Joe Sylvia

Growing up working in my parents' restaurant, I learned early that building something yourself was different from working inside someone else's structure. By tenth grade, I had started a landscaping business with a close friend, and that company is still operating today, more than twenty years later.

After selling my share of the business, I moved into office equipment sales, which wore on me quickly. The independence I'd built my working life around was gone. When a family friend in financial services reached out about an opportunity as an independent insurance agent focused on Medicare coverage and retirement planning, the model made immediate sense. Commission-only, no ceiling, and built around helping people through one of the more consequential transitions of their lives.

What kept me here was something I didn't fully anticipate. The clients who stay with me longest are often the ones who arrived carrying a lot of weight about what came next and left having worked through a clear plan. Watching that shift happen across a conversation is the part of this work I find most difficult to explain and most difficult to walk away from.

I take the time a client needs to get through the process at their own pace, and clients tell me consistently that the experience felt more manageable than they expected going in. Most of my time is spent working through retirement timelines with people approaching that transition and staying in close contact with existing clients as their situations change over the years.

I was born and raised in Rhode Island and live with my wife and our three children. Between them, our kids play hockey, field hockey, soccer, figure skating, golf, and lacrosse, which accounts for a considerable portion of our family calendar. My wife also runs a cut flower farm on our property, which means there is always something that needs tending. When I find a window, I am usually on the golf course, out fishing, or on the ice playing hockey with friends I have known most of my life.

• Registered Investment Advisor Representative (RIA)

• Fiduciary