About Us
An Ally for Your Financial Future
Kurtis Barnett
Kurtis Barnett is a Series 65 Agent with a Life Insurance and Health Insurance licenses. He has worked in the insurance industry from a young age, although was officially licensed in 2004.
Kurtis has a natural want to help people, and enjoys the study of financial planning. He always does what’s best for clients. He’s often praised for asking important questions that, according to most clients, they’ve never been asked before.
Kurtis is an honest, driven, hard-working, by his own admission “workaholic.” When not working, however, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Mary, traveling, and also has martial arts as a hobby.
Kurtis is the proud son of Dean & Jean Barnett. He has two sisters, Kayla & Karen, all of whom still live in his hometown in Iowa, where he visits them several times per year.
Mary Barnett
Mary is an Event Coordinator, and is also in charge of marketing and client relations. She has a number of responsibilities: Planning out the calendar year, creating marketing for clients and prospects, planning events, booking appointments, and more. She also enjoys that the job allows her to spend more time with Kurtis, her husband.
Mary is hard-working, dependable, caring, highly organized, and an animal lover.
When not working, Mary volunteers at a no-kill animal shelter, does DIY projects, or simply spends time with her pets and Kurtis.
Jessica Castle
Jessica holds the title of Supervisor of Client Relations with the Financial Alliance. Her responsibilities include overseeing new business transactions and client service requests for all lines of business, as well as supervising and training other employees on new business processing and client services.
Jessica gets a lot of enjoyment out of helping clients navigate complicated paperwork and transactions, making the process easier for them. She also enjoys helping her fellow employees succeed. She's compassionate, tenacious, funny, and smart.
When not working, she spends her time playing board games, hiking, or reading. Jessica lives in Tucson, Arizona with her husband, Bryce. She has two cats named MacReady and Bullet.
Lukas Ablingis
Lukas Ablingis is a Servicing Agent with the Financial Alliance & Insurance Solutions. He’s licensed in life insurance and annuities, and meets with clients for annual reviews and client reviews, advising with the intent of finding the best course of action to suit their respective goals. Behind the scenes, he performs analyses of clients' annuity and life statements, striving to ensure clients are getting the best value from their safe money. He also helps Kurtis with tax strategies, aiming to help clients lose less to taxes over the course of their lives. Lukas’ favorite thing about his job is building strong relationships with clients: Many of them share invaluable wisdom that he’s found he can apply to his own life, which has accelerated his personal and professional growth.
Lukas graduated from CSULB in 2019 with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance. Since then, he has added to his resume by earning a license in life insurance and annuities. He worked for a number of corporations before coming here, but always felt that he was replaceable: not able to tell whether his work had any positive impact on the company. Working here, he’s been able to see firsthand how much his involvement contributes to the company on a day-to-day basis. Lukas previously worked in an accounting position at Norms Corporate, where his main focus was reconciliation. The attention to detail required for that position prepared him for the next-level analysis he currently performs daily with the Financial Alliance.
Lukas is hard-working, creative, and confident. He radiates positive energy with a purpose. In his spare time, he’s always loved playing basketball. His other main passion is music; he plays the guitar and recently learned the piano, too. Lukas also, of course, loves spending quality time with his girlfriend, Sarah, and their dog (an American Bully named Ozzy), whether it’s a trip to the beach, a walk in the park, or just relaxing together at home after a hard day's work. Lukas and Sarah are expecting their first child in September 2026.
Kristina Ponomareva
Kristina's title is Transaction Coordinator with the Financial Alliance & Insurance Solutions. She is responsible for new business in fixed and fixed indexed annuities. She's responsible for submitting applications for clients, coordinating with advisors, clients, and carriers to ensure proper handling of clients’ funds, and making sure records remain accurate and the necessary paperwork is completed correctly.
Kristina enjoys helping clients get closer to achieving their financial goals by making the paperwork process as smooth and straightforward as possible. She also values the opportunity to gain exposure to different areas of the company and to learn from her coworkers’ experiences. Kristina has always been passionate about finance and truly believes that managing money properly is one of the most important aspects of people’s lives. By doing so, people can ensure they're taking proper care of their present and future, as well as their loved ones. Having the opportunity to help others achieve that goal is fulfilling for her.
Kristina was a high school valedictorian and graduated from California State University, Long Beach in May 2025 with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics and a Minor in Finance, earning Summa Cum Laude and a Departmental Honors Award. During her time in college, she worked as an Instructional Student Assistant, tutoring student-athletes in various math, statistics, and finance courses. She also published an article on Runge’s Phenomenon—polynomial interpolation and numerical instability—featuring Python-based visualizations, formulas, and examples, which received over 13,000 reads.
Kristina is very intelligent and goal-oriented. She can accomplish just about anything she sets her mind to and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals. In her free time, she loves playing golf. She began playing as a child, went on to play for the National Team, and later competed in Division I golf in college. She won the Long Beach City Golf Championship in 2022, achieving the best result in tournament history.
