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Chief Executive Officer / Founder / Financial Advisor / Member Owner
Brent is the CEO and founder of Savant. He has been involved in the financial services industry since 1988 and previously taught investment and finance courses at Rock Valley College, Rockford University, and Northern Illinois University. Brent earned a bachelor of science degree in finance and economics and a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting from NIU. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, and a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®).
Brent is a co-founder and past president of Zero Alpha Group (ZAG), an industry association. He is also a co-founder of the Alliance for RIAs (aRIA), a prestigious industry group. Brent was a long-term participant in Vistage (previously known as TEC) and The Strategic Coach™. He is currently a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and serves on the boards of the Northern Illinois University Foundation and the Rock Valley College Foundation.
Brent was named by Chicago magazine as the #1 independent financial advisor for the Chicagoland area in 2008 and one of the nation’s top professional advisors by J.K. Lasser. In 2017 he was ranked by Forbes as #40 on their top 250 wealth advisors list. From 1997 until the survey ended in 2008, Brent appeared on Robb Report Worth magazine’s “The Nation’s 100 Most Exclusive Wealth Advisors” list. In 2011, Brent was named the nation’s 10th “Most Experienced Independent Financial Advisor” by Bloomberg Businessweek. Brent was named “one of the 17 people advisors should watch in 2017” by Financial Planning magazine. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events and is recurrently featured in local, industry, and national media. Brent was named to Barron’s Advisor Hall of Fame in 2019, an award presented to one percent of all advisors in the industry, and has appeared in at least 10 of Barron’s annual Top 100 Advisor rankings. Under Brent’s leadership, Savant was named to the Inc. 5000 annual list of fastest-growing private companies in America in 2023. In 2024, Brent was named to the Chicago Titan 100, which recognizes the Chicago area’s most accomplished business leaders, and was named CEO of the Year by WealthManagement.com for individual RIA firms with $20+ billion in assets under management.
Brent received the Distinguished Finance Alumnus Award from NIU in 2018. He likewise received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Rock Valley College in 2014. He received the Alumni Excellence Award from Boylan Catholic High School in 2015. In 2017 Brent was named “Citizen of the Year” by the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.
Brent is married to Sharon and has four children and three grandchildren. In their free time they enjoy traveling, wine, collecting art, boating, fine dining, and spending time with family and friends at their summer lake house in Lake Geneva, WI and in Naples, FL during winters. During the 2020 pandemic he and Sharon became level 3 sommeliers.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. (CFP Board) owns the certification marks CFP® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ in the U.S., which it authorizes use of by individuals who successfully complete CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements.
2009 Chicago Magazine’s Top Independent Advisors in Chicago: The annual top independent advisors list was published in April 2008 by R.J. Shook of The Winner’s Circle. Shook assembled quantitative and qualitative evidence; solicited nominations from securities firms, banks, and other financial companies; reviewed internal compliance records, customer satisfaction data, and client retention rates; grilled members of management and industry peers; and conducted in-depth interviews with the advisers themselves, by phone and in person. Evaluators assigned weight to each adviser's size of assets managed, revenues produced, and years of experience. Consideration was also given to racial and ethnic diversity and to smaller account sizes to allow for greater variety. Savant did not pay a fee to be included in this ranking.
2017 Forbes Top 250 Wealth Advisors: The 2017 Top 250 Wealth Advisors list published in June 2017 is based on quality of practice learned through telephone and in-person interviews, client retention, industry experience, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, including: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance is not a criterion because client objectives and risk tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. Rankings are based on the opinions of SHOOK Research, LLC which does not receive compensation from the advisors or their firms in exchange for placement on a ranking. Savant did not pay a fee to be included in this ranking.
2017 Rockford Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Award: The 2017 annual award was published in January 2017. The Citizen of the Year Award is open to any Rockford area individual who has, over a period of several years, contributed to the welfare and progress of the community. Savant did not pay a fee to be included in this award.
2017 Financial Planning 17 People Advisors Should Watch this Year: The 2017 annual 17 People Advisors Should Watch recognition list was published in December 2016. Savant did not pay a fee to be included in this ranking.
2019 Barron’s Top 50 RIA Firms: The 2019 Top 50 RIA Firms published in September 2019 included firms focused on raising the standards in the industry. Firms that wish to be ranked fill out a 102-question survey about their practice. Barron’s verifies that data and applies their rankings formula to the data to generate a ranking, based on assets, revenue and quality of practice. After being recognized, Savant did purchase plaques to publicize the Barron’s rankings.
2019 Barron’s Advisor Hall of Fame: The 2019 Hall of Fame award was published in October 2019. Recipients were selected based on a questionnaire of more than 100 questions about their practices, including assets under management and the revenue collected on those assets, industry designations possessed, regulatory records, length of time in the industry, charitable and philanthropic work, the investment vehicles they use to allocate assets, the sizes and shapes of their teams, and more. Savant did not pay a fee to participate.
2023 Inc. 5000: This 2023 annual ranking was published in August 2023. Companies on the 2023 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019, be based in the U.S., and be privately held, for-profit, and independent (not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies) as of December 31, 2022. The minimum revenue required for 2019 was $100,000 and the minimum for 2022 was $2 million. Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to four decimal places. Savant paid an entry fee to be considered for this ranking.
2024 Chicago Titan 100: This 2024 annual ranking was published in November 2023. Recipients were selected based on demonstration of leadership, vision, passion, and influence in their field. Applications were reviewed and selected by an independent group of industry experts. Businesses must be founded before 2021 and generate a minimum of $1 million in revenue annually. Nominees must hold a C-level title defined as the top executive title for their role in their company. Applicants must demonstrate specific, tangible contributions to the growth of their companies through high-level leadership and influence in their field. Honorees are required to attend the awards program in their market and purchase a single ticket to attend. Savant did not pay a fee to be included in this award.
2024 WealthManagement.com CEO of the Year: Winners were selected by an independent panel of 19 judges in the industry from more than 1,000 nominations. On June 4, finalist submissions were announced. Soon after, a survey was sent to the judges which listed all the finalists by category and asked them to rank their top 3 picks as winners. The results were combined, tabulated, and reviewed to determine the winners who were announced at a live awards gala on Sept. 5. Savant did not pay a fee to be considered for this award.
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