CFP®, CFA®, CPA/PFS, CSEP®, MBA
Managing Partner / Financial Advisor / Member Owner
My core values are ethics, education, and experience. I enjoy using and sharing these values to help my clients pursue what is most important to them. I like to say, Savant helps smart people make smarter financial decisions!
Donald “Don” Duncan serves as a managing partner and financial advisor in our Santa Fe, New Mexico; Downers Grove, Illinois; and Chicago offices. He focuses on serving family office clients with high income and high net worth who face complex financial planning, tax planning, estate planning, and portfolio management decisions.
Don’s goal is to help clients reduce uncertainty around their long-term goals by combining evidence-based investment strategies with a risk-management mindset. He draws on an institutional background shaped early in his career, when he managed more than $8 billion in mutual funds and helped oversee risk for a $50 billion investment management division.
As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®), and Certified Specialist in Estate Planning® (CESP®), Don works across all areas of financial planning. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds the Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) credential, issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
He assists clients with wealth transfer and philanthropy planning, proactive income and estate tax strategies, retirement income optimization, cash flow projections, education funding, insurance analyses, and debt management. With Don’s background, he strives to help minimize the tax drag on financial plans.
Don has worked in the financial services industry since 1980, when he began his career with a 16-year stint at Northern Trust. While there, he managed more than $8 billion in various mutual funds and, as division manager, helped manage the risk of a $50 billion investment management department. He went on to found D3 Financial Counselors and operated the firm until it joined with Savant in 2018.
He serves on the board of The Chicago Lighthouse and has taught financial planning at DePaul University in Chicago and portfolio management at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. He remains active in the AICPA and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). Don and his family support churches in both Downers Grove and Santa Fe, and he contributes his time to boards and committees for other non-profit organizations.
Don earned a bachelor’s degree with a triple major in finance, operations management, and human resources management with a minor in economics from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. He later earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in marketing from DePaul University.
Don and his wife Cindi split their time between Chicago and Santa Fe. They have five children and enjoy backpacking, fishing, hiking, bike riding, skiing, and traveling to new places.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Center for Financial Planning, Inc. owns and licenses the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the United States to Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., which authorizes individuals who successfully complete the organization's initial and ongoing certification requirements to use the certification marks.