Ryan Galiotto is a Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) and Certified Student Loan Professional® (CSLP®), and the founder of Etch Financial, a modern financial planning firm serving families in Pittsburgh and across the country.

Before anything, Ryan is a husband to Bethany, dad to Leo and Zellie, and proud dog dad of Lilah and Mr. Gus. The decisions he helps families navigate every day — retirement timing, college funding, student loans, taxes, investments — are the same ones he thinks about around his own dinner table. That perspective shapes everything he does.

Ryan earned his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Liberty University and his MBA in Finance from Waynesburg University. He spent 13 years with Royal Alliance, a large national broker/dealer, where he built his career and helped hundreds of families retire with confidence. During that time, he saw firsthand how often college and student loan decisions quietly derailed long-term retirement plans.

That realization changed the trajectory of his work.

In January 2020, Ryan was featured as the cover story of the Journal of Financial Planning for his leadership in integrating student loan strategy into comprehensive financial planning. In 2024, he was appointed to the Forbes Advisor Loan Advisory Board, helping shape national conversations around student loan policy and borrower strategy as it’s related to long-term retirement and financial planning.  

He also serves as a strategic advisor to Finology Software, the nation’s leading student loan planning platform, where he has helped shape and refine the tools financial advisors across the country use to model complex repayment and forgiveness strategies.

Today, through Etch Financial, Ryan brings together retirement planning, investment management, tax strategy, college planning, and student loan expertise into one integrated, modern financial plan, delivered with cutting-edge technology, virtual flexibility, and a human-centered approach.

Because financial planning isn’t about spreadsheets.

It’s about helping families feel organized. Confident. And fully in control of their future.