Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey
From the cellar
to the balance sheet.
Joe Stephens · CFP® · EA · Certified Sommelier
Financial planning built exclusively for wine & spirits professionals — sommeliers, distributor reps, supplier-side managers, and retail operators. I've worked your side of the business, and now I help you plan for what comes after the sale.
Featured in The Somm Journal · Speaker at WSWA Women's Leadership · Women of the Vine & Spirits · SommCon · Board Member, NAIFA–New Jersey
Tasting notes
Three careers. One industry.
Most advisors have never poured a glass professionally. I grew up in it, sold in it, and now I plan for the people who live in it.
NOSE
Raised in Retail
Grew up working the floor of my family's three New Jersey wine & spirits shops — Gerard's Wine & Spirits — learning the business from the stockroom up.
PALATE
Supplier Side
As Gallo's Luxury Manager for New Jersey, I lived the world of quotas, incentive comp, and commission checks — and grew NJ into a top luxury market.
FINISH
Planner & Enrolled Agent
Today I bring CFP® and EA credentials back to the industry I came from — planning around the things
that actually make this business different: variable income, depletion and incentive comp, equity, and a
tax picture most advisors have never seen.
Four careers, four different money problems.
Distributor & Supplier Reps
Base plus incentive comp, quarterly bonuses, depletion targets, a car allowance. Your income has good years and lean years — and a plan built for a steady paycheck won't survive either one.
Sommeliers & Beverage Directors
Tasting fees, education contracts, consulting, competition income. Multiple streams, no HR department, and usually no retirement plan attached to any of it.
Supplier-Side Managers & Executives
Deferred comp, equity, RSUs, long-tenure 401(k)s spread across two or three acquisitions. The complexity is real and the stakes go up every year you stay.
Retail & Winery Owners
The business is the retirement plan — until you separate the two. Succession, entity structure, and personal planning that doesn't get crowded out by the operation.
What working together looks like
01 · Intro Call
A straightforward conversation about where you are and what you're trying to build. Thirty minutes. No pitch, no prep required.02 · Deep Dive
If it's a fit, I take a full look at the picture — income, comp structure, assets, taxes, goals — so nothing important gets missed.03 · Clarity & Recommendations
A written plan with plain-language recommendations and a road map for the year ahead. No jargon, no forty-page binder you'll never open.04 · Ongoing Planning
I stay engaged — reviewing, adjusting, and keeping you on track as your career and your life change.
As a CFP® professional, I'm held to a fiduciary standard — legally and ethically required to put your interests first. No exceptions.
Watch & Listen
Wine & Wealth
Conversations with the people shaping the wine & spirits business — winemakers, editors, retailers, and rising voices — on money, careers, and the industry itself.
Speaking
Bring this conversation to your team
I speak to wine & spirits audiences on financial resilience, tax awareness, and career-stage planning —
national conferences, member webinars, distributor sales meetings, and trade events. Talks are built
for people who work in this business, not adapted from a generic financial seminar.
Recent: WSWA Women's Leadership · Women of the Vine & Spirits · SommCon
The Cellar
Free Resources
Guides and reading built for how compensation actually works in this industry.
10 Things Your W-2 Job Doesn't Want You to Know
The benefits, deductions, and comp elections most people in the trade never get walked through.
The Variable Income Playbook
How to budget, save, and plan when your income swings with quotas, depletions, and bonus season.
The Ultimate Wealth Survival Guide
The core moves — protection, tax, and retirement — for building something durable in a business that runs on commission.
The Newsletter
Decanting Your Financial Future
Practical financial insight for the wine & spirits trade, delivered on LinkedIn. No jargon, no cold calls — just what I'd tell a friend in the business.
Also published on LinkedIn.
Joe Stephens, CFP®, EA, CSW, CSS · Associated Financial Planners, LLC
419 State Route 71, Spring Lake Heights, NJ · (732) 292-3100 · [email protected]
Securities offered through Registered Representatives of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Cambridge and Associated Financial Planners, LLC. are not affiliated. Financial Professionals may only conduct business with residents of the states or jurisdictions in which they are properly registered, licensed or exempt from registration and not all of the securities, products and services mentioned are available in every state or jurisdiction. Fixed Insurance offered through Associated Financial Planners, LLC. Cambridge does not offer tax or legal advice.