Civic Team

Scott serves as the CEO of Civic Financial. Scott established the business while still at Amherst College, and became one of the youngest CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals at age 22. In the years since, Scott opened a second office in Boston’s Back Bay, established a national clientele, and has built one of the largest teams within Northwestern Mutual. He is a sought-after industry speaker for his rapid success in establishing enterprise value and his creative work with sophisticated clientele.

In leading the firm, Scott works most closely with fellow founding partner Grant Parisi, whom he has known since childhood. Grant joined forces with Scott professionally upon graduation from Harvard; he and Scott believe strongly in education, and work with C-suite executives and high net worth clients principally in the private equity, hedge fund, legal, and biotech spaces on consultative, strategic planning.

Scott lives in Manhattan with his wife Lizzy. He attended Noble and Greenough High School and then Amherst College, where he met Lizzy. At Amherst, Scott wrote an honors thesis in psychology while pursuing his interests in mathematics and economics and captaining the varsity squash team. Many of his clients are professionals from both of his alma maters. Scott is an active squash player and triathlete. He enjoys cooking and traveling with Lizzy and is a proud uncle to three nephews. A nerd at heart, Scott will gladly accept a challenge to chess, backgammon, Scrabble, Settlers of Catan—pick your poison!

Civic Financial is a sponsor of urban squash foundation SquashBusters. Scott captains the "Racqueteers" squash team in the SquashBusters annual derby, raising money to help bring higher educational opportunities to underprivileged teenagers. Scott also joins Northwestern Mutual every year to raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand in support of childhood cancer research.

Grant Parisi serves as the COO at Civic Financial, having joined Civic after focusing in wealth management at Merrill Lynch. He was formerly a member of the Financial Analyst Club at Harvard University, where he earned a B.A. magna cum laude in economics and English. He is a member of Harvard’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded a John Harvard Scholarship for outstanding academic achievement.

Since joining forces with CEO Scott DeSantis, Grant has helped grow the firm from two people to one of the largest teams within Northwestern Mutual. He has assisted in rebranding to Civic Financial, and in opening a second office in Boston’s Back Bay. His approach to planning is characteristically thorough and detail-oriented.

Grant works most closely with fellow founding partner Scott DeSantis, whom he has known since childhood. Scott and he believe strongly in education, and work with C-suite executives and high net worth clients principally in the private equity, hedge fund, legal, and biotech spaces on consultative, strategic planning.

On the personal side, Grant loves running, and has a voracious appetite for travel (40+ countries and counting) and literature. Four marathons thus far mark Grant 8% of the way towards his goal of running a marathon in every state. Grant sincerely enjoys working with people to emulate this same discipline and long-term thinking in their planning—setting goals, and achieving them in stride.

Connor is passionate about serving others through his work. He wakes up excited to share the value that Civic Financial provides to its clients and their families. He strongly believes that continuing education allows him to be the best resource for his clients throughout their financial lives. With that in mind, Connor has earned his Certified Financial Planner Designation as well as others and is committed to constantly growing his knowledge. He considers being a great listener to be the most essential skill in his work.

Connor loves connecting with people in his personal networks. He is a proud alumnus of Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School and Union College. While at Union he earned his degree in economics and discovered his interest in the field of Financial Planning. At both LS and Union, he captained the lacrosse teams and earned All American Honors. Connor’s love for lacrosse keeps him involved in the sport by coaching youth and high school players in the Lincoln Sudbury programs and his off-season training program Foundations Lacrosse. He enjoys staying as active as possible through working out, water skiing, and refusing to hang up his lacrosse gear.

A 1984 graduate of Brown University and the American College of Financial Services, earning the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®) designation. John began his life insurance career in 1986 and has been a respected industry leader qualifying yearly for membership in the exclusive Million Dollar Round Table. He works with Senior Executives at large private and public companies, Private Equity MD’s/ Partners and Institutional Fund Managers.  His focus is sharing a vision with clients on how to solve income and estate tax challenges using sophisticated life insurance tools and strategies.

John was a 3-time All-IVY football player and is a member of the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame. He’s married to Cathy and resides in Wellesley with their six children and enjoys spending time with his family and friends. John coordinates the Thursday Men’s Breakfast, one of Boston’s longest running men’s fellowship gatherings. He’s a past director of the Brown Club of Boston, and also volunteered for many seasons as a Youth Football coach. John is actively involved in community ministry work and is a member of St. Paul’s Parish, Wellesley, MA.

