Kristi Tidwell has spent more than 25 years helping people navigate the financial decisions that carry the most weight — the ones that happen at retirement, after a loss, through a divorce, or at any other moment when the stakes are high and clarity is hard to come by.

Her specialty is building retirement income strategies that hold up under pressure. Not just strategies that look good on a spreadsheet in favorable conditions, but plans built to be predictable and tax-efficient regardless of what the market, the tax code, or life decides to do next.

A Rare Combination of Credentials

Kristi holds three designations that rarely appear together — and each one reflects a distinct dimension of what she actually does for clients.

As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner, she brings the foundational rigor of comprehensive financial planning to every engagement. As a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® (CDFA®), she is specifically trained to help clients navigate the financial complexities of major life transitions — asset division, retirement account restructuring, Social Security strategy for divorced or widowed spouses, and rebuilding a retirement income plan from the ground up after life changes entirely. And as one of the first advisors in the country to earn the Tax Planning Certified Professional® (TPCP®) designation, she brings a depth of tax expertise that is genuinely rare in retirement income planning — the kind that goes beyond awareness of tax strategies into the systematic, proactive application of them across every dimension of a client's financial life.

That combination — retirement income planning, life transition expertise, and advanced tax planning — is what makes Kristi's work distinctly valuable. Tax efficiency isn't layered on at the end of the planning process. It's built into the architecture from the start.

The Chicago Years

Before returning to Branning Wealth Management, Kristi spent several years working with high-net-worth clients at a firm in Chicago — an experience that sharpened her technical capabilities and expanded her perspective on what sophisticated retirement income planning looks like at the highest level. She came back to Jackson not because she had to, but because she wanted to — bringing those enhanced capabilities home to a community she is genuinely committed to serving.

That arc matters to her clients. It means they get the depth of experience that comes from working at that level, delivered with the personal attention and community roots that a firm like Branning Wealth Management is built on.

New Path Planning

New Path Planning is Kristi's dedicated divorce financial planning practice — separate from Branning Wealth Management and built specifically for individuals who need a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® in their corner. She helps clients navigate asset division, retirement account restructuring, and the financial decisions that determine what life looks like after divorce.

How She Works

Every client relationship Kristi builds starts with the same foundational question: not just whether you have enough to retire, but whether your retirement income is truly built to last — predictable, tax-efficient, and independent of whatever the market decides to do. She applies the Safety-First framework and Modern Retirement Theory foundation that anchors the firm's entire approach, with a particular focus on the tax strategies that determine how much of your retirement savings you actually keep.

For women facing major life transitions — retirement, widowhood, divorce, or a sudden shift in financial responsibility — she brings something beyond technical expertise: a steadiness that comes from having lived through some of these moments herself, guided hundreds of clients through them professionally, and arrived at a genuine belief that the right financial plan doesn't just protect your assets. It protects your options.

Kristi is a Mississippi College graduate with a BSBA in Finance. She is a proud mother to twin sons Trent and Tyson — both now in medical school — and daughter Ava. When she's not working with clients, she travels whenever she can find an excuse, hosts friends and family during football season, and is currently renovating Airbnb properties — which means she understands investment real estate from the inside out, not just the spreadsheet.

Learn more about Kristi by reading her interview for Fee Only Network.

Ready to build a retirement income plan built around what you can count on? Schedule a complimentary consultation now.