Shelton Financial Receives Recognition
March 8, 2021 Chamber Member News, Chamber News, Member of the MonthErin Prible
The Wells County Chamber of Commerce staff and Ambassadors recognized Jeff Shelton and staff with Shelton Financial, located at 1102 North Jefferson Street in Ossian, as the March Member of the Month. Shelton started the business in 1995 and currently has offices in Ossian and Fort Wayne.
Shelton Financial originally opened in Ossian in 1995. Jeff Shelton and his wife, Jill, decided to open the business because they preferred to be an independent firm instead of being affiliated to a larger parent company. Shelton Financial Group became a reality as Jeff grew the business and Jill worked full-time as an RN.
Two years later, Jeff hired Amy VanMeter, who is still with the firm today. "We made our first acquisition of a small insurance agency on the north side of Fort Wayne but still kept the Ossian location. I divvied up time at both locations. A year and a half later we merged the two offices and moved to Jefferson Pointe and stayed there for about 5 years; then moved to Coventry Lane near Kroger for 5 years; in 2008 we moved to the current location at 7617 W. Jefferson Blvd. and have been there ever since employing 15 individuals," explained Jeff.
Jeff decided to open an Ossian location again in September 2020 because he and his family have a strong sense of community pride in Wells County. "We live here, we go to church here, my kids go to school here; even when we didn't have an office presence in Wells County, we wanted to be financial contributors to the community and this was a way to really expedite that goal," explained Jeff.
Jeff's son, Nathan, entered the business in 2017. In addition, Shelton Financial hired Piercen Harnish in 2018 because both men have strong Wells County connections with an obvious opportunity to help grow the company because of the strong relationships in the community.
"For many years, we had been renting space in the Honegger-Ringger building; however, we didn't have a visible presence and people didn't know we were here in Wells County, but yet we were," said Jeff. "We wanted to have more visibility and a presence. Nathan and Piercen are very active in Wells County and want to be involved."
Jeff explained that it is important to put people in place to represent Shelton Financial because they don't want to just do business here but want to be an influence and have an impact in a positive way. "We can do that by having a physical office here in Wells County."
Nathan said, "the chance to move to Wells County with that thought in mind manifested itself to this building. Many people are so excited that this building is now being occupied. There were a lot of variables that took place to make this all come true finding the right place for the business to grow."
Jeff credits David Morrison with Ossian State Bank because the bank had the building up for sale and asked if Shelton would have an interest buying the building. "Honestly, at first I did not want to because we were not ready to move to Wells County yet, but they were very persistent." Jeff gives Morrison and Ossian State Bank a lot of credit for facilitating the venture. "This has been a great opportunity to serve our existing clients here in Wells County and serve the community."
Once Shelton purchased the building, the original goal was to have a couple offices and a conference room for everyone to use as well as sub-lease the other space. The response has been so positive that their future goals are to have two full-time staff in Ossian, along with administrative support. Currently, staff are present on Tuesday's and Wednesday's all day and by appointment on the other days.
"We currently have Fort Wayne Technology Group sub-leasing space here and plan to have other businesses do the same in the future," said Jeff.
Shelton Financial offers a variety of services for clients that are based off their seven pillars of retirement planning such as: Wealth Management; Risk Management; Tax Planning; Estate Planning; Cash Management; Philanthropy; and Value-Added Services.
On a regular basis, Shelton Financial offers workshops based on those pillars for additional explanation and understanding. "Workshops are available for existing clients and anyone else that are interested in learning more; the workshops are a large part of what we do," stated Nathan.
"This honor is a reflection of almost 30 years of people who care about other people just doing their job," Jeff said. "We are a for-profit organization, and it doesn't mean we don't care about the people we interact with because our clients matter to us, our vendors matter to us, and the competitor down the street matter to us. Not all businesses think that way, but we do because we care about people and anyone that wins this award is a reflection of how they treat people. This award is about people and the value you bring to the community."
Nathan concluded saying, "this is an affirmation from the community and the recognition is exciting because we don't do all of what we do for the recognition; however, being recognized is an encouragement to continue on, which is why we love Wells County and the opportunity to serve here."
Pictured in photo right to left:
Ryan Free, Fort Wayne Technology Group
Kody Kumfer, Forgotten Children Worldwide, Chamber Ambassador
Matt Fry, Shelton Financial
Stephanie Hiday, Magical Vacation Planner by Stephanie Hiday, Chamber Ambassador
Brian Nieuwlandt, Shelton Financial
Alyssa Sponseller, Archbold & Lewis, Chamber Ambassador
Kevin Sills, Ossian State Bank, Chamber Ambassador
Nathan Shelton, Shelton Financial
Stacey Duncan, WEG Commercial Motors, Chamber Ambassador
Jeff Shelton, Shelton Financial
Dan Easley, Shelton Financial
Al Lindsten, Shelton Financial
Piercen Harnish, Shelton Financial
Rudy Mahara, Shelton Financial
Jean Bordner, News-Banner, Chamber Ambassador
Dakota Simpson, Fort Wayne Technology Group