About Us
Founder, Mary Deutsch’s first priority is to take care of her clients and provide them with exceptional customer service. Every day, she gets to help people plan for their retirement, so it’s not hard for her to love what she does. To meet the rising demand for her honest approach and direct financial guidance, she has expanded from Chicago to several suburbs and surrounding areas of Illinois.
Who We Are
About MTD Financial
Mary Deutsch
Mary Deutsch grew up on a dairy farm in Sycamore, Illinois, where she developed a deep appreciation for hard work, integrity, and commitment to excellence. With a professional background spanning finance, sales, management, and marketing since 2007, Mary founded MTD Financial in 2014 to help clients approach their financial futures with clarity and confidence.
As a financial advisor and fiduciary, Mary holds a Series 65 license and insurance licenses, and she is licensed in 17 states.
Her practice has grown and evolved alongside her clients’ needs, and today she advises on a wide range of financial priorities, from retirement income planning and asset preservation strategies to tax efficiency, fee management, and long-term strategies tailored to each client’s goals.
Mary founded MTD Financial with a clear purpose: to help people feel confident and informed about their financial lives. As her practice has grown, that purpose has stayed the same, guiding every client conversation, every strategy, and every recommendation she makes.
Mary is known for her proactive, hands-on approach to client relationships. She stays in close communication with the people she serves, keeping them informed and involved at every stage. She is also a frequent educator and speaker in her field, sharing her knowledge with both clients and fellow professionals.
Mary's awards and accolades include:
- Forbes Top Financial Security Professionals, Best in State (2022–present)
- Forbes America's Top Financial Security Professionals (2021)
- Million Dollar Round Table, Top of the Table Qualifier (2015–present)
- Revolution FMO Hall of Fame
- Revolution FMO 200 Million Dollar Lifetime Achievement Club
- Revolution Lifetime 100 Million Dollar Club
- Revolution FMO 10 Million Dollar Club (2016–present)
- American Equity Million Dollar Club (2015, 2016, 2021–present)
- Allianz A-List (2014–present)
- Allianz Life Century Award
- ThinkAdvisor 30 Under 30 (2015)
- Certified Member of the National Ethics Association
- A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau (2015–present)
- Recognized by American Equity Million Dollar Club (2015, 2016, 2021 - present)
- Revolution FMO 10 Million Dollar Club (2016 - present)
- Revolution Lifetime 100 Million Dollar Club
- Revolution FMO 200 Million Dollar Lifetime Achievement Club
- Revolution FMO Hall of Fame
- Allianz A-list (2014 - present)
- Allianz Life Century Award
- Million Dollar Round Table - Top of the Table Qualifier (2015-present)
- 130M of Assets Under Management
- Certified Member of the National Ethics Association
- A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (2015-present)
Mary Deutsch, with her experience, background, and capacity to help people, is more than happy to share her knowledge with clients, both current and prospective. It is common to see her teaching and presenting to others in her field.
On a more personal note, Mary lives in Chicago with her partner, Joe. They sponsor three children in Kenya, and Mary is a three-time published author, including two children’s books.
Christine Deutsch
Client Experience Associate
Rhonda Perry is the first person clients meet when they walk through MTD Financial’s doors. As Client Experience Associate, she manages the front office, prepares materials for every client meeting, and ensures that each visit feels organized, personal, and welcoming. From the moment she stands up from her desk to offer a handshake and a drink, the tone is set.
Rhonda brings four decades of experience in financial services technology at Allstate, along with a BS in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University. She holds professional designations including the FLMI (Fellow, Life Management Institute), FFSI (Fellow, Financial Services Institute), ACS (Associate, Customer Service), AAPA (Associate, Annuity Products and Administration), and PMP (Project Management Professional). That depth of institutional knowledge, combined with her attention to detail and natural warmth, shapes everything she does at MTD.
After years in the corporate world, Rhonda was drawn to MTD for its smaller, family-oriented culture and its genuine focus on client care. It was the kind of environment where her strengths in communication, relationship building, and organization could make a direct, visible impact.
Outside of work, Rhonda volunteers at a local food pantry, enjoys card games, and reads widely, mostly nonfiction. Each year, she picks a different country as her family’s Christmas theme, exploring its holiday customs and foods and turning the celebration into a small cultural getaway. And at home, her cat runs the household and makes sure everyone knows it.
Brenda Findley
Business Processing Specialist
Brenda Findley holds a Doctorate in Education Administration from the University of Houston, an MBA with a concentration in Human Resources from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Christopher Newport University.
