Our Story
It started with friendship.
The business came later.
Praesidium wasn't born in a conference room or from a business plan. It grew out of years of friendship, conversations around tables, questions between shifts, shared meals, prayers, late nights and two families doing life together.
Michael & Ramie
2018
The friendship came first.
When the Peels and Khalils met in 2018, Michael was already deep into his career as a first responder and Ramie was already working in financial services. The friendship came first. Before long, Ramie became the Peel family's trusted financial advisor.
And when Michael's friends and coworkers started asking him questions about money, retirement, pensions and their 457(b)s, there was an easy answer:
“You need to talk to Ramie.”
So they did.
Again and again, Michael sent the people he cared about to someone he trusted with his own family. And somewhere in all of those conversations, something started becoming clear.
There were a lot more first responders who needed this kind of help.
The Next Step
The next step wasn't starting a company.
It was Michael getting licensed.
Ramie saw something in Michael that Michael was already living. He had a background in finance, accounting, business ownership and real estate. He understood money. But now he also understood the first-responder career from the inside.
The overtime. The pension. The 457(b). The physical demands of the job. The conversations at the station. The pressure a career like this can put on a family. And the desire to build a life where you aren't forced to work forever just to maintain what you've built.
What if Michael could help answer these questions too?
Getting licensed became the natural next step. But it wasn't just a decision Michael made. It was a decision our families made together.
Because from the beginning, this was never supposed to be about building another financial firm. We committed to something much bigger:
Help 10,000 first-responder families build financial lives that protect what matters most.
And that's where Praesidium began.
The Backbone
Family has always been the backbone.
The Peels and Khalils aren't simply business partners. We're friends. Our families do life together.
We laugh together. Pray together. Eat together. Dream together. Raise our families alongside one another. We've celebrated wins and walked through hard seasons together.
That matters because it shapes what we believe about money. Success isn't just about what you accumulate. It's about what that money allows you to protect, experience, give, build and share with the people you love.
At the end of the day, what good is success if you don't have people beside you to celebrate it with?
What We Believe
The money matters.
But the people are the point.
That belief runs through Praesidium. We're not interested in helping someone build a bigger number at the expense of the life the number was supposed to support.
Bigger Than Two Names
And this story is bigger than Michael and Ramie.
Praesidium may have their names attached to its beginning, but it has never been built by two people alone.
It's been shaped by spouses who believed in the vision, families willing to make room for it, friends who trusted us, first responders who shared their real questions and a team willing to put their gifts behind the mission.
People like Megan Muldong, and others who have given their time, talent, encouragement, perspective and belief to help turn an idea into something capable of serving far more families than any of us could reach alone.
We don't take that lightly. Because if there's one thing our families have learned, it's this:
Anything worth building is better when you don't build it alone.
Still Building
One conversation. One family. One first responder at a time.
10,000 families is the mission. People will always be the reason.