PLANADVISER - Summer 2023 - 26

Cover Story
Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year
Community Impact and Giving Back
Derek Fiorenza, Summit Group
Retirement Planners, Inc.
Exton, Pennsylvania
PLANADVISER: Tell us about your practice and how you got
into advising retirement plans.
Derek Fiorenza: Advising on retirement plans is much more
than a job. It's a calling-a vocation. I'm driven by a desire to
make the world better through humble and focused service.
I noticed early on, working in my family investment advisory
business with my father, Anthony Fiorenza, that providing
support and guidance to employees of [client] companies
enabled me to accommodate a wide swath of individuals.
This enables me to educate and interact with participants of
all income levels and assets.
As we've grown our practice, we've maintained a disposition
committed to a prudently documented process built on
striving to address the needs of the individuals with whom
we consult and their families. I'm honored to be a retirement
plan specialist, and I live this passion each day I go to work.
PA: How is your team/process/structure unique? How has
it evolved? Where will you be in five years?
Fiorenza: We've grown as a family business, with my father
and myself. In terms of the future, I have several important
goals. I want to continue growing organically and maintain
ownership of our company as a family business. I also want
to build the business to a point where we can add other
advisers and relationship managers to our team to maintain
our high level of participant communication and education.
I also want to create profits from our company that I can
direct to help support the nonprofit organization I founded
in 2011, Fiorenza's Food For Friends-F4.
PA: How do you grow your business? What changes to your
practice or service model are you planning for 2023 or 2024?
Fiorenza: I've created two professional networking mastermind
groups with other working professionals who provide
Community Impact and Giving Back Finalists
* Michael Devlin, BCG Pension Risk Consultants,
Braintree, Massachusetts
* Domenic DiPiero, Newport Capital Group,
Red Bank, New Jersey
* Patrick Fay, Hub Investment Advisors, Inc.,
Omaha, Nebraska
* William Peragine, Hub International Retirement &
Private Wealth, Woodbury, New York
Derek Fiorenza
services to companies-for example, payroll, worker's
compensation, auditing services, legal services, banking,
etc. We review business successes and failures monthly
when we convene, and we also review educational topics
we believe can be beneficial to our respective clients.
Lastly, I try to communicate with plan sponsors and human
resource directors I've worked with in the past when they
move on to a new employer.
PA: What's an important experience you've had while
getting involved in community?
Fiorenza: I strive to live a life dedicated to service. Philanthropically,
I'm working hard to expand the efforts of our
charity. I still serve as president of F4. It's an unpaid, volunteer
role. The goal of the organization is to create a world
without hunger by connecting sources of food to recipients
in need. In total, we've helped to distribute more than 6.5
million pounds of food across 34 states. We don't apply for
or accept government funds, and we don't charge program
fees to the donors or food banks and shelters we assist. My
lifelong goal is to provide 1 billion pounds of food to those
who are suffering and hungry around the world.
From a financial wellness and literacy standpoint, I'm
a member of the Retirement Advisor Council and serve as
secretary for the financial literacy committee. Our goal is to
build awareness about the importance of financial literacy,
starting in grade school, then in high school, college and
beyond, across all 50 states.
PA: What advice can you give to your industry peers about
developing a successful philanthropic or charitable vision
for a firm?
Fiorenza: I'd say simply to evaluate why you do what you
do. Why are you a retirement plan specialist? A financial
adviser? Why do you run your own business?
Once you've clearly established why you're in this field,
my next question would be, " Are you fulfilled? " If yes, great,
what in your job do you find fulfilling? If no, do you know
what you would find fulfilling? If not, how can you explore
that further?
Lastly, consider your life and legacy. What do you want
to be known for? I want to bring hope to others, and I want
everyone I work with to feel appreciated, respected, valued,
and to be in a better position after I speak with them. That's
my goal, and that's the paradigm I operate from when I
make decisions.
26 planadviser.com | Summer 2023 | Awards & Innovation
Photography by Anthony Collins
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - Summer 2023

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