More About C. Travis Kilgore

Hello there, my name is Travis Kilgore and I am the Managing Partner of Ethos Private Wealth.  I am overjoyed to be part of the Ethos team and to have the opportunity to bring clients a unique experience that truly puts their needs and goals above all else.  Making the decision to depart the large Wall Street brokerage industry and, in my opinion, move upmarket, to enter the realm of a boutique independent advisory practice has been the best decision I have ever made.  I now am certain that my advice and guidance for my clients can truly be independent and only guided by what is in their best interest.

My approach to wealth management, and my level of client commitment to financial health, is heavily influenced by my late grandfather’s approach to practicing medicine.  He was a small-town doctor in the mid-west where he practiced medicine for nearly fifty years from 1960 to 2008. Everyone in town knew him as “Doc”.  Although he had a local clinic, he was always “on call” and would carry his black Gladstone bag with him to go visit patients at their homes.  He cared for families that spanned many generations. When he finally retired at 80, he was still worrying about who would look after his patients.  The number of townspeople that showed up in attendance for his retirement party at the local community center was astounding.  They all shared stories about their experiences with him and were so grateful for the manner in which he had attended to loved ones and selflessly helped their families through the years.  That level of care is in my DNA.  It is what I strive to provide to my clients at Ethos.  I always make myself available to them because I care, and I can’t turn that part of me off.  With that little morsel of family history, you can see why I find it so important to get to know my clients and take the time to understand their needs.  Only then can we formulate the right plan moving forward. I enjoy spending time with the families with whom I work and I often visit them at their homes to assist in whatever way I can.  Above all else, my goal is to minimize the worries and stresses that stem from managing one’s finances and to help my clients become “financially healthy” so that they may have better quality of life.

I am a fully registered and licensed professional holding the FINRA Series 7, 63 and 65 licenses and maintain the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor CRPC® designation.  I earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Tennessee and hold a double Master's degree from Ohio University in Finance and Economics.  I have 10 years’ experience working in the finance industry.  Early in my career, I was an investment banker and raised capital for M&A transactions for many privately held companies across the U.S..  This also entailed me wearing a different “hat” as an analyst from time to time, as I would be tasked with creating budgets and forecasts for many of the businesses with whom I was engaged.  While the world of investment banking was fun and exciting, I found that ultimately the conclusion of a transaction was hollow and that I got more joy out of working with people and families to improve their situations with my guidance over time.  So, I made the transition into wealth management and have never looked back.

On a more personal level, I adore my wife, and am a father of two.  My wife, who also works in finance, is from Beijing, China.  We have spent many years traveling around China, a very different and fascinating world.  I am proud to say that, through great effort over the years, I speak Mandarin at an intermediate level.  We now live in Chattanooga, TN, where there is an abundance of mountains, rivers and lakes to explore and we do so with our children.  I am a musician at heart and play the guitar, mandolin and piano.  I'm also somewhat of a music historian and collect LPs that I listen to on my vintage record player.  Perhaps that’s the old soul in me passed down through my family’s many generations of musicians and singers.  I am a dog lover, avid chess player and swimmer.  I collect maps and am passionate about traveling to explore this big amazing world in which we live.