Brian started in the life insurance business in 1991.  For nearly 3 decades, Brian and his team have been serving families with their financial security needs.  Today, Brian’s focus is helping our pre and post-retirement clients with tax efficient insurance tools that help them manage market risk, longevity risk, healthcare risk, and legacy planning.   Brian enjoys golf, hiking, and, most of all, spending family time with his wife Sarah and three children Kallie, Beau, and Hannah.  Brian is a graduate of Williams College.

Prior to joining Civic Financial, Alissa spent almost ten years of her career as a Private Client Service Associate and Trust Administrator at Highmount Capital in Boston.  She has spent the last five years in workplace management, most recently at Red Hat, Inc.

As the Director of Investment Operations at Civic Financial, Alissa is responsible for coordinating the wealth management operations of the firm.  This includes account opening, asset transfers and account maintenance.

Alissa grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts and received an Associate’s Degree from Marian Court College, majoring in Business Management with a minor in Accounting. She enjoys spending time with her family and four-legged pooch, spending weekends in the sun at the beach and loves to travel.

Shannon Fadden is the Director of Client Relations at Civic Financial. At Civic, she helps manage client relationships and assist the team with financial analysis. Outside of work, Shannon has a passion for kayaking, hiking, working on cars, and learning.

Shannon grew up in Boca Raton, Florida and graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance. Since moving to New England, Shannon has held a variety of account management and customer service roles which have shaped her passion for helping others. As Director of Client Service for Civic, Shannon works to manage both internal and external operations. Shannon also enjoys cooking, playing piano, and going to the beach.

Evan comes to Civic Financial with a strong passion for financial planning and works closely with our advisors and clients to gather, analyze and prepare the materials that go into presenting our financial planning proposals.  Evan also plays an integral role in our Investment Operations at Civic, ensuring that our clients receive a consistently high standard of care when choosing to engage Northwestern Mutual’s Investment services.

After graduating Columbia University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and History, he found his way by accident to become a financial advisor shortly after graduation.  When a close family member of his passed away with eleven small life insurance policies after battling cancer for many years, Evan began to appreciate how powerful the promise of protection can be, especially as it comes to fruition as the direct result of thoughtful financial planning.  Years later, he remains perpetually energized by the financial planning industry, always challenging himself to expand his technical planning knowledge and design creative financial plans that address the unique circumstances of the client.

When not working, Evan can usually be found studying Torah, traveling, biking, ice-skating, cross-country skiing, hiking, cooking, taking road trips, doing acts of kindness for others, and spending time with his wife Laura and their two girls:  Elisheva and Avigayil.

Taner serves as the Insurance Coordinator of Civic Financial. In this capacity, Taner guides clients through insurance applications, underwriting and approval and assists in their insurance servicing needs.

Taner grew up in Marblehead, MA where he attended Marblehead High School and was captain of the tennis team. He pursued higher education at Penn State University as an economics and history double major and later Suffolk University Law School. After passing the MA and NY state bar exams, he worked at New York Life for seven years before joining the Civic Financial team.

After years of living in Boston, Taner and his wife, Kyle, have moved back to Marblehead with their young son. Outside of work, Taner enjoys spending quality time with family and friends and is an active racquet sport player.

Michelle is from Boston MA and is a graduate of UMASS Amherst. She has worked closely with John Daniel and Brian Nixon for over 25 years and brings with her a wide knowledge of the insurance industry and is involved in all aspects of the business, and especially enjoys working with, and speaking directly to clients.  Michelle lives in Westwood with her husband Bob and two sons, Matthew and RJ.

Janine DiPaolo is an experienced Executive Assistant with over 25 years in the field.  She began working with John Daniel and Brian Nixon in 2004 as Director of Policy Owner Services, moved to the Director of Marketing, and is currently their Executive Assistant with a large focus on managing the logistics of their schedules.

In her spare time, Janine enjoys traveling, cooking and spending time with her husband, two daughters, granddaughter, two rescue dogs and chickens.

Melanie has been a senior administrator for over 20 years. She has worked in a variety of key roles in various settings including real estate, medical, law and insurance practices. Additionally, she helps oversee charitable projects. Melanie began working with John Daniel and Brian Nixon in 2006 and is currently an Executive Assistant. She lives in Natick and enjoys traveling, the outdoors and spending time with family and friends.

Elizabeth is a Massachusetts native and a graduate of Boston University. She has been a part of John Daniel and Brian Nixon’s team for ten years. Elizabeth lives in Framingham with her husband and three children and enjoys being outdoors with her family.