Who We Are
Because Your Family's Wealth Deserves a Team, Not a Template.
A team of PhDs and experienced professionals who believe the best financial outcomes start with education and trust.
Our Story
Born from Research, Built for Results
Most advisory firms start with a business plan. Ours started with a research paper — and a friendship. As finance professors, Thomas and Sabuhi spent years publishing peer-reviewed studies on the 401(k) industry: the fee structures, conflicts of interest, and behavioral patterns that quietly erode retirement savings. Their work earned best-paper awards and was picked up by such outlets as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Financial Times, and CNBC. But academic research only changes the world so quickly. They wanted to put what they'd learned to work for real families.
Matt had seen the same failures from the other side of the table. Years of building deep client relationships inside the industry had shown him that big firms are built to deliver scale, not care. He founded Elemental to give clients what they actually deserve: a team that knows their family, their goals, and what keeps them up at night.
What brought the three together was friendship and a shared conviction — that clients deserve both the personal attention of a boutique practice and the intellectual depth of a research institution. At most firms, the people doing the research are far removed from the client. At Elemental, the researchers are the same people sitting across the table from you.
The team has grown, but the philosophy has not changed. We work with a small number of families at a time. We take the jargon out and walk you through every recommendation in plain English. We coordinate with your CPA and your attorney so your plan moves as one system. And we approach every family with the same care and diligence we give our own. We're professionals, but this is personal — and that's what makes Elemental different.
Plain Truth
We tell you what the research supports — and what it does not. We do not predict markets or promise outsized returns.
The Long View
We are built for the long run, not the next quarter. Plans take time to mature, and so does the trust they are built on.
Earned Experience
Almost nothing you bring us is something we have not already walked another family through. That is the value of doing this with a team of experienced professionals.
Personal, Always
We treat your plan the way we treat our own. We are professionals, but this is personal — that is the work.
Our Team
Meet the People Behind Elemental
Thomas Doellman, PhD
Co-Founder, Senior Wealth Advisor
PhD in Finance, University of Florida
Professor of Finance at Saint Louis University, where he also serves on SLU's investment committee for its endowment. His academic research focuses on retirement plans, fees, and the behavioral patterns that affect long-term saving. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Financial Times, and on CNBC. He co-founded Elemental to put what he had spent a career studying to work for real families.
Matthew Tooley, ChFC
Co-Founder, Senior Wealth Advisor
Chartered Financial Consultant
Dual degrees in Chemistry and Finance from Truman State University and a career as a working advisor since 2008. Matt brings a chemist's analytical discipline and an advisor's relationship instincts to every plan he builds. He co-founded Elemental to give clients what he'd come to believe they deserved — a small team, real attention, and a fiduciary standard from day one. His philosophy: "My job is to take the jargon out and earn your trust. The rest follows from there."
Sabuhi Sardarli, PhD, CFA
Co-Founder, Chief Investment Officer
PhD in Finance, University of Florida | CFA Charterholder
Associate Professor of Finance and Associate Dean of Administration and Finance in the College of Business Administration at Kansas State University. His research spans mutual funds, retirement plans, and corporate finance, and he has earned multiple research and teaching awards. At Elemental, he leads investment research and portfolio strategy — bringing the same evidence-driven approach to client portfolios that he brings to peer-reviewed work.
Todd Koenig
Head of Operations, Wealth Advisor
Todd is based in Austin, TX, where he leads firm operations while building his own advisory practice within Elemental. His operational rigor keeps the firm running efficiently, and his client work extends that same discipline to the people he advises — bringing the Elemental philosophy directly to a fast-growing local market.
Kristin Lawson
Client Services Manager
Kristin and Matt began working alongside one another before Elemental was even an idea. She believed in the vision and joined from day one — and now she's the operational backbone of the client experience, the person most clients hear from first, and the one who makes sure nothing falls between the cracks.
“We approach every family with the same care and diligence as our own. We're professionals, but this is personal — and that's what makes Elemental different.”
What We're Trying To Do
We Can't Change the Industry. We Can Change Your Experience of It.
The financial services industry doesn't change easily. It's large, entrenched, and comfortable staying that way. We are not naive enough to think one firm changes that. What we can do is give the families we work with the experience they deserve — one team, one plan, plain English, and incentives aligned with yours.
If we never end up working together, we still want you better prepared than you were before you found us. That's why we publish the research we publish, write the articles we write, and answer the questions we answer — for free, for anyone who asks.