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Chris Janota

Founder, Envoy Wealth Management

After graduating from Northern Illinois University with a degree in economics, Chris Janota was asked by his grandparents’ financial adviser, who had just gone independent, to help him set up an office.

“A 30-day temp job turned into four years,” Janota said. Licensed after his first year, Janota then “bounced around,” as he terms it, among a few independent reps who were looking for a possible successor. “I learned a lot from them, and especially that I wanted to be ‘the guy,’ not the assistant, and have my own practice.”

Over the years, he had built a small group of his own clients and decided to go out on his own in 2017, setting up Envoy in Crown Point, Indiana, and affiliating with Cambridge Investment Research in 2019.

Aside from his business, Janota is an active volunteer, judging essays for the national InvestWrite financial literacy program of the Sifma Foundation. He also is president of Act of Grace, a local nonprofit in Illinois helping families whose children suffer from epilepsy, which was started by a close friend whose daughter has the disease. When his friend suddenly died, Janota stepped in. “I guess I’m a professional helper,” he says.

Evan Cooper

Evan Cooper