Ignacio Cervantes
Ignacio Cervantes is a client serving agent with the Financial Alliance & Insurance Solutions. He holds a life agent license, working closely with Kurtis during meetings to ensure clients feel supported, informed, and confident in their financial future. Here at Financial Alliance, everyone works together to deliver the best customer service we can. Kurtis Barnett's experience, mixed with the knowledge and strong work ethic of every employee, comes together to form a phenomenal team. Ignacio has always had a passion for helping others, so the opportunity to help people protect the money they’ve worked so hard to save is very fulfilling for him.
Ignacio played college soccer in Southern Vermont before turning to working in journalism, and volunteered as a soccer coach multiple times through college. He studied journalism at Cal State Long Beach from 2020 to 2022, and worked as a sports reporter writing about local prep sports for multiple Southern California News Group newspapers, covering local, regional, and state CIF events in football, basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Alongside SCNG, he also worked for TheCup.us, the country's longest-serving media outlet covering first, second, and third-division US Open Cup matchups.
Ignacio also enjoys long-distance running and completed the 2025 LA Marathon, as well as numerous half marathons throughout the year. In his spare time, he can typically be found watching sports, or spending time with his girlfriend, Sunny. They also have a pet beta fish named Theodore (Teddy for short).
Joanna Timmons
Joanna is a Client Services Specialist with the Financial Alliance. She makes sure the office runs smoothly, assisting with prepping for seminars and communication with clients (answering phone calls and the like.)
Joanna takes care to ensure clients are receiving the best service possible. She has had other jobs in the past related to event planning, but wanted to find a job role where her hard work would really help others.
When not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their two cats, at their home in Long Beach, California.
Ellyse Logan
Ellyse Logan's title is Transaction Coordinator. She is responsible for processing applications and getting clients organized and in good order with the carriers. Ellyse also communicates with clients, keeps them up-to-date on what step in the process they're at, and tries to make the process a little less daunting. She enjoys working with the clients and learning about their lives; getting to know our clients as best as possible helps us provide better service.
Ellyse graduated from FIDM in 2023 with a degree in Product Development and Merchandising. She worked for a different financial advisor as well as an architect firm. She went from administrative assistant to Office Manager and Accounting Assistant. Those jobs helped shape what she wanted to contribute to her next role, which brought her here. This company seemed to her like a good place to learn and grow with other people passionate about the work they do.
Ellyse is reliable, outgoing, and talkative. In her free time, she likes to go on long hikes and spend time with her dog (a terrier mix named Juno). She also loves spending time with her friends and loved ones in nature, whether that be the beach, a park, trips to the desert, etc.
Chelsea Gladwell
Chelsea is Kurtis's assistant and generally ensures things run smoothly behind the scenes. It’s fulfilling work for her to help keep everything organized, ensure nothing falls through the cracks, and support both the team and our clients.
Chelsea has over 15 years of experience as an Executive Assistant, having supported leadership across multiple industries, including healthcare, finance, and construction. In addition to executive support, she’s held roles in program management and board governance. She is also a Certified Professional Coach. This diverse background has strengthened her ability to adapt quickly, manage competing priorities, and support organizations in a variety of capacities.
Chelsea is friendly, supportive, and reliable. She’s a good listener, and tries to be the type of person people are comfortable coming to for help. When she’s not working, she enjoys a mix of staying active and unwinding which includes trying new restaurants with her husband Andre, going to Pilates and dance classes, watching reality TV, skiing, and loving on her two cats, Mickey and Yuki.
Karen Baardson
Karen is the Head of Accounting, and Kurtis’ sister. Karen has a hand in anything and everything that has to do with Kurtis' bank accounts. She handles all payroll and outgoing payments, oversees the bookkeepers, helps with any snags they run into, works with the CPA answering questions about the books, and helps troubleshoot glitches with our password and file sharing platform. She also typically takes care of new employee paperwork as well as termination paperwork. Her job is a little different every day: There’s always a new problem to tackle or an issue to research. Karen likes to fill in all the blanks and complete tasks.
Karen is funny, relaxed, but incredibly organized, full of energy, and isn’t above laughing at herself.
She lives with her husband of 21 years, Kyle, their 4 sons, and 1 dog, Cora. When not working, Karen enjoys a number of hobbies: She loves audiobooks and podcasts, cooking, baking, scrapbooking, board games, puzzles, exercising, doing any sort of DIY project, and giving back to the community. Karen volunteers and her local church, her childrens’ Christian school, and often at homeless shelters. And of course, she loves spending time with her family.
100+
Yearly Education Events
800+
Happy Clients
18+
Years Experience
Giving Back to the Community
Not everyone is as fortunate as we are. However, because of this, we believe in the importance of giving back to our community. We partner up with a number of amazing charities in the area, and work hard to keep those partnerships active and strong. Is there a charity that you feel is in need of support? Reach out to us about it. We'd be happy to look into it.