Before joining MTD Financial, she spent twenty years in university administration supporting human resource management, retirement planning, accounting, and compliance. She brings all of that academic and operational depth to her current role, and it shows.
At MTD, Brenda manages the processing transaction paperwork, provides backup for fixed index annuity and life insurance workflows, and keeps clients informed at every stage. She documents everything, builds SOPs for the team, and treats accuracy and timeliness as daily standards. The problems she solves most often come down to making sure transactions move on schedule and records stay clean.
Brenda was drawn to MTD because the team genuinely shares her focus on helping people plan for the future, and because the culture is collaborative in a way that feels real. She lives in Elmhurst, Illinois, close to her grown son and daughter and four grandsons. Away from the office, she spends time with family, knits, reads, and writes historical fiction. She and her second-oldest grandson co-wrote a book together about a time-traveling family stranded in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1869.
Kamila Puchalski
Relationship Manager
Kamila Puchalski is a Relationship Manager at MTD Financial, where she serves as a consistent point of connection for clients and prospects. She keeps communication organized and timely around current policies, upcoming opportunities, and next steps with Mary. For clients navigating financial decisions that can feel high-stakes and unfamiliar, Kamila’s role is to make sure they always know where things stand and that someone is paying attention.
She brings a natural patience and positivity to the work, along with a detail-orientation that shows up in everything from her planning process to her follow-through. While the team uses a shared digital calendar, Kamila also keeps a handwritten planner and stays in open communication with colleagues to make sure nothing slips. That kind of deliberate, layered organization is part of what makes her effective in a role that depends on trust and consistency.
Kamila graduated from Elmhurst University in December 2025 with a Bachelor of Science in Finance. Before joining MTD, she worked in restaurant service and early childhood education, two fields that sharpened her ability to listen carefully, stay calm under pressure, read people quickly, and manage competing priorities in real time. She was drawn to financial services because she understands, especially as someone entering the workforce during economic uncertainty, how daunting it can feel to plan for the future. Her goal is to help people navigate those concerns with confidence and connect them with the right guidance.
Outside the office, Kamila lives in Arlington Heights and enjoys reading, crafting, and spending time with friends and family. Her family is from Poland, and she speaks, reads, and writes Polish fluently.
Maxwell Croft
Legacy Planning Lead
Maxwell Croft has always been drawn to work that sits at the intersection of analytical rigor and real human impact. That instinct guided him through a career in chemical engineering, renewable energy research, battery technology development, global consulting, and eventually into financial services. At every stop, the question was the same. How do you take something genuinely complex and turn it into clarity, confidence, and better outcomes for the people it affects?
The answer led him through some remarkable settings. Early in his career, he worked on renewable fuel solutions in developing regions and contributed to next-generation Li-ion battery development at Argonne National Laboratory for Apple’s iPhone 10 and 11. He then spent seven years at InterWorks, where he built and led global enablement programs helping hundreds of organizations adopt complex technology platforms. He founded his own strategy and analytics consulting firm before recognizing that the financial services industry offered him the most direct path to the kind of impact he values most: helping individuals protect what they’ve built and plan with real confidence.
Today at MTD Financial, Maxwell leads the life insurance department. He helps clients use fixed indexed universal life insurance as a strategy for legacy planning, tax-advantaged accumulation, and long-term care. His day-to-day work includes reviewing existing coverage for gaps and inefficiencies, designing and presenting educational seminars, and managing each case from initial conversation through carrier coordination and completion. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and an Illinois Life Insurance License. Mary’s straightforward, client-first philosophy is what drew him to MTD specifically, and a longtime friendship with Mary grounded in shared values made joining the team a natural decision.
Maxwell grew up in Kentucky in a house of five boys and is a triplet, which gave him a built-in team, two best friends, and an early education in competition, cooperation, and laughter. He lives in Chicago now and fills his time outside work with fitness, travel, music, the outdoors, and photography.
Rachel Rautio
Financial Professional
Before Rachel Rautio ever helped a client plan for retirement, she spent fourteen years helping people make confident, informed decisions as an automotive service advisor. The work was technical, the stakes felt real to every customer, and the job demanded clear communication, patience, and trust. Those years built a professional instinct that carries directly into her work today at MTD Financial.
Rachel graduated from WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming, with an Associate’s degree in Business Management and holds insurance licenses in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. Her focus is on fixed indexed annuities, helping clients protect their principal while building toward a more secure financial future. Her approach is straightforward and grounded in the same values that define MTD as a firm: simplicity, protection, and reasonable growth.
