Petra Financial Advisors

Petra Financial Advisors

Founded in 1976 by Ben and Dave (whose surnames the firm does not disclose), Petra Financial Advisors reached its 50-year mark in January 2026 under owner-partner Jon Forbes. The firm operates from a single office in Colorado Springs and serves clients across the United States through a fee-only model that combines financial planning, education planning, and portfolio management. Its team includes certified financial planners, an enrolled agent, a certified kingdom advisor, and a dedicated compliance officer — an unusually credentialed group for a firm of this size. Petra’s deployment centers entirely on individual and family wealth management rather than institutional asset allocation or direct investing. Team size is not publicly stated, but the firm’s website lists nine professionals across partner, planning, client-service, and Arizona units. Forbes, who holds both CFP and CFA designations, took over leadership after decades of low-turnover stewardship by the founders. The firm’s compliance function sits under Crystal Karstens, who has been with Petra since 2004 and wears both compliance and planning hats — a lean structure typical of independent RIAs. In July 2025, the firm hired Cleo Blankinship as a financial planning analyst, reinforcing its operations and planning bench. Petra’s structural differentiator is a half-century track record of internal continuity paired with an explicit values-based ethos: Forbes references a culture of “unequivocal care” built by the founders and carried forward by a team with “very limited turnover.” The firm’s Certified Kingdom Advisor designation, held by planner John Pfaffmann, introduces a faith-aligned planning capability that distinguishes it from most secular RIAs. Succession appears deliberate rather than reactionary — Forbes frames his leadership as a privilege and a responsibility to protect that legacy.