Home / Our Team

The People
In Your Corner.

You are not a client here. You are a member of a community - and every person on this team is fully invested in your outcome. We bring together veterans, educators, insurance specialists, estate attorneys, and leadership coaches, all unified by one mission: give working people access to the knowledge and strategies that actually build wealth.

Dwalyn E. Dasher - CEO & Founder
CEO & Founder

Dwalyn E. Dasher

"Financial literacy is the crack that exists between wealthy and poverty-stricken people. We are here to close it - for every working family and veteran who deserves better."

Dwalyn E. Dasher is a U.S. veteran who spent his military career watching something that couldn't be ignored: the most disciplined, hardest-working people in America - soldiers from Fort Bliss, servicemembers who gave decades to active duty, veterans who survived deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan - separating from the military with no financial foundation. Not because they didn't work for it. Not because they didn't deserve it. Because in all the years of training, leadership development, and mission preparation, nobody ever sat them down and explained how money actually works.

That realization became the foundation of Higher Ground Financial Freedom. Dwalyn holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL), a Master of Education (M.Ed), and a Resilience Building Leadership Professional certification (RBLP-T). He brings years of executive and senior military leadership experience to every consultation - the same discipline, clarity, and mission focus that defined his service career.

Beyond running the company, Dwalyn hosts The Freedom Podcast on YouTube every week - bringing on veterans, active duty servicemembers, business owners, and financial professionals for the kind of real, unfiltered conversations about money that most people in this community never had access to. He has featured Command Sergeant Majors, transitioning NCOs, and civilian entrepreneurs - all sharing what they learned about building wealth after service. He believes financial literacy should be accessible to every veteran, every working family, and every person who has been grinding without a roadmap. And he puts that belief into action every week, without fail.

U.S. Veteran MAOL M.Ed RBLP-T
🔗 Connect with Dwalyn on LinkedIn
The Full Team

Every Expert You Need. All Under One Roof.

We deliberately built a team that covers every dimension of your financial life - insurance, legal protection, retirement, tax strategy, estate planning, business formation, and leadership development. Because financial freedom isn't one product. It's a complete system.

Roslyn Willis
Life insurance strategies that protect families and build wealth simultaneously.
Roslyn Willis
Insurance Producer

Roslyn brings expertise in life insurance strategies that do more than protect - they build. She has appeared on The Freedom Podcast to break down how working families can use insurance as a genuine wealth-building tool, not just a safety net. Her approach is practical, client-centered, and grounded in what actually works for real families at every income level.

James K. Ault
Annuity solutions designed to create predictable, guaranteed retirement income.
James K. Ault
Insurance Producer & Annuity Expert

James specializes in the annuity products that most people have heard of but few truly understand. He demystifies how annuities work, where they fit in a retirement strategy, and how to use them to create guaranteed income streams that don't depend on market performance. If retirement planning is about certainty, James is the person who delivers it.

Dr. Michael Parker
Estate planning and tax law expertise protecting your legacy for generations.
Dr. Michael Parker
Estate Planner & Tax Attorney

Dr. Parker is a professional estate planner and licensed tax attorney who ensures that everything you've built transfers to the people you love - cleanly, legally, and on your terms. He handles living trusts, wills, family asset protection structures, tax minimization strategy, and probate avoidance. His work means your legacy doesn't get tied up in courts, eroded by taxes, or divided by disputes.

Derek Haring
IUL strategies for tax-advantaged growth and permanent wealth accumulation.
Derek Haring
Insurance Producer & IUL Expert

Derek specializes in Indexed Universal Life (IUL) insurance - one of the most powerful but least understood financial tools available to working families. An IUL allows you to participate in market upside while protecting your principal from downside, all inside a tax-advantaged structure. Derek knows how to structure these policies correctly, explain them clearly, and match them to the right clients.

Jared Ontiveros
Insurance solutions matched to your family's real needs and real budget.
Jared Ontiveros
Insurance Producer

Jared works with families to close the gap between what they have and what they actually need to be protected. Too many families are underinsured without knowing it - carrying policies that won't cover their real obligations, or none at all. Jared's work is straightforward: find the right coverage, at the right price, structured to serve your family the way insurance is supposed to.

