"You are the company you keep, and Thomas Cook likes keeping company with members of ACP. He said he has always been intrigued by the tax component of financial planning because it is an objective measure of the value financial planners can add. The ACP model is a good fit. “I got my EA designation shortly after the CFP® marks and gravitated to ACP because it stood out as the gathering place for tax-savvy planners,” he said. He found a warm welcome at the 2023 ACP conference in Spokane and became a member right after.
His interest in financial planning was a direct result of lessons learned early in life. “I grew up in a home that didn’t have much but never went without. I saw firsthand how financial stress can impact the family.”
Thomas counts himself among the fortunate students who learned about money through school. “It opened my eyes to a different way. Since then, I have never stopped learning about money. I dedicate time to educating others so they can lower their financial stress and have more time and money to maximize life.”
In addition to founding his advisory firm – Retire to Tellico – Thomas founded Refine Your Plan, a financial education company, and is working on an online course and book “to teach everything about money we should have learned in school.”
Thomas is a Personal Finance Lecturer at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, serves on the board of the Financial Planning Association of East Tennessee as the Director of Pro Bono Financial Planning, and is a volunteer tax preparer through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
The ACP model gives Thomas the tools and support he needs to build his ideal practice. He enjoys the flexibility of his solo practice, which allows him to balance his business and personal life. “Kitces says the first hire usually comes around client 40, so I plan to stop accepting new clients around that number,” he said. “I want to leave margin in my life to be a loyal husband and a loving father as that is how I will measure my life. I also want to leave margin to impact more people than just my clients.”
In his free time, he enjoys an active lifestyle with his family, strategy games, and pickleball. He is a proud sponsor of the Tellico Village Pickleball Club.
Welcome, Thomas Cook!"