Vitae Integro is about our Patrons.
Not our credentials. Not our history.
Our Patrons.
Our job is often only about 10–20% financial and operational methodology.
The other 80–90% is psychology, execution, problem solving, and good old-fashioned heart.
That isn't a tagline. It's the result of two decades of watching what actually works — and what doesn't — in the relationship between a family and the people they trust with their most important decisions.
The families we serve are extraordinary. They have built things, created things, risked things. What they need from an advisor is not someone who manages their assets. It's someone who understands their lives — and who treats every decision, every conversation, and every structure we build with the weight it actually deserves.
He cares deeply about our lives and success, which is a very special breed of person.
- Vitae Integro Patron, Confidential
Vitae Integro is our family's most trusted partner. The peace of mind we experience through this relationship, together with Bret's kind and caring personality, is invaluable.
- Vitae Integro Patron, Confidential
Bret Farris
Founder & Chief Experience Officer
20+ years working with exceptional families
I built Vitae Integro because I understand what building something costs — and what it costs when the people around you aren't who you thought they were.
Vitae Integro was never meant to be a wealth management firm. I hate that term. Wealth management. As if the point is to manage the wealth — not the lives it's supposed to serve.
Here's what actually shaped how I built this.
When people you've trusted personally and professionally — given years of your life to, defended, believed in — reveal who they really are when it matters most, something happens to you. You don't just get hurt. You get clear. Painfully, permanently clear about what you will and will not tolerate. About what alignment actually means. About what character actually costs.
That clarity became the architecture of this firm.
Vitae Integro means ‘life restored.’ Not ‘manage wealth.’ Not ‘optimize portfolios.’ Not ‘create alpha.’ Life restored. That was the intention from the beginning.
Because I had watched brilliant people build extraordinary things — and then watch their financial lives become a second full-time job they never signed up for. Tax strategy siloed from legal. Investments disconnected from planning. Advisors whose incentives quietly pointed somewhere other than your best interest. “Fiduciary” used as a label instead of a lived commitment.
I saw opacity where there should have been clarity. I saw complexity weaponized instead of managed. And I saw entrepreneurs — people who had built remarkable things — carrying weight that had nothing to do with building.
I realized something: if I was going to do this, it had to be different.
So, I built something different. Built from clarity, not ambition. Built from the conviction that our job is not to manage your wealth — but to illuminate the life it was always meant to be.
Our job is often only about 10–20% financial and operational methodology. The other 80–90% is psychology, execution, problem solving, and good old-fashioned heart.
I grew up in Illinois, supported myself from the age of 18, and built my foundation the only way I knew how — through relentless work, seizing every opportunity, and refusing to let circumstances define outcomes. I've carried a Midwestern work ethic into every room I've ever entered.
I've also navigated more than my share of personal hardship — and emerged from each of it with a clearer understanding of what it means to have someone genuinely on your side when life gets complicated. That understanding isn't theoretical. It shapes every Patron relationship I build.
What I am most certain of, after two decades in this work: the families who trust us with their most important decisions deserve someone who treats that trust as the privilege it is. Every time. Without exception.
Education
B.S. Finance — DePaul University
M.S. Taxation & Accounting — University of Illinois
M. Jur., International Tax Law & Policy — Texas A&M Law School
Designations
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP®)
Certified Private Wealth Advisor® (CPWA®)
Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®)
20+ years working with exceptional families
Everything You’d Expect — And Then Some
Jeanette Gawrisch
Director, Operations & Patron Experience
Background
Jeanette was among the founding team of an independently owned Chicago-based wealth management firm with approximately $8.8 billion in assets under management. She spent nearly a decade in back-office operations before moving into people leadership and was named Partner in 2020, a distinction that reflected not just her operational expertise but her consistent commitment to putting the client at the center of everything she built.
The Role
As Director, Operations & Patron Experience, Jeanette is the architecture behind the invisible. Every process that runs smoothly, every communication that arrives on time, every detail that a Patron never has to think about — that is Jeanette's work. She also serves as the operational intelligence behind Vitae Vision, Vitae Integro's annual gathering of entrepreneurs, investors, and family office professionals — bringing the same precision and care to curated experiences that she brings to the day-to-day life of the firm.
Why This Person
Bret has one rule about who joins the Vitae Integro team: he only works with people he has worked alongside before. Jeanette is not a hire. She is a trusted colleague whose judgment, work ethic, and client-first instinct have been proven over years of shared work. Her presence at Vitae Integro is a deliberate choice — and Patrons feel the difference.
There is exceptional peace of mind knowing that Vitae Integro is behind the scenes, paying attention to the details — so we can focus on growing our business and enjoying the fruits of our labor.
- Vitae Integro Patron, Confidential
Compounding Good
Atypical Path
Vitae Integro's mission doesn't stop at the family office. We believe that entrepreneurs — people who build things from nothing — are the world's greatest creators of good. When their wealth is structured well, when their time is freed, when their legacy is intentional — that good compounds.
That conviction led to the founding of Atypical Path — a 501(c)(3) dedicated to the entrepreneurial development of neuroatypical youth. Because the obligation to compound good doesn't end with any one family's legacy.
Every year, half of what Vitae Integro earns goes back into the world — directed by the charitable pursuits of the families we serve.
Patron-designated, purpose-driven, and expanding as our community grows. Atypical Path was the first beneficiary of this commitment — and the standard by which every future one will be measured.
Bret serves on the Atypical Path board as Treasurer and Secretary.
If you've read this far, something resonated.
Vitae Integro is not for everyone. It is for entrepreneurial families who want one team, one relationship, and one unwavering commitment to their interests — built around their life, not our product.
If that's you, we'd love to have that conversation.
The only mistake we made was not finding him sooner.
- Vitae Integro Patron, Confidential