Member spotlight this month is Ralph Capristo. Below is a bio provided by Ralph.
I was born and raised in Bear Creek, Pennsylvania which is in Luzerne County. I went to school at Bear Creek Elementary, Plains Junior High School and Coughlin High School. As a boy, I was fortunate to grow up in a very close family and a family business surrounded by not only my parents and brother but also my grandparents and an uncle.
After graduating high school, I attended Penn State University and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance. After graduating in 2006 I began my career in banking, managing retail bank branches at M&T Bank. In 2010, I graduated from Misericordia University with an MBA. Within a few months of earning my MBA, I moved to Las Vegas and pursued a career in Commercial Banking at US Bank and Corporate Banking at Umpqua Bank. The experience of moving across the country and working in wholesale banking was incredible. In addition to being a banker, I became a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™ in 2016.
In 2019, my wife and I decided to move back to Pennsylvania as I had an opportunity to become self-employed and partner full time with my brother, Anthony and childhood best friend, David in our financial planning firm. Our firm was founded in 2005 by David but was rebranded in 2017 as Forthright Wealth Planning. I joined full time in April of 2019. Our firm specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning services to families and businesses. We manage a national client base of more than 1,000 families.
In my free time I enjoy being with my family, working out, playing golf, watching the New York Yankees and traveling. In addition to being a member of the Kutztown Rotary, I was also a member of the Henderson Rotary when I lived in Nevada. I’ve also spent some time volunteering with Junior Achievement, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Penn State Vegas Alumni Association. Currently, I also sit on the Misericordia University Business Department Advisory Council and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Northeast Berks Chamber of Commerce.
Throughout my life I’ve been fortunate to make many friends and meet my wife, Allison. Allison and I have two young children Ralphie (3) and Caroline (1). They are without a doubt the best thing that has ever happened to me. We moved to Kutztown in 2022.