We have expanded our practice and teamed up with Great Valley Advisor Group in order to expand our client portfolio management options while maintaining a strategic relationship with our partners at Thrive Financial Services. This powerful combination will allow us to continue to provide financial education to the communities we serve while maintaining our primary focus on the most positive overall client experience.

As an independent provider of wealth management solutions I've decided to merge my practice with the like-minded team of financial professionals at Thrive Capital Management, LLC. The bulk of my clients' needs have begun to shift towards income-oriented strategies. In response to this I've adjusted the core direction of my business to more proficiently assist individuals in determining the most beneficial solutions to reach their goals. I have attained the National Social Security Advisor (NSSA®) designation as well as my Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®) credential. In addition I will be regularly providing educational workshops in my area to raise awareness of the options available for Social Security, taxation and retirement income planning.

After spending a year at a fixed income brokerage firm in their wealth management department I have no doubt that the independent channel was indeed a much better fit for my clients and my practice. I am excited to be back at Marathon Financial Services, LLC with my former partners and colleagues. I feel empowered now that I am back in control of my business and I am very optimistic about the opportunities I will be able to offer my clients going forward.

Moving my practice to R. Seelaus & Co., Inc. has expanded my vast range of resources as a full-service independent wealth manager by providing me direct access to traders that have specialized knowledge in their respective securities. With the back-office support of R. Seelaus & Co., Inc. I am now empowered to concentrate all of my efforts on servicing my existing clientele and their prospective referrals.

Marathon Financial Services, LLC is an independent group that was created by myself and several colleagues from First Investors Corporation. We determined that the ability to offer our clients literally thousands of investment options from just about every investment and insurance company available to investors in the United States was well worth the additional challenges that accompany a move to the independent channel. Pooling our resources meant we were independent, but not alone.

I moved to the Charlotte office of First Investors Corporation. North Jersey, my original office, was consistently one of the top offices for new rep production in the company (over 50 offices). I took the systems we used in North Jersey and worked with the manager in Charlotte to tailor and implement them in North Carolina. I ran weekly group interviews of 30 or more potential new reps. I performed the individual interviews. I supervised the testing and training. I mentored licensed reps in the field and taught them the business. New rep development was something I had a natural inclination toward. I enjoy seeing others step out of their comfort zone, improve, overcome and succeed. That has always motivated me a great deal. I did continue to build my own business while mentoring, however it was not my primary focus in Charlotte. There was only one new rep in the office when I arrived. Two years later when I resigned we had 14 successful new reps.

I began my career as a Financial Consultant at First Investors Corporation. A medium-sized, Wall St. based proprietary mutual fund and insurance company with approximately 13 billion under management at the time. I quickly moved up through their point-based ranking system and earned the title of "Senior Financial Consultant" in record time. I developed my entire bank book through school districts, seminars, cold calls, and expos and have been working off of referrals from those efforts ever since. I convinced the business offices at 5 local school districts to add First Investors 403(b) plans to their list of options for teachers and staff (something no-one in my office had ever done before, or since to the best of my knowledge). I was transferred to First Investors Charlotte, NC office in 2006 to teach them how to recruit new talent.

As a broker at Lantek I sourced active, passive and electro-mechanical components for buyers at OEM's and brokerage houses. Focus was on short-supply, obsolete and difficult to find parts. I developed new customer (buyer) accounts with many companies including Motorola, Northrop-Grumman and Honeywell. Lantek's business model was dependent on developing new clientele in Europe. It was believed to be too difficult to obtain clients in the United States due to the extremely competitive environment here. I designed a success sales system to close new customers in this challenging market. As a result, a new division of Lantek was created that I oversaw and to this day domestic sales are a crucial part of Lantek's revenues.

I managed the office for my boss, Jason Helmer. I learned a great deal from Jason about sales, client relationships and business. I handled all of the retail walk-in customers, fielded all calls, did 100% of the repair/service work, and helped train the newer sales representatives. I already had 3 years of sales experience prior to this position at a highway new car dealership, advertising sales, and outside direct marketing sales. I also held an assistant manager position at RadioShack in retail sales and was a bartender off and on for 3 years, mostly in the evening and on the weekends.

My father's hydraulic repair company that has changed names several times. I began working as an apprentice at 12 years old, I received my first tax return at the age of 13. I worked mostly repairing/cleaning/painting industrial equipment. I learned to work with steel, welding, cutting and machining. I learned to work smart, not hard and how important a good reputation is in business. I found a great deal of satisfaction in fabricating things from scratch and refurbishing equipment.