Jason Branning has spent more than two decades asking a question that most financial advisors skip past: not just whether a client has enough to retire, but whether their retirement income is truly built to last — predictable, tax-efficient, and independent of whatever the market decides to do tomorrow.

That question became a framework. That framework became a published theory. And that theory is now shaping how retirement income planning is taught and practiced across the country.

Modern Retirement Theory — A National Standard

Jason co-developed Modern Retirement Theory (MRT) with M. Ray Grubbs, Ph.D. — a comprehensive retirement planning framework built on the principle that retirement is an absolute goal, not a relative one. You don't just want to retire. You want to stay retired. That distinction changes everything about how an income plan should be built.

MRT has been published in The Journal of Financial Planning's Retirement Income Special Report — twice. Content from those works now appears in the Retirement Management Analyst textbook and is embedded in the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) curriculum, meaning the framework Jason built is now part of the national standard for how retirement income specialists are trained across the country.

For Jason, that recognition isn't a credential to collect. It's evidence that the approach works.

A Practitioner, Not Just a Theorist

Jason's work has been cited in Forbes, MarketWatch, CNBC, Morningstar, NASDAQ.com, Bogleheads.com, and Advisor Perspectives. He served on The Journal of Financial Planning's Advisory Board from 2010 to 2014 and has been a peer reviewer for the Retirement Management Journal. He has served as an expert witness in FINRA arbitration proceedings and was appointed by the Governor of Mississippi — and confirmed by the state Senate — to serve on the College Savings Mississippi Board in 2014.

He also served as a contributing author for the Financial Planning Association's general public website, translating complex retirement planning concepts into language that real people can actually use to make better decisions.

All of that is to say: Jason is as comfortable in the research and regulatory world as he is sitting across the table from a client in their 60s who just wants to know if they can retire without losing sleep over what the market does tomorrow.

How He Works

Every client relationship at Branning Wealth Management begins with the same foundational belief: you shouldn't have to ask the market for permission to retire. A retirement income plan built on that principle starts with your income needs — not your portfolio — and builds a foundation of predictable income designed to cover your essential expenses regardless of market conditions. Tax efficiency is built in from the start, not added as an afterthought.

Jason is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner and Retirement Income Certified Professional®. He is an honors graduate of Mississippi College with a B.A. in English — a background that, perhaps more than the finance credentials, explains why he can take complicated retirement planning concepts and make them genuinely clear. He holds a Certificate in Financial Planning from Florida State University.

Outside the Office

Jason is married with four children and is actively involved in his local church in the Jackson, MS area. He runs when he can, and reads with the same discipline he brings to financial planning.