Thomas J. Salvino is CEO and wealth manager at Performance Wealth, an independent registered investment advisor with offices in the Chicago suburb of Hinsdale, Ill., Naples, Fla., and San Diego, CA. With more than 100 years of combined experience, this multi-generation privately owned firm provides a wide range of services, including financial/retirement planning, investment management, social security planning, as well as coordinating estate, tax and insurance planning with the goal of preserving and enhancing their clients’ wealth.
Opinions expressed by Mr. Salvino are solely his opinion and are not the opinion of Performance Wealth. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research, or investment advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.
Russ Alan Prince: What factors influenced your transition into an independent RIA firm two years ago?
Thomas Salvino: Our primary motivation was our desire to do what was best for our clients. We have always prided ourselves in operating as an independent team, utilizing the platform and resources of a large financial services firm. Still, as the wealth management industry evolved and our clients’ needs became more sophisticated, we felt the business model no longer worked for us.
By becoming an independent RIA, we freed ourselves from the potential conflicts that can arise when employed by a firm that manufactures and sells its own financial products in addition to providing clients with investment advice. We now have more access to unbiased research, more analytics, data-enhanced performance reporting, and more financial planning tools.
Independently we can provide a much wider range of solutions to assist our clients in creating comprehensive financial plans and investment portfolios, as well as devising strategies for preserving and transferring their wealth. As we did our due diligence on the independent model, it became overwhelmingly clear that by making that move, we could upgrade, improve, and enhance all services that we provide to wealthy families while eliminating the bureaucracy and inefficiencies of working for a large institution.
Prince: What inspired the creation of your Student-Athlete NIL Alliance internship program, and how will the participating athletes benefit from this program?
Salvino: As a former student-athlete who wrestled for Notre Dame, I understand the pressures that many of these young people feel to excel both academically and athletically and how their athletic commitments prevent many of these student-athletes from participating in the internships that are so integral to launching a post-college career. Using technology, we’ve been able to design this internship program so student-athletes can participate from wherever they are going to school and keep their athletic commitments while also completing an internship.
Our current roster includes 17 student-athletes from seven prestigious universities, and we plan to expand further in the coming years. With this program, we hope to give participants real-life business experience while also teaching them about finance, investing, savings, and being good stewards of money. Among the benefits for student-athletes is the ability to participate in a paid internship program and develop professional references.
Prince: What unique educational opportunities are offered at Performance Wealth for clients to be involved with?
Salvino: One of the opportunities that we are most proud of is the ability to invite clients to attend sessions of the University of Chicago’s Chicago Booth Alumni Finance Roundtable, which regularly features presentations by Nobel Prize-winning economists, CEOs, and other notable figures. The group is chaired by John P. Salvino, Performance Wealth’s president and chief financial officer. John is a co-founder of Performance Wealth and has developed a research process the firm uses to build customized portfolios created to match each client’s comprehensive financial situation and long-term goals.
We also recently launched the Performance Wealth Next Generation Education Initiative, which educates younger generations on how to invest and become good stewards of wealth. In addition, we’re offering quarterly webinars that cover a wide variety of topics ranging from basics, such as drawing up a household budget and the difference between a stock and a bond, to more sophisticated subjects, such as portfolio construction and alternative investments. Participants will be given a reading list and tested regularly to gauge their progress.
Prince: What differentiates the Next Chapter program from your other services, and what does it entail?
The Performance Wealth Next Chapter program is really an enhancement of what we do for all of our clients. People who have spent their entire adult lives building a business or pursuing a profession are often at a loss when it comes time to retire.
We designed this program because retirement should not be the end of something but rather the time to write life’s next chapter. We aim to assist clients in preparing for and embracing a fulfilling and prosperous retirement with peace of mind. Through the program, clients can benefit from personalized financial planning, expert assistance with income and cash flow analysis, coordination of tax and estate planning, as well as informative educational updates and webinars.
Through this program, we hope to create a new community to help replace the connections and camaraderie that many people miss when they stop working and address that aspect of retirement through our webinars and other events. And in addition to invitations to sessions of the University of Chicago’s Chicago Booth Alumni Finance Roundtable, we also offer medical webinars and healthcare education from Dr. Michael Salvino.
Important Disclosures
Performance Wealth is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Performance Wealth and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth magazine and chief content officer for High-Net-Worth Genius. He consults with family offices, the wealthy, fast-tracking entrepreneurs and select professionals.
