Specializing in management, marketing, sales, and distribution, Jim has an instinct for identifying and capitalizing on opportunity. As founder of twelve unique insurance-related businesses, he consulted seasoned business executives and value creators in design, administration, and funding alternatives addressing complex tax, business succession, generational transfer, and key employee retention challenges for national and international clients. 

Active in global business, Jim is an authority on achieving business objectives by optimizing tax and succession outcomes, speaking at leadership conferences and frequently quoted in the Houston Chronicle and other insurance publications. He is also a former Chairman of the Worldwide Broker Network, the largest of its kind. 

Jim serves on multiple boards for health and benefits companies and several Houston-based charities dedicated to improving children's health and education. With his wife Beth, he established the Ascendent Charitable Trust, which supports 150+ charities. Jim holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Boston University's School of Management.

Scott brings a sharp understanding of finance to Ascendent, reinforced by a diverse business background, with emphasis on the legal structures involved in lending. 

His experience spans the investment-finance spectrum, including irrevocable life insurance trusts, asset-based hedge funds, private investment, M&A, securitization, project finance, insurance finance, capital markets finance and general banking. He’s been advisor and investor, manager and owner for a diverse range of businesses, as well as a limited partner in several funds.

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, Scott graduated magna cum laude from the University of Alabama with a B.S. in Accounting, winning the Hugo Black Fellowship and Outstanding Young Alumni awards. He also holds a JD from Vanderbilt Law, where he also served on its board of directors.

With a 25-year history building premium financing models, Mark helps determine the optimal structure for each client, leveraging experience funding large insurance policies using liquid and illiquid assets with little or no out-of-pocket expense.

Previously, Mark consulted for Carlyle Group and the investment banking firms of Goldman and Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and many others. His clients include some of America’s wealthiest families, Fortune 500 companies, privately held corporations and charitable foundations.
 

Featured speaker and author of numerous articles on advanced estate planning and tax reduction, Mark also co-authored Estate Planning for the 21st Century. His lifetime membership in both the Million Dollar Round Table and Top of the Table is a distinction earned only by the world’s top 450 financial planners.