Our Story
Founders
John Davila - After spending seven-plus years in professional sports – seven with the Chicago Cubs and six months with Major League Baseball – John was looking to make a career change and have an impact of people’s lives. John started his career in the financial services industry in July 2001. Looking to continue to grow and provide a greater menu of services to clients, he became an independent advisor in June 2008 with Waterstone Financial, a firm owned by LPL Financial at the time. In September of 2009, with the completion of the absorption of Waterstone Financial by LPL Financial, he became a registered representative of LPL Financial. In 2016, he became a hybrid advisor, with LPL Financial as his broker-dealer and using Highpoint Planning Partners for his advisory services. In February 2021, he attained the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®) designation. He was a participant of the first LPL Financial Hispanic Business Community Event and currently serves on LPL’s Advisor Inclusion Council (AIC). He has participated in many panels and forums put together by different units within LPL Financial.
Jeffrey Kochan - Jeff started his career at Navistar in 2004, a Fortune 100 company at the time, in their finance division and was enrolled in a management rotational program. Embracing the role and using his educational background in accounting and finance, Jeff was promoted to Senior Credit Analyst in 2005. His work ethic earned a reputation in the industry, and he relocated to the Bay Area in 2007 to assist in a merger between two Navistar distributors. He was offered a great opportunity and took on the responsibility of Controller and Secretary Treasurer of a $300M revenue a year organization at 27 years old. The timing was unfortunate as the Great Recession hit shortly after and an invaluable learning experience began. In 2010, Jeff and his soon to be wife Nicole decided to move back to Illinois where they wanted to start their family. This was the beginning of what is now his passion today, learning and offering financial planning services. His foundation of knowledge formed around annuities and life insurance with the advantage of working alongside his father, Thomas Kochan, Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®) and Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®). Jeff was fortunate to gain another mentor, Joseph Polito, Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), who was well versed in financial planning and sold his practice to Jeff in 2014. Since then, Jeff has been honing his financial planning skills to best serve his clients, earning his AIF® designation in 2014 and his CFP® designation in 2018.
TWG Wealth Planning
John Davila always wanted to develop a team of professionals to serve clients. In 2012, he met Jeff Kochan. Jeff was looking for an advisor to help him serve clients in a future purchase of his father’s financial services practice. They had many conversations about their practices, business, the potential of a future partnership, and the potential of building a financial firm together. In 2014, John set up his TWG Wealth Partners office at the current office in Naperville, where Jeff and his father Thomas Kochan, had established their financial services offices. In 2018, an acquisition opportunity presented itself and they formed TWG Wealth Planning.
John brought with him his Operations Associate, Janet Birruete, who began working with John in August 2013, and Jeff brought with him his Operations Associate, Lindsay Zollers who began working with Jeff in July 2017. They successfully transitioned the clients into the TWG Family.
In September 2019, recognizing a need to add further expertise, Adam Kadivar, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), with 12 years of industry experience in various roles, joined the firm. Adam helped the firm expand their financial planning capacity by serving as the lead contact for developing a client’s financial plan.
In October 2020, Jeff and John purchased a portion of Jerry Kahn’s financial services practice. Jerry began his financial services career in 1991. He wanted an experienced team with to serve as his succession plan, but also wanted to have the opportunity to have the support to grow his practice. With the help of the TWG Team, Jerry has grown his practice beyond his original growth goals.
In January 2021, Jeff and John reached an agreement to purchase another financial services practice, owned by Barbara Adelman, a practice that was dedicated to serve primarily retired, independent professional women. In February 2021, Heather Corley joined the TWG Wealth Planning team and oversaw the client transition period to ensure a successful, smooth introductory period for clients. Heather brought to the firm 15 years of industry experience.
Managing an expanding financial services firm and growing team, and already working with LPL Marketing Solutions on expanding marketing and branding for the firm, John realized that the firm needed someone internally to be solely dedicated to marketing and branding. Rebecca Davila joined the team with over 20 years of experience in human resources. This experience of managing relationships and projects made her a natural fit to be our liaison with LPL Marketing Solutions.
In December 2021, Jeff and John reached an agreement to purchase R. Knapp Financial, located in Peoria, Illinois. This acquisition included a unique highlight. The acquisition included the addition of a team of Retirement Plan specialists. Kevin Speich, 20 years of industry experience, and Kristin Roberts, three years of industry experience and 19 years of human resource experience, lead this unit and focus their attention on working with employers and organizations to establish 401ks, 403bs, and other qualified retirement plans for employees. This allowed TWG Wealth Planning to expand our team of specialists and the types of services to our clients, specifically to our clients who own businesses, or head key decision making for their companies. In March 2022, Jennifer Kaeb, with 16 years of industry experience, joined the team, to be the primary contact for wealth management clients in the Peoria office.
Today, the TWG Wealth Planning team consists of 12 dedicated, experienced professionals with six security-licensed professionals – four of which are credentialed – with 150 years of combined industry experience, serving over 900 clients and over 30 retirement plans.
We see a dynamic future for the financial services industry. The industry is ever evolving, and challenges in the markets and economy seem to be more complicated than the past but our vision for the future remains simple. Our goal is to understand the goals and needs of our clients and help position our clients to meet those financial goals. We strive to be a trusted resource for our clients helping them through many of life’s most important financial decisions.