A small Wisconsin practice with a specific way of working.
Silver Maple Retirement Strategies isn't a national brand or a corporate franchise. It's a local practice built around a single idea: retirement planning works better when someone takes the time to actually understand your life.
Most people don't need more options. They need someone to help them choose.
Walk into retirement and you're handed a stack of decisions. When to take Social Security. Whether to enroll in Medicare Advantage or a Supplement. How to draw from your accounts without burning through them too fast. What to do about long-term care. How to keep the IRS from taking more than its share.
None of those decisions can be made in isolation — they affect each other. And almost nobody has the time, energy, or technical background to figure them all out alone.
That's the gap Silver Maple was built to fill.
Real people, not a call center.
When you reach out to Silver Maple, you talk to one of us. Here's who you'd actually be working with.
Thomas Smith
I came to this work because of my dad.
When he qualified for Medicare a couple years into a disability, the mail and phone calls started pouring in. He was overwhelmed. I stepped in to help him — and got overwhelmed myself. So I started learning. Read everything I could. Worked through the options with him until we found the right plan.
What I learned was that Medicare was just the first piece. There was a sequence of returns risk in his savings. Gaps in his coverage that nobody had mentioned. Questions about what would happen to the home he'd built with his own hands when I was a kid — the home he'd fought to keep through some of the hardest seasons of his life. The last thing he wanted was for that house to end up in probate or lost to the state to pay for a nursing home someday.
Every gap I found, I learned how to fix. Every risk, I learned how to plan around. And somewhere in there, I realized this wasn't just about my dad anymore — it was the work I wanted to do for other families.
That's why I built Silver Maple as an independent practice rather than working captive for a single carrier. When I sit down with a client, I'm not selling them anything. I'm joining their team. I help them navigate, put protections in place, and make sure all four branches of their retirement plan — income, tax, insurance, and estate — are actually working together.
I moved to Mauston sixteen years ago to be closer to my mother and stepfather, who I've also helped with their own retirement and healthcare planning. Since then I've worked with a couple hundred other Wisconsin families I now consider family too.
I grew up in Park Falls. After high school I moved out west to snowboard and adventure — supposedly going to school, though I quit after a business class taught me the math on time versus money. Figured I'd better get to work.
Today I'm engaged to Alexandra. We have four kids — three daughters and a son, ranging from 17 to 4 — and most of our weekends are spent chasing them around to sports games, choir concerts, and whatever else they're into.
I'm licensed for Health and Life Insurance in Wisconsin, AHIP-certified for Medicare, and ITS-certified for trust intakes. I've completed Gradient's Retirement by Design University so I can present and build comprehensive plans alongside the Gradient team. I'm also currently working toward my RICP, CLU, and CHFC designations — the work isn't quick, but I want to do it right.
Travis Genung
Travis didn't set out to build a career in health and life insurance — it found him through real-life experiences that changed his direction.
When his mother had healthcare questions no one could clearly answer, and his best friend of over thirty years was diagnosed with cancer, Travis stepped away from his job to help — first managing his friend's custom home building business, then finishing the homes already under contract after his friend passed.
Around the same time, his mother-in-law's long-term care decisions taught Travis how confusing Medicare, Medicaid, and the broader healthcare system can be for families navigating it for the first time.
When Thomas approached him about joining the practice, what started as an unexpected opportunity became a calling.
Today, Travis helps individuals and families navigate their health and life insurance choices with honest guidance, plain-spoken education, and steady support.
"This isn't just a career for me. It's personal."
Travis lives in Lodi, Wisconsin with his wife Tanya and their two dogs, Vinnie and Jojo.
Based in Mauston, serving Wisconsin.
Our office sits in the heart of Juneau County, just off the Driftless region. Most clients meet with us here in person — though we also work with families across central and southwest Wisconsin by video and phone when that fits better.
Mauston, WI 53948
The best next step is Your Retirement Snapshot.
A short, confidential intake that helps us understand where you are and what matters most — before we ever sit down together.