She grew up on a dairy farm in Sycamore, Illinois, where early mornings, physical work, and responsibility were part of daily life. That foundation shaped her dedication and her sense of accountability to the people she serves. Rachel now lives in Laramie with her husband, her high school sweetheart, and their two children, Abigail and Henry. Outside of work, she’s at hockey games cheering on her son, at cheer competitions supporting her daughter, involved in local community events, and leading a Girl Scout troop.
Christine Deutsch
Client Service Associate
Christine Deutsch spent thirty-five years at R.R. Donnelley, one of the world’s largest printing and marketing communications companies, working in client services and marketing. Over those decades, she developed a deep instinct for what it takes to keep clients informed, operations organized, and relationships strong. When she joined MTD Financial in 2022, she brought all of that with her.
As Client Service Associate, Chris oversees new and existing client policies and manages a range of ongoing client service requests. The role requires patience, precision, and a genuine care for the people on the other end of every policy, and those are exactly the qualities her colleagues and clients would use to describe her.
Chris grew up in a large family on a farm, where she traces her work ethic and her sense of responsibility to others. Family remains central to her life, and it’s part of what makes her work at MTD feel personal. Chris adds a layer of trust and shared values to everything she does. Chris is married with four children and four grandchildren, and the same warmth she brings to her own family shows up every day in how she treats the people who walk through MTD’s doors.
Luke Nennig
Business Processing Specialist
Luke Nennig came to MTD Financial in 2023 with a career already built on financial precision and accountability. As a loss mitigation underwriter at Dovenmuehle Mortgage, he evaluated hardship cases and made judgment calls that directly affected people’s homes. He then moved into origination underwriting at Baxter Credit Union, where he reviewed financials, assessed eligibility, and ensured every approval was sound. Both roles demanded a careful eye, a thorough process, and an understanding that real people sit behind every file.
That foundation shapes everything he does at MTD. As Business Processing Specialist, Luke manages transfer and movement of client premium payments. The work is detail-intensive and time-sensitive, and his background in mortgage underwriting gave him the discipline to keep every transaction accurate, documented, and moving forward on schedule.
Luke holds a BA in Business Management and Leadership from Northern Illinois University. He’s known around the office for being ambitious and sharp, but also genuinely fun to work with, someone who brings energy to the team without ever cutting corners on the work itself.
Luke lives in Lakemoor, Illinois, with his wife, Katie, their three young children, Hollie, Chandler and Nash, and a Pitbull-Lab mix named Noelle. He spends his free time watching sports, working on home improvement projects, and with his family.
Joe Schaefer
Vice President
Joe Schaefer spent fifteen years at AT&T working across marketing and management organizations, building a career around operational thinking, team leadership, and the kind of big-picture problem solving that keeps complex businesses running smoothly. He holds a BS in Industrial Technology from Purdue University with an emphasis in Process Efficiency and Lean Manufacturing, and that training in systems-level thinking has shaped how he approaches every role he’s held.
In 2022, Joe joined MTD Financial part-time as the firm’s technology specialist, and by late 2023 he had moved into the full-time role of Vice President. As VP, he focuses on growing the business by identifying opportunities to streamline internal processes, improve efficiency, and strengthen the operational backbone that supports MTD’s financial professionals and clients alike.
Joe brings a rare combination of analytical rigor and personal warmth to the role. He is a natural listener, empathetic and patient, with a sharp sense of humor and a genuine love for solving problems. Those qualities make him an effective leader internally and a steady, reassuring presence for the team around him.
He is also Mary’s husband, which means MTD Financial is both a business and a family endeavor in the truest sense. Joe lives in Chicago and spends his time outside the office watching Formula 1, cheering on his favorite Wisconsin sports teams, working out, golfing, skiing, and enjoying time with Mary.
Madeline Schaefer
Scheduling and Events Manager
Before joining MTD Financial in 2024, Madeline Schaefer spent her career helping people navigate transitions. As a relocation counselor, she guided employees and their families through the process of moving to new homes, coordinating logistics, managing timelines, and providing steady support through what is often one of life’s most stressful experiences. That combination of empathy, organization, and attention to detail is exactly what she brings to MTD every day.
As Scheduling and Events Manager, Madeline manages Mary’s client appointment calendar and oversees the planning and preparation for MTD’s seminar events. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2019 with a BA in Communications and completed two internships focused on event planning and recruiting during her time there.
Madeline lives in Milwaukee and spends her free time with friends and family, exploring new restaurants around the city, and keeping up with Penny, her kitten.