Our Story

The Wealth Transfer Group was founded in 1983 to offer the best available wealth transfer advice, services, and products for our clients. Our clients demand and expect the best, and for 40 years our clients say we have exceeded their expectations.

Robert Slane, founder of The Wealth Transfer Group, comes from a family of business owners and entrepreneurs, who, like most entrepreneurs, were mainly focused on building their wealth, not preserving it beyond their lifetimes. As such, he has seen firsthand the consequences from a lack of planning vs. the rewards of successful wealth transfer planning. Helping clients ensure the latter is the backbone behind the firm’s 40 years of success. 

What Makes Us Unique

We have 40 years of experience in high net worth estate and wealth transfer planning. We make complex tax laws and estate planning techniques understandable so our clients can make informed decisions. When a client is armed with the proper information they begin to understand how today’s financial decisions impact their long-term wealth planning.

We strive to find every tax and financial advantage possible for our clients. These can take the form of intra-family financial transactions, leveraged gifting or as simple as a mispriced life insurance product to pay estate taxes.

One patriarch recently said to us, “The IRS must really hate you.” My response was, “The IRS doesn’t hate me, or anyone for that matter. All I do is utilize the current tax laws for my clients and their families’ benefit.”

The timing, combining and sequencing of techniques is what makes the magic happen.

Our Team

Robert C. Slane, CLU®, AEP

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Robert Slane is president of The Wealth Transfer Group, Inc., a company he founded in 1983, where he works with high-net-worth clients and their advisors throughout the country in developing wealth transfer and estate plans.

He has spoken at numerous tax and educational conferences including:

  • ACTEC summer conference (American College of Trust and Estate Counsel)
  • NYU Institute on Federal Taxation
  • NADA Conference (National Automobile Dealers Association)
  • Forum 400 annual meeting
  • AALU annual meeting (Association for Advanced Life Underwriting)
  • NAEPC (National Association of Estate Planners and Councils) Annual Meeting
  • Central Florida Estate Planning Council
  • Southwest Florida Estate Planning Council
  • Martin County Estate Planning Council

He has appeared on CNBC’s Power Lunch and NPR’s Marketplace. Mr. Slane testified before the IRS and Treasury Department regarding proposed regulations on reportable transactions and patents. He has been published or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg Wealth Manager, The Estate Analyst, Leimberg Information Services, Trusts & Estate Magazine, Estate Planning Magazine, and the NAEPC Journal.

He is a past president of the Forum400, an invitation-only organization of the top insurance professionals in the country that specialize in advanced planning concepts for business owners and wealthy families. He is a past president of the Central Florida Estate Planning Council.

He received his B.A. degree from Rollins College, his Chartered Life Underwriters (CLU) designation from the American College, and his Accredited Estate Planner (AEP) designation from The National Association of Estate Planners and Councils.

Alecia Schultz

Alecia Schultz is the Client Services Specialist for The Wealth-Transfer Group. In her role, she works directly with clients and core insurance carriers to help coordinate, implement, and place sophisticated life insurance case designs. Previously, Alecia was employed for almost 10 years as a customer service representative at Sea Island Resorts on St. Simons Island, Georgia, a very large and high-end establishment, where she learned the most critical of skills when it comes to customer service. Her customer service savviness lends her great success in her role today. Alecia is a mom to all boys, three to be exact, and absolutely loves it. She is also a doting grandmother to six perfect grandchildren (Rylee, Casyn, Lawson, Hayes, Skye and Parker). Born and raised in in Kingsland, Georgia, which is right on the Georgia/Florida border, Alecia continues to enjoy all things beach – swimming, treasure hunting, reading, and napping.

Our Strategic Partner

Founded in 1963, Valmark is an exclusive, 50+ year old, invitation-only consortium of independent wealth transfer and wealth management firms. Valmark Financial Group is comprised of a family of companies including Valmark Securities, Inc., a FINRA-registered securities broker-dealer, Valmark Advisers, Inc., an SEC-registered investment advisor, Executive Insurance Agency, LLC, a Master General Agency for life insurance products, and the Valmark Policy Management Company.

As a collective group, Valmark Member Firms have over $50 billion of life insurance in force and an estimated $6 billion of assets under management, with an additional $25 billion of assets under management controlled through independent Investment Advisors associated with Valmark. This combined buying power gives us access to some of the nation’s top companies, products, and services, enabling us to advocate on behalf of our clients while maintaining independence.

The exclusive, private services available to clients of The Wealth Transfer Group are provided by one of the most distinguished professional teams in the life insurance and securities industries. Valmark’s senior team houses an office staff of over 100 full-time professionals who are experts in all aspects of financial planning, investment analysis and portfolio management, qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, life insurance underwriting and management, and regulatory compliance.

A WORLD CLASS UNDERWRITING ADVOCACY DIVISION

Valmark maintains one of the most distinguished underwriting and professional teams in the industry, with experience and credentials spanning multiple financial disciplines. They leverage their team of underwriting advocates to strategically obtain the best possible underwriting and pricing decisions for their clients.

HIGHLY CREDENTIALED AND SKILLED CASE ADVISORS

Including attorneys, accountants, MBAs, Certified Financial Planner Practitioners, Chartered Life Underwriters and Chartered Financial Consultants – many of whom are Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Registered Principals.

