South Carolina Business Review

Financial planning during tax season

By Mike Switzer

Published January 13, 2026 at 6:30 AM EST

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Francesca Passen, certified financial planner with Hobbs Group Advisors in Greenville, SC

It’s a new year and before you know it, those 1099s will start arriving and that signals the start of tax season. Our next guest says that getting organized now is important and to start listing those tax items that don’t show up on those tax forms. Mike Switzer interviews Francesca Passen, a certified financial planner with Hobbs Group Advisors in Greenville, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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