Sarah A. Dasher
The operational core that keeps the team moving and every client experience smooth.
Sarah A. Dasher
Administrative Assistant

Sarah is the backbone of the day-to-day operation - the person who makes sure every consultation is scheduled, every follow-up happens, and nothing falls through the cracks. Behind every great client experience is someone making sure the logistics are handled flawlessly. That's Sarah. She treats every member of the community with the same care and attention that the rest of the team brings to their work.

Luis M. Rivera
Executive leadership coaching aligned with the 4 F's philosophy of holistic growth.
Luis M. Rivera
Executive Leadership Coach

Luis brings executive leadership development to the Higher Ground community - reinforcing the 4 F's belief that financial freedom is not just about money. It's about becoming the kind of person who can build and sustain it. Luis works with professionals and entrepreneurs to develop the leadership mindset, habits, and resilience that turn financial knowledge into lasting financial change. Because information without execution is just information.

01
We are members, not transactions

Every person who walks through our door becomes a member of this community - not a case file. That distinction changes everything about how we show up. We don't close a sale and move on. We invest in your outcome and stay invested long after your plan is in place. Your success is our benchmark.

02
No guesswork - only proven strategy

Every tool, strategy, and product we recommend has a track record. We don't chase trends, push products with the highest commission, or make recommendations based on what sounds good. We use the same proven systems that banks and corporations use to build and protect wealth - made accessible to the people who deserve them most.

03
The whole life, not just the portfolio

The 4 F's - Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness - mean we look at your whole life, not just your account balances. Financial freedom without health, purpose, or strong family relationships isn't freedom at all. This team is built to serve the whole person, because that's the only way the plan actually works long-term.

How We Work

A Team That Operates Like a Unit, Not a Sales Floor

Most financial services companies operate like a sales floor. Each advisor has their own book of business, their own product incentives, and their own quota to hit. The advice you get depends heavily on what that individual is motivated to sell you that month - not what you actually need. The result is a fragmented, commission-driven experience that leaves most clients with a collection of products that were never designed to work together.

Higher Ground Financial Freedom operates differently. We built a team that covers every dimension of your financial life - insurance, legal protection, estate planning, tax strategy, retirement structure, business formation, and leadership development - so that the strategies we recommend are coordinated, not coincidental. When your life insurance, your LLC, your estate plan, and your retirement vehicle are all built with the same goals in mind, you get a financial system. Not a collection of products.

Every person on this team was selected because they are the best at what they do and because they believe in the mission. Not because they had the biggest network or the most impressive sales numbers. The standard here is simple: would we recommend this person to our own family? If the answer is yes, they are on the team. If not, they are not.

01
Free Consultation - Understand Your Starting Point

Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a sales pitch. We want to understand where you are, where you want to go, and what has been getting in the way. Only then can we point you toward the right strategy and the right team member for your situation.

02
Assessment - Map Your Full Financial Picture

Before making any recommendations, we map your complete financial picture - income, debts, insurance, retirement accounts, business interests, legal exposure, and goals. Most people have never had someone look at their finances holistically. This step alone changes everything.

03
Strategy - Build a Coordinated Plan

Based on the assessment, the right team members collaborate to build a coordinated strategy. This is not a menu of products you choose from. It is a plan - a real, personalized financial plan - that addresses protection, growth, tax efficiency, and legacy as an integrated system.

04
Execution & Support - Stay With You

We do not build a plan and disappear. The team stays connected as your life changes - new income, new family members, business growth, retirement milestones. A financial plan is not a document you file away. It is a living system that evolves with you.

Our Commitment

What You Can Always Expect From This Team

🎯
Straight Talk

We will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. If a product is not right for your situation, we will say so - even if it means we do not make a sale. That is the only way this works long term.

📋
Complete Transparency

You will understand exactly how every strategy works, what it costs, what it does, and why it is being recommended for your specific situation. No black boxes. No assumptions that you will just trust us because we sound confident.

🤝
Long-Term Relationship

We are not in the business of one-time transactions. We are in the business of long-term financial transformation. That means we are available, responsive, and actively involved in your financial journey - not just at the point of sale.

🏆
Mission-First Standard

This team was built around a mission, not a revenue target. The mission is financial literacy and freedom for working families and veterans. Every decision - who we hire, what we recommend, how we operate - gets measured against that standard first.

This Team Is Ready to Work for You.

Every expert on this team is here for one reason - to help you take higher ground in your financial life. Your free consultation connects you to the right people for your specific situation. No pressure, no pitch - just real expertise applied to your real goals.

📅 Book Your Free Consultation Explore Our Services →