Not much has changed in the 21 years since Mike Engler founded his own wealth management company. On some evenings he still finds himself seated at a client’s kitchen table, eating pizza as he helps map out their financial future.

Engler, a partner at Community Pride Wealth in Baltimore, Maryland, differentiated his company from the very beginning by targeting the middle class, a demographic largely ignored by competitors busy pursuing the uber-rich. That simple strategy proved to be a boon for business.

“It’s the largest group in the country, of singles and couples, that gets the least amount of attention and needs the most help,” Engler notes. He takes on anyone, regardless of income, who needs advice about managing their money more effectively.

Keeping it real

Engler relates to customers on a personal level. The first couple of meetings are about building relationships, not selling products. He says, “People are highly stressed today, whether it’s about raising kids, paying for college or household items. We teach them about money, about investments and about the discipline needed to be successful in the investment world. And we keep it as simple and stress-free as possible.”

Let an advisor make decisions for you

Engler helps clients find solutions that fit their comfort level and suit their stage in life. He spends a lot of time educating clients and setting expectations about what he can do for them, and what they will need to do in return to make it happen.

Most of his clients recognize the need to plan for retirement and long-term care, but they have a difficult time, emotionally, in dealing with it. “They don’t have enough money to do everything they want to do,” Engler says. He makes it easy for them to work within their means by creating a plan that they can ease into and become comfortable with over time. 
His sensible approach to retirement planning involves:

•    Gradually increasing contributions to employer retirement plans, such as 401ks, until contributions are maxed out.
•    Setting up automatic payments from a checking account to an investment plan, such as a mutual fund. The money might be missed at first but eventually it will become normal.
•    Planning for a transitional retirement. Don’t completely stop working. Taking a part-time job that’s less stressful and more of a hobby will bring in extra money, and it will help manage the cost of long-term care insurance. 

Don’t plan investment portfolios based on what’s going on in the world

“There’s always something – the Vietnam War, Watergate, Iran Contra, the Tech Bubble,” Engler says. He bases investments on two criteria: clients’ risk-tolerance levels and where they are in life. “For example, as people edge closer to retirement, they want more conservative products,” he said. They shift from investments that allow them to accumulate wealth to products that produce an income stream in the form of a monthly check, such as annuities.

The economic downturn that began in 2008, caused an upturn in business

When the economy tanked, people who had never sought assistance from a financial advisor came knocking on Engler’s door. In 2016, he noted that the goal is for his company to experience 50 percent growth. He plans to reach it by recruiting more advisors and by establishing a presence in other states. He also intends to advise more millennials on how to manage their money better, because the earlier one starts investing, the more wealth one can accumulate.

A naval officer, Engler left the military to become a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch and worked for several other large investment companies before launching his own firm. “In my 35 years in the business, I’ve seen major transitions: the deregulation of commissions in the 1980s, deep-discount brokers and robo advisors,” he says. “There’s a certain segment of the population who likes those. The rest of the population prefers the one-on-one personal touch.”

The same holds true for online competitors. “While there is a lot of good information available online, it can cause information-overload and cloud people’s judgement,” he says. “Some people don’t have the time or inclination to do it themselves. They still want an advisor to make their decisions for them.”

How standard policies impact investors and the industry

If a Uniform Fiduciary Standard to govern the activities of all advisors soon becomes law, Engler thinks it will benefit everyone by creating transparency and uniformity in the industry and by making investing less confusing for the average person. “It will also help improve the image of Wall Street,” he says, which consumers generally view as rigged, fixed and not set up to work in their favor.

Learn from the mistakes of loved ones

“Baby Boomers have seen their parents and relatives go through retirement,” Engler pointed out. They know what pitfalls to avoid and they don’t have to go it alone. A financial advisor can simplify the process for them and come up with a plan that not only works but also takes away the worry – and that is priceless.


For more information visit: www.compridefa.com