Michael Ball has been a financial planner since 1990 and is the president of Ball Financial Group, LLC. He is a Partner in his broker dealer firm here in Scottsdale, Arizona, through which he offers securities and investment advisory services.

Michael works together with his assistant and lovely wife Cecilia. He has offices in Arizona in the beautiful Ahwatukee Foothills and also in Old Town Scottsdale.

Michael is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he concentrated in economics, accounting and taxation. He worked for an Ann Arbor bank doing Trust and Estate Tax returns during college. He is currently enrolled in the College for Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado and is completing his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. He has also done post-graduate study at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit towards his Masters of Theology to become a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church.

Prior to his financial planning practice Michael worked for the National Security Agency, Military Intelligence which is a division of the Central Intelligence Agency, as a German, Czech, and Russian linguist with a top-secret security clearance. He has lived in Germany for many years as well as many places across the United States. He loves foreign languages and travels extensively worldwide with his wife, Cecilia.

Michael is also an avid stamp collector and a stamp dealer. He is the founder of A to Z Stamps & Coins which retails stamps, coins, supplies and polar collectibles worldwide. Michael is also the Treasurer of the National Stamp Dealers Association and belongs to most major philatelic societies. He is past president of Michigan`s largest stamp collecting club. He studies the postal history and exploration of the Arctic regions worldwide. His emphasis is on the study of Greenland and of Polar Bears. He has polar bears all over his office and home including a real one taken in 1970 in Alaska and standing 12 feet tall in his living room which he bought a few years ago. It is the penultimate polar bear collectible!

Michael is also very active in church and charity. He devotes his charity efforts to PIME missions out of Detroit and is a past member of their board of directors and finance committee. Cecilia and Michael have financially adopted 31 children from the Third World nations that PIME assists. He has been on several medical and food aid mission trips with PIME into the jungles of Mexico to gain first hand experience as to what extreme poverty is like. It has been a life-changing event for him.

Michael has attained both the Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and Certified Financial Educator (CFE) certificates. He is also an FIC and was on the Board of Directors of the Michigan Fraternal Insurance Counsellors. He is the past National President of the Field Council at a large Midwestern financial services company. He has successfully passed the following securities licensing tests: Series 6, 63, 65, 7, and 24. He trains agents and financial planners nationwide and is a sought after speaker. Michael also does public seminars in Michigan and Arizona to help educate consumers in their financial affairs.

Michael specializes in financial planning from a "net" perspective. Net meaning net after taxes and net after inflation. "It`s not what you`ve got - It`s what you get to keep that counts!"  Controlling investment costs and minimizing taxes is how he earns and keeps his clients’ trust. His customers have been mostly in Michigan but now most new relationships come from his stamp customers and fellow stamp dealers as well as their referrals. Michael defines a solid referral as: Sending someone you care about to someone you trust!