Chris Bottaro, MBA
Senior Vice President of Insurance
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Keith Miller, CLU®, MBA, ChFC®
Vice President of Insurance Planning
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Eric Johnson
Vice President of Underwriting
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Penny Thomas, ACS®
Senior New Business Specialist

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Michael Amoia, JD, LLM (Tax), CLU®, ChFC®
Vice President, Advanced Markets
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Chris Finefrock, MBA, CFP®
Senior Vice President of Financial Planning
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Tyler Denholm, CFA®, CMT
Vice President of Investment Management and Research
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FINRA BROKER CHECK

Chris Bottaro, MBA

Chris Bottaro is the Senior Vice President of Insurance for our partner, Valmark Financial Group. He is responsible for the vision, strategy and execution of life insurance marketing, underwriting, new business, and inforce insurance solutions. In this role, he prides himself in partnering with advisors and insurance carriers to help make the life insurance process simpler and more efficient. He has a technical risk assessment background and spent the first 12 years of his career in various underwriting production and leadership positions at Lincoln Financial Group in Hartford before relocating to the Twin Cities to join Valmark in February of 2015. He has an MBA from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, a BA in Economics from Boston College, and holds Series 6 and 26 registrations.  Chris is a proud member of the Twin Cities Association of Home Office Underwriters and the Minneapolis Leadership Roundtable.

Keith Miller, CLU®, MBA, ChFC®

Keith Miller is the Vice President of Insurance Planning for our partner, Valmark Financial Group. Keith works with the insurance planning team to provide advanced case design and sales expertise. His core areas of focus include customized wealth transfer solutions, product analysis and holistic life insurance design. Mr. Miller is a national presenter at the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) annual conference. He received his BA from Samford University and his MBA in Finance from the University of Alabama. Mr. Miller is also a Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®), Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) and holds the Alabama Life and Health licenses.

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson is Vice President of Underwriting for our partner, Valmark Financial Group. He is responsible for risk assessment appraisal, consultation and negotiation on behalf of Valmark Financial Group Member Offices and clients. Mr. Johnson brings more than 30 years of experience in impaired risk and jumbo case underwriting, reinsurance, sales and brokerage operations. He is a presenter at numerous industry seminars and workshops speaking on topics such as Challenging Underwriting Impairments, Jumbo Business and Brokerage Underwriting. Mr. Johnson earned his BA from Luther College and holds Minnesota Life, Accident and Health Insurance licenses. He is a member of the Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) and the Twin Cities Association of Home Office Life Underwriters (TCAHOLU).

Penny Thomas, ACS®

As Senior New Business Specialist for our partner, Valmark Financial Group, Penny Thomas is responsible for the management of new life insurance business. She is also an underwriting and administrative advocate with insurance carriers, striving to reach the best possible outcomes for our clients. Mrs. Thomas has more than 25 years of experience as an Associate Underwriter and Manager with Western Life, AMEV Life, Fortis, and Hartford Life. She holds Series 6 and 26 registrations as well as an Associate Customer Service (ACS) designation.

Michael Amoia, JD, LLM (Tax), CLU®, ChFC®

As Vice President of Advanced Markets for our partner, Valmark Financial Group, Michael Amoia works with our clients and our clients’ advisors to implement advanced wealth transfer and business planning techniques that leverage the use of life insurance. With over 28 years of experience and a deep understanding of complex estate planning techniques, Mr. Amoia works closely with both our back-office life insurance case design and financial planning teams to create client deliverables that help illustrate how these techniques and strategies can maximize the ability for clients to efficiently transfer intergenerational wealth. Mr. Amoia is a frequent national speaker on various estate planning topics and an author of numerous industry articles. He is also a Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®), Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®), Juris Doctor (JD) which he earned from University of Baltimore’s School of Law, and holds a LL.M in Taxation and Certificate in Estate Planning from Georgetown University Law Center. 

Mr. Amoia and Mr. Slane have worked together for over a dozen years, including speaking together on main platform at industry conferences such as Finseca and Forum 400 and co-authoring several articles.

Chris Finefrock, MBA, CFP®

Chris Finefrock is the Senior Vice President of  Financial Planning and Investments for our partner, Valmark Financial Group. In his role, he oversees and is a resource for the team responsible for all aspects of design and implementation of various brokerage, insurance and advisory solutions intended to assist investors with risk management and reaching their accumulation and/or distribution goals. He also oversees the practice management and financial technology area which assesses third-party vendor technology and assists Member Firms in the selection and implementation of processes within their practice. Lastly, he oversees the investment operations division including data processing, books and records retention, principal review and custodial platform relationships. In addition to his  Series 7, 24 and 66  registrations and his Ohio Life, Health and Variable licenses, Mr. Finefrock holds a BSBA in Financial Services and an MBA in Finance from the University of Akron. He is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professional.

Tyler Denholm, CFA®, CMT

Tyler Denholm is the Vice President of Investment Management and Research for our partner, Valmark Financial Group. His primary responsibility includes overseeing the investment management process and conducting research for TOPS®, TOPS® Strategic Allocation Portfolios and TOPS® Variable Insurance Trust. Specifically, he is responsible for portfolio design and portfolio management. Mr. Denholm regularly analyzes the TOPS® Portfolios and is heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of portfolio management. He also helps analyze our prospective portfolios, and we work directly with Tyler to determine which of the various Wealth Solutions would be the best fit for our clients. He earned his BSBA in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Akron, graduating Summa Cum Laude. In addition to his Series 7 and 24 registrations, Mr. Denholm is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®).