Chris Gleason
"The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The second-best time? Today."
Clarity · Strategy · Stewardship
Chris Gleason is the founder of Veritas Strategic Wealth and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®). He serves successful business owners, executives, and high-net-worth families navigating the most consequential financial decisions of their lives — from intentionally scaling and exiting a business, managing complex equity compensation, to protecting and transferring generational wealth.
His story is not what you might expect from a wealth strategist.
Born in the heartland of the Midwest and raised in rural Arizona, Chris has lived across the United States and around the world — experiences that shaped in him a deep resilience, an unshakeable work ethic, and an unwavering commitment to serve others. For 28 years, he served as a pastor — a calling that formed the relational foundation in how he approaches everything that he does.
Entrepreneurship found Chris early. He started mowing lawns at 14, ran a carpet cleaning business at 16, and entered real estate at 18. By his late 20s he had owned a construction business, a restaurant, and a movie theater. Each venture deepened his understanding of what it truly takes to build something — and what it takes to protect it.
That combination — pastoral heart, entrepreneurial experience, and deep financial expertise — is what makes Chris uniquely equipped to serve business owners at the intersection of business strategy and personal legacy.
Chris has developed a proven process that works — whether you are a business owner preparing for an exit, an executive navigating complex equity compensation, or a high-net-worth family building and protecting generational wealth. For business owners, that means clarifying your exit vision, closing the value gap, and designing a tax-efficient transaction structure that reflects a lifetime of work. For executives, it means making the most of RSUs, stock options, and equity events — turning compensation complexity into a coordinated wealth strategy. For high-net-worth families, it means protecting what has been built, planning for what comes next, and creating a legacy that endures beyond the balance sheet. In every case, the process begins the same way — with clarity about what matters most to you.
For most founders, 70–90% of net worth is concentrated in the business. Without intentional planning, that concentration creates risk — not security. Chris helps owners increase transferable value, reduce operational dependency, and exit with confidence and control — on their terms, not the market's.
As a fee-based fiduciary advisor, Chris operates with complete independence. No commissions. No product incentives. No conflicts of interest. Every recommendation is built around your goals, your timeline, and your definition of success.
John Maxwell once said, "An educator takes simple things and makes them complicated. A communicator takes complicated things and makes them simple." I have spent my entire life learning to be a communicator. Before we build any plan, we start where it matters most — understanding what is important to you, what are your goals, your desires, your dreams. Clarity is not a step in the process. It is the foundation of everything.
Once we know what truly matters to you, we can walk through our proven framework to build the strategies to get you there. Not generic advice — a coordinated, integrated plan aligned with your business, your finances, your family, and your future. Strategy without clarity is just noise. With it, it becomes a roadmap.
I believe relationship is the basis of everything in life. With success comes responsibility. I have a deep conviction about being a good steward of all we have been entrusted — whether that means your business, your family's wealth, or the legacy you are working to build. This is not a transactional relationship. It is a long-term partnership built on trust, accountability, and shared purpose.