financing Agency Board for 7 years, and was President of the Cleveland Area Development Finance Corporation. She served on the national Board of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners, the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Financial Planning, and was named to the National Advisory Board for Charles Schwab Institutional (1995-97). She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northeast Ohio Financial Planning Association (FPA) in 2009. Karen semi-retired when she and her husband, Keith, moved to Vail, Colorado in 2001. She remained on the Board of Spero-Smith until 2016 when she and her husband returned to Cleveland, Ohio. She has been on the College For Financial Planning Board of Directors since 2007.
