I've been helping dedicated savers prepare for and navigate the complex transition from their working years to their retirement years for over thirty years. I can't imagine doing anything else. At the beginning of my career, I worked for a large national firm in the financial services industry. The conflicts of interest that exist in the industry drove me crazy. After watching many deserving, yet confused people unnecessarily worry about running out of money or working longer than needed, I built and managed The Relaxing Retirement Coach, Inc., an independent, fiduciary wealth management firm for decades before our merger with Savant Wealth Management. Our decision to pursue this partnership opportunity and solution with Savant began with my long-term plans. I have a strong desire to continue doing what I’m passionate about for decades, and that means building an enduring organization focused on eliminating financial anxiety from the lives of well deserving people so they can experience the ideal future they’ve earned. Our plan up until last year was to continue building that enduring firm ourselves. However, after substantial research, analysis, reflection, and deep, strategic thinking about our long-term goals and our positioning in today’s wealth management industry landscape, we came to the exciting realization that there is another way to accomplish our long-term objectives. This led us to a careful and thorough search of independent, fiduciary wealth management firms whom we could potentially partner with whose core values, principles, and beliefs were closely aligned with ours. Because Relaxing Retirement Coach was prospering, we had the choice to maintain the status quo. However, after months of conducting due diligence and considering the potential benefits to our clients and our team, the decision to partner and merge with Savant became an easy one.Combining with Savant presents a wonderful opportunity to significantly enhance our capabilities as well as our range of services to better serve you. Most importantly, our team now utilizes Savant’s resources and deep bench to strengthen what we do best.I passionately believe in what we do and how we do it, and I know there are so many Americans who need and can benefit from the missing structure and financial confidence our program provides in our world of increasing complexity. I invite you to call or email me directly at JPhelps@SavantWealth.com with any questions. You can also learn more by visiting: https://savantwealth.com/