Press
A Source Reporters Can Use
Ben Batiste takes interview requests and does commentary on retirement, taxes, money for veterans and first responders, and what really goes on inside the financial advice business.
If you are working on a story, this page has what you need to use him as a source. A bio, a photo, the topics he knows cold, and a number that reaches him directly. Call or email and he will get back to you the same day.
About Ben Batiste
Ben Batiste is a financial planner and a Marine and Army veteran who spent years in law enforcement before founding Crestmark Wealth Group, where he helps families find the money they are losing without knowing it.
Short Bio
Ben Batiste runs Crestmark Wealth Group, a financial planning firm in Littleton, Colorado. He served in the Marines and the Army and worked in law enforcement before he ever sat across from a client. He got into this business because he kept watching regular people get a raw deal from it.
Full Bio
Before any of this, Ben was a kid without a stable place to live. His family was homeless off and on, and money was always either missing or about to be. He did not know it then, but that is where this whole career started.
He went into the Marine Corps, then the Army, then spent years in federal and local law enforcement. Different uniforms, same job underneath. Be ready, stay disciplined, and look out for the people depending on you.
When he moved into financial planning, the thing that bothered him was personal. He kept watching regular families lose money in the spots no one ever showed them, the same kind of families he grew up in. The wrong account paying the tax bill. Two strategies canceling each other out. Risk carried for no reason.
So he built Crestmark to find that money and stop the bleeding. He is relentless about it because he knows exactly what the other side of it looks like. He lives in Colorado with his wife and their kid.
Topics Ben Speaks On
- Retirement incomeTurning a lifetime of savings into income you will not outlive.
- Social Security timingWhen to file, and the questions most people never ask first.
- Tax planningThe avoidable taxes that quietly drain a retirement, and what to do about them years in advance.
- Veteran and military financesBenefits most advisors do not understand, and the transition to civilian income.
- First-responder financesPensions, deferred comp, and planning for people who served at home.
- Protection and insuranceWhat families actually need, and what gets oversold to them.
- Wealth building versus wealth bettingThe difference between a plan and a gamble dressed up as one.
- How the advice industry really worksWhere the conflicts hide, and how to spot them as a consumer.
Story Angles Worth a Segment
These are the angles producers tend to bite on. Ben can speak to all of them from his own experience.
The kid with no safety net
Ben grew up homeless off and on, in a house where money was always either missing or about to run out. He knows what it is to have no cushion and no plan. That is exactly why families trust him when they walk in scared, and why he built a career around the people who started where he did.
From the badge to the books
He went from the Marines to the Army to a police department to a federal agency, and now he plans people's money. He will tell you it is the same job wearing different clothes. Watch people's backs, especially against the threat they do not see coming.
The leaks nobody points out
People assume they are losing money in the market. Usually they are losing it somewhere a lot quieter. Ben can walk through the leaks he finds in almost every plan that comes across his desk.
Building wealth versus betting it
Hot IPOs, meme stocks, whatever is trending that week. Ben has a strong take on the line between investing and gambling with money that was supposed to do a job for you.
Four questions, two minutes
Ben built his whole approach around four questions that show people what their money is actually doing. It makes for a quick, hands-on segment a host can play along with on air.
What the industry would rather you not hear
Ben is writing a book about what he watched the advice business do to people. He does not dance around it, and he will tell a viewer how to spot it before it costs them.
Credentials & Contact
Credentials & Background
- Founder and Principal Advisor, Crestmark Wealth Group, Littleton, Colorado
- Fee-based financial planner who provides advisory services, acting in a fiduciary capacity when appropriate
- U.S. Marine Corps veteran
- U.S. Army veteran
- Background in federal and local law enforcement
- Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) member
- Court of the Table qualifier within his first year in the industry
Ben Batiste
Working on a deadline? Call or email and Ben will get back to you the same day.