Christopher Ishack

After earning my Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Miami, I began my career with Northwestern Mutual. My role introduced me to insurance and financial protection, but it also gave me my first exposure to investments and comprehensive financial planning. I found myself increasingly interested in helping clients make broader financial decisions and understanding how their investments fit into the rest of their lives.
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While working there, I returned to the University of Miami to earn my MBA. After five years with Northwestern Mutual, I joined Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, where I spent the next 12 years deepening my experience in investment management and working with clients through different market environments and stages of life.
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What kept me in wealth management was seeing the value an advisor can provide when someone is facing an important decision. Whether a client is preparing for retirement, investing a lifetime of savings, navigating market volatility, or trying to make their finances more tax-efficient, I enjoy helping turn a complicated situation into a clear and disciplined strategy.

Investment and portfolio management, retirement and income planning, and tax-aware investing are at the core of my practice. I also work extensively with concentrated stock positions, fixed-income strategies, direct indexing, tax-loss harvesting, and alternative investments.
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I hold the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation, and much of my work in Orlando is with clients approaching or already in retirement. When a situation involves tax or estate planning, I coordinate with the client's CPA and attorney to ensure investment decisions align with the broader financial plan.

I primarily work with affluent and high-net-worth individuals and families, particularly those approaching or already in retirement. My passion for helping clients navigate the transition into retirement with confidence and work towards achieving lasting financial freedom inspired me to earn the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation, further deepening my expertise in retirement planning. I also work with professionals, executives, and business owners who have accumulated meaningful wealth.
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Many clients come to me when their financial lives have become more complex and they want a more personalized and proactive approach to managing investments, creating retirement income, addressing taxes, and coordinating the different parts of their financial lives.

The strategy is always tailored to each client’s unique circumstances, but a few situations come up frequently.
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A client may have accumulated a significant position in a single company’s stock. The goal is often to reduce that concentration without creating an unnecessary tax burden, which means diversifying in stages and timing it around the client’s broader tax picture.
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Another client may be two or three years from retirement with a portfolio that was built primarily for growth and now needs to begin producing income. That work involves determining which accounts to draw from, in what order, and structuring the fixed-income strategy around when those assets will actually be needed.
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For clients already in retirement, the focus is on creating greater confidence that their income can withstand different market environments while continuing to keep pace with inflation.
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For clients with substantial unrealized taxable gains, the opportunity may be less about finding better investments and more about reducing tax drag. In those situations, strategies such as direct indexing and tax-loss harvesting are often worth evaluating.
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Alternative investments may also play a role when a client’s circumstances, objectives, and preferences make them appropriate. In those cases, I look beyond traditional investments to identify differentiated, alpha-seeking strategies that complement their overall portfolio.
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Whatever the strategy, I want every holding to serve a clear purpose. If it’s in the portfolio, the client should understand exactly why it’s there.

I combine the investment capabilities and resources clients may expect from a sophisticated wealth management practice with a personal, direct relationship. Clients work directly with me, and I place a high value on being accessible when advice is needed, not just during a scheduled annual review.
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I also do not believe every client belongs in the same predetermined portfolio. I start with the person. That means understanding what they are trying to accomplish, their tax situation, risk tolerance, income and liquidity needs, and personal preferences before determining an investment strategy.
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Just as importantly, I want clients to understand what we are doing and why. Financial decisions should make sense to the person whose life they affect.

The relationships. I enjoy becoming the person a client trusts when an important financial decision comes up. It is a privilege and an honor to be considered their “trusted advisor”.
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Some of the most rewarding conversations begin with a situation that feels complicated or stressful. We work through the details together, identify the available choices, and create a clearer path forward. Over time, you get to know much more than a client’s portfolio. You learn about their family, priorities, and what they want their wealth to accomplish. Building those long-term relationships is the part of this profession I value most.

I chose Savvy because it gives me access to modern technology, broad investment capabilities, and the infrastructure of a sophisticated wealth management practice while preserving the flexibility to provide clients with a highly personalized experience.
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What I particularly value is that the technology works behind the scenes to help me operate more efficiently rather than getting between me and the client. That gives me more time to focus on providing advice, managing investments, and being available when clients need me.