Our Business Journey: Strategic Wealth Assurance

“Every single day there are decisions made for people instead of with people. Where they work, how much money they have or the kind of
service they get.”

Sound familiar? It can be easy to simply let life happen to us, but Greg Gutowski, president of Strategic Wealth Assurance, wants to change that. “People matter,” he said. “Over the years I have learned that
if you put people first, clients and employees, you can never lose. People remember little of what you say, some of what you do, but all of
how you make them feel.”

In 2014, Gutowski moved to Lexington with another company. Less than two years later, that company announced that it would be closing roughly 175 offices
across the country including their South Carolina office. While his employees and coworkers were looking for new jobs, Greg was inspired to do things
differently. He made the decision to open Strategic Wealth Assurance because he cared about each and every employee in his former firm and wanted to
give them a place to work where they had the same support and resources they relied on without having decisions about their lives made for them.

Today, Strategic Wealth Assurance has 17 “partners” and hiring. Gutowski added, “I refer to them as partners because they can decide where they want to
work and who they want to work with. Being on our team here means that you’re a partner of mine because we have the same goals and values when it comes
to growing our business and meeting our client’s needs.”

The benefits of working with Strategic Wealth Assurance don’t stop there. They also pay their agents at top levels and provide all the training and resources
that a career agency gives without the limitations that normally come with working for a career agency. “That was my mission when I set out to open
this agency last year and I believe what makes our value proposition the strongest in the industry.”

Gutowski doesn’t believe in making decisions for people, especially the life changing ones. Instead Strategic Wealth Assurance is focused on making sure
their clients are on the best path to meet their individual needs. Instead of offering a single solution approach, Strategic Wealth Assurance works
with each person to determine their priorities. “We offer a wide array of companies and product solutions so we can truly offer the client the very best plan that matches their goals rather than trying to fit them into a narrow offering based on any one company’s product portfolio.”

Gutowski also stated that he wanted Strategic Wealth Assurance to be the go-to firm for business owners. Strategic Wealth Assurance offers unique business
valuation software that can help individual business owners determine the value of their business and the impact that different things can have
on it. They can help business owners with everything from employee health and retirement benefits to business succession planning. “So often the owner is spending all their time helping everyone else; their suppliers, employees and customers, that they overlook what their own needs are. It’s our job to make it as easy and convenient for them to have their own needs taken care of too.”

As for the future, it looks bright. Strategic Wealth Assurance already has partners in the upstate and Charleston area with relationships in 10 other states.
They are looking to systematically grow in each one of those areas while staying focused on the main objective; meeting the needs of America’s broad
range of individuals and business owners.

In celebration of their first anniversary and membership with the Greater Lexington Chamber, Strategic Wealth Assurance had a Ribbon Cutting ceremony on
April 6^th. Strategic Wealth Assurance is located at 214 Outlet Point Blvd in Columbia SC. For more information please call 803.233.1809
or visit www.swagfinancial.com.