Shotwell Rutter Baer

Shotwell Rutter Baer

Beth Baer founded the firm in 2001 to serve a narrow addressable market: Michigan's public-sector and university workforce navigating layered retirement benefits. David Shotwell joined in 2013 after starting his career at a regional bank's northern Michigan investment office in 2000, and assumed the presidency upon Baer's retirement in 2018. The firm remains intentionally small and geographically concentrated, with a single office in Lansing. The investment stance is conservative and income-oriented, built around coordinating defined-contribution plans — VOYA-administered 401(k), 403(b), and 457 accounts — with TIAA annuities, state pension election points, and healthcare bridge strategies. SRB does not deploy capital into private markets, direct deals, or alternative assets; it manages liquid portfolios of equities and fixed income, with an emphasis on drawdown sequencing and tax minimization. The firm's geographic focus is exclusively Michigan. SRB employs a team of six, including three CFP practitioners and dedicated operations and compliance staff. Jeff Rutter manages the Lansing office and oversees compliance. Cole Williams earned his CFP designation in January 2025, representing the firm's next generation of advisors. SRB partners with the Kinder Institute of Life Planning to embed values-based discovery into its onboarding process. What separates SRB from both national broker-dealers and generalist registered investment advisers is its structural concentration risk: the firm is path-dependent on the specific, non-portable benefits regimes of Michigan's public employers. That narrow aperture limits total addressable market but creates a moat that generalist firms cannot replicate without years of institutional knowledge.