About Kelos Wealth Planning
Welcome to your purpose-built financial planning partner.
I've worked across nearly every corner of financial services, long enough to see what good planning looks like and how often clients don't get it from the team they're counting on to lead the way.
Twenty-five years in this industry taught me what I didn’t want Kelos to be. When it came time to build something of my own, I wanted the name to mean something. Kelos comes from a blend of my own name and the Greek word “telos,” meaning purpose. I chose it because I believe financial planning should be purposeful and personal, built around what genuinely matters to you, not managed in isolation from your actual life.
OUR STORY
You deserve a true financial partner.
You deserve an advisor who’s genuinely on your side. That’s not always easy to find. There are all kinds of financial planning firms out there:
- Firms that do investments well but treat planning as an afterthought
- Products presented as advice
- Commissions shaping recommendations that were supposed to be objective
I’ve seen it again and again, and I’ve watched what it cost the people on the other end: missed opportunities, blind spots, plans that looked complete but weren’t.
A boutique firm, based in Cincinnati, serving clients nationwide.
Kelos Wealth Planning was built as a virtual practice from the start: personal, attentive, and focused on working with the right people regardless of where they live.
About Julie Kist, CFP®
I founded Kelos Wealth Planning on a simple conviction: that financial planning works best when it’s personal.
Not as an annual checkup, but as an ongoing partnership with someone who genuinely knows your full picture. Someone you call when something changes, because you trust they’ll know what it means for your plan.
That’s the kind of advisor I’ve spent my career becoming.
Tax planning is where that shows up most clearly for me.
It's the type of planning where I feel most excited about the benefits I can find for my clients: the Medicare income brackets, the Roth conversion timing, the withdrawal sequencing that most plans skim past. I can't tell you how often I've looked at a tax return and found a planning opportunity that had been overlooked. Not because anyone was careless, but because no one was looking at the whole picture and connecting all the pieces.
My path to financial planning started earlier than most. As a young mother, I had to learn quickly how to budget and plan for the life ahead, and what began as necessity became a genuine passion. I’ve always loved two things: math and teaching. It took me a while to realize that financial planning is the perfect combination of both.
My father was a CPA who owned his own firm, which meant I grew up with tax planning at the kitchen table. While most people dropped off their documents and let him work his magic, I sat beside him asking endless questions, trying to understand how every entry on a return affected the outcome. That curiosity has never really gone away. It’s a big part of why tax planning sits at the center of everything I do at Kelos.
OUR VALUES
I love being a trusted partner and ally, not just the advisor who shows up once a year, but the person in someone’s corner who genuinely knows their full picture. Because at the end of the day, that’s what good financial planning makes possible: so my clients can stop worrying and live the life they love.
MY BACKGROUND
I began my career in financial services in 1999 and earned my CFP® designation along the way, the profession’s gold standard for financial planning. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) with a major in Finance from Xavier University.
Over the course of my career, I’ve worked with clients navigating the full arc of financial life: building wealth during their working years, transitioning into retirement, and, for many of the women I serve, stepping into the role of primary financial decision-maker, sometimes for the first time.
COMMUNITY
Cincinnati has been home all my life, and giving back to it matters to me. I currently serve on the Women’s Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation Leadership Council, Development Committee, and Fundraising Event Committee, and I’m involved with Wasson Way, a local trail initiative close to my heart.
My civic work has ranged from volunteering as an income tax preparer through the United Way’s VITA program to serving on the Board of Trustees and Finance Committee for UpSpring. I’ve also served on the advisory board of PROVIDOM, Inc. and am a graduate of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s C-Change Class 15.
Kelos Wealth Planning exists because I wanted to be the person looking at the whole picture for you. Planning first, always. Advice that isn’t shaped by commission sales. And a relationship where you’re never wondering whether anyone is actually paying attention to your full financial life.
This work isn’t a number on a statement. It’s moments. It’s the client who came in anxious and left with clarity. The beneficiary mismatch was caught before it mattered. The surviving spouse who walked out of our first meeting knowing exactly where she stood and what to do next.
Outside the Office
When I’m not working, I’m usually moving, gathering people, or ideally both.
You’ll find me biking Cincinnati’s trails (often with Ziggy, my Cavapoo, in tow), kayaking, golfing, and finding any excuse to be outdoors. My husband Christopher and I are lifelong sports fans and proudly loyal to the Bengals, Xavier Musketeers, and FC Cincinnati. We’re also self-described King and Queen of Gamers — whether that means cornhole, mahjong, board games, or cards, the goal is always the same: bring people together.
Hosting and building community have always been central to who I am, both professionally and personally. I grew up the youngest of seven children in a home that always had room for one more, whether by blood or simply by belonging. Looking back, I think that’s where my love of bringing people together started.
I live in Cincinnati with Christopher, my daughter Allie, and Ziggy. Christopher has three children: his daughter, Brittany, and her husband Brian have three sons, who keep life entertaining and full of energy, and his sons Spencer and Logan round out our half family, as we affectionately call ourselves. It’s a lot of people, a lot of love, and never a dull moment.