The Gunness Team
GUNness financial services
Our team is not only competent but caring. The combination of these attributes is what makes the Gunness Financial Services team distinctive.
We’re not looking to sell you an expensive product and send you on your way. We want to be a trusted partner that is important in your life. We want to help you be able to do the things in life you most want to do. Through a close working relationship, we seek to help you develop strategies and implement solutions that let you pursue the life you dream of for yourself and your family.
Life happens, and our goal is to be right there with you, across the decades, through life’s important changes and challenges. There’s a reason why our new clients typically come from referrals.
Kindness matters. Trust matters. We want to help good people do good work.
Larson Gunness
Owner, President
Larson Gunness is a CFP® Practitioner and the owner of Gunness Financial Services, LLC. Larson’s prior professional experience includes roles at Smith Barney, Fidelity Investments, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, and the Peace Corps. He received his education at Kenyon College and the MIT Sloan School of Management.
He founded Gunness Financial in 2006 when he decided he could do better for his clients. As an independent financial advisor and fiduciary, Larson is not beholden to quotas or proprietary product lines. Clients can be confident that he is working toward what is best for them, not the corporate bottom line.
Larson is a highly competent advisor who cares deeply about his clients and what happens to them on a human level. Growing Gunness Financial on the heels of the Great Recession is evidence of his persistence, humanity, and fundamental optimism. He believes all crises can ultimately lead to positive learning, growth, and opportunity. During the recession, Larson spent many hours sitting with clients in their kitchens, having difficult conversations about the global financial crisis, their individual situation, and how to move forward. Many kitchen conversations later, many of those people remain clients and are still working together to this day.
Larson has held numerous nonprofit and volunteer positions throughout his career. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic where he worked to develop and implement a rural water pipeline system. Currently, he serves as Board Chair for the Nonviolence Institute in Providence, RI. Prior to that, he served for several years on the board of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. He has also taught financial and strategic planning to numerous nonprofits, including as a presenter for the Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence for the Rhode Island Foundation.
When Larson isn’t satisfying his intellectual curiosity reading more about the economy, you will find him in his community, mentoring hundreds of middle school kids each year as a cross country and track coach.
Fun Facts about Larson
Favorite Books:
- Fiction – Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig; Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway; anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Nonfiction – When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein; Moneyball by Michael Lewis; anything by William Manchester and anything on financial or economic history
Musicians He’d Like to Meet:
- Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and Jerry Garcia
Athletes He’d Like to Meet:
- Bobby Orr and Fred Lynn
Visual Artist He Admires Most:
- Childhood friend John Bisbee (“He does amazing work!”)
Claire Moscrop
LPL Financial Advisor
Claire Moscrop is a CFP® Practitioner and also holds the Series 7 and Series 66 registrations as well a Life Producer’s license and an Accident and Health producer’s license. She is registered in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Claire’s career has included commercial finance positions at Procter and Gamble, Sainsbury’s PLC, and the UK Government. Following her move from the UK to Barrington in 2008, Claire established her own nutrition consulting company which she ran for seven years. She returned to the financial world with Pioneer Financial Group prior to joining Gunness Financial Services in 2021.
Claire earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and International Relations at the University of Reading in the UK, where she was also elected to the position of President of the Sports Federation.
Claire works with individuals, families, and businesses to develop personalized financial strategies that help them pursue their financial and lifestyle goals and dreams. Everyone’s financial needs are different, and Claire ensures that her clients’ unique circumstances are considered. Her blend of financial knowledge and personal consulting experience enables her to develop robust financial plans designed to address the specific needs and goals of her clients.
She continues her love of sport by coaching field hockey. She also enjoys golf, tennis, skiing, and getting out on the water with her husband and three daughters.
Claire rides in the Pan Mass Challenge fundraiser for cancer research and is an active member of the “Fraid Knots” biking team from Barrington who have raised significant funds for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute for groundbreaking cancer research and treatment.
Fun Facts about Claire
Favorite Book:
- Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay; and those in the historical fiction genre
Musicians sHe’d Like to Meet:
- Benson Boone, Elton John
Athletes sHe’d Like to Meet:
- Serena Williams, Sir Steven Redgrave
ideal vacation:
- Eco-safari adventure in Africa. I love to travel anywhere, but especially to places a little off the beaten track!
Laurie Farnham
Client Relationship Manager
Laurie Farnham is a client-focused professional who builds relationships and connects great services with a diverse clientele. She is a self-motivated team player with a record of success in account management, fundraising, and sales and marketing.
For seven years prior to joining Gunness Financial Services, Laurie ran her own small business while raising her children. Past work experience includes customer relations and marketing for MFS Investment Management and David L. Babson & Co., Inc. in Boston, as well as acquiring Account Management experience with wireless telecommunications start-up, OneComm, in Seattle and Nextel-Sprint in Boston.
Laurie graduated from Denison University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature (Denison is major rival of Kenyon College, Larson’s alma mater!)
Over the years, Laurie has held numerous volunteer positions with the Barrington schools, the Barrington Education Foundation, and Moses Brown School. She also coached the Barrington Middle School Lacrosse team and the East Bay Lacrosse program for several years. She enjoys the outdoors and during warmer weather, Laurie can be found walking with friends, playing pickleball, or enjoying a game of golf.
Fun Facts about Laurie
Favorite author:
- Kelly Corrigan (“insightful and humorous storyteller”)
Musicians sHe’d Like to Meet:
- Chris Martin of Coldplay
Workout of Choice:
- Morning Peloton rides
Ideal Vacation:
- Travel through Scotland to trace my Campbell family lineage and heritage.
Kelly Fenton
Client Services Specialist
Kelly applies her expertise in client services to help process new accounts, move money, project management, and generally help clients have as smooth an experience as possible at Gunness Financial. If you need help, Kelly stands ready to respond!
Kelly attended Quinnipiac University where she received a BA in Psychology. She also received a master’s degree in Education from Castelton University. She has worked in various general management jobs including at the Providence Children’s Museum, the Town of Barrington, and Roger Williams Zoo.
Kelly lives in Barrington, Rhode Island with her wife and two young children. While most of her time is spent raising her kids and making them peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, in her free time she loves yoga, dance, gardening, and she is a huge Brandi Carlile fan.
Your financial goals are our top priority. Kelly knows very well the level of service that we strive to achieve and is committed to providing the best possible experience for you. She has been a great addition to our firm and we know she will make you a top priority as well.
Fun Facts about Kelly
Favorite Books:
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Famous person you’d most like to meet:
- Brandi Carlile or Kevin Costner
Workout of Choice:
- Yoga!
Favorite Vacation:
- Honeymoon to Italy
- Ideal vacation would be traveling to someplace with a culture to explore such as the Mayan Ruins, France, or Bhutan.
favorite things to do:
- Go out to dinner with friends (although since I had kids, I hardly do it anymore!)
- Gardening (mostly flowers) and doing yard work.
- I have a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old that keep me very busy. My wife and I have lived in Barrington for five years and love walking to the water and biking on the bike path.