2009 Advisor Hall of Fame 

Welcome to Research Magazine’s Advisor Hall of Fame, now in its 19th year. This eagerly anticipated annual feature has become a benchmark of excellence in our industry and an example to all of the rewards that result from effort and integrity.

Candidates who pass our rigorous screens have served a minimum of 15 years in the industry, have acquired substantial assets under management, demonstrate superior client service and have earned recognition from their peers and the broader community for the honor they reflect on their profession.

Finding the nation’s finest financial advisors is made possible by the wisdom and discernment of our panel of six distinguished judges (named on the last page of this article). Their discriminating judgment has enriched our Hall of Fame with five extraordinary new members. With no further ado, here are their stories.

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Brenda Blisk, CEO, Blisk Financial Group of Spire Investment Partners

Career Began: 1985

Home Base: McLean, Va.

Civic Affiliations: Women in Technology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University, The Women’s Center of Vienna, Va.

When it comes to client-first service, no one does it quite like Brenda Blisk. She sends roses on Valentine’s to the recently widowed. She routinely holds educational conference calls with clients on everything from identity theft to the fixed-income markets.

As for new parents, she gives them on their child’s first birthday a copy of one of her favorite titles, Yes You Can! Raise Financially Aware Kids. New client? She’ll arrange an online tutorial to make it easier to navigate her website.

It’s no wonder the chief executive of Blisk Financial Group has won industry accolades for client satisfaction. But the real reward for this 61-year-old advisor comes in client comments like these three testimonials:

“Your advice helped me retire a full five years before my original plans.”

“Even in spite of major losses in the financial markets, your advice helped preserve an extraordinary amount of our investment portfolio, and even provide for some growth.”

“We gave you half-articulated ideas and a box full of paperwork, and you sorted through them and taught us how to put the pieces together…We worry about many things, but not about the soundness of our financial position in retirement.”

As a farm girl growing up in a tiny Tennessee town, Blisk says her parents taught her to be self-supporting and to seek a fulfilling life that involved giving back and helping others. “What I wanted wasn’t so much a career but an avocation — a place where you emerge and help others. I look at it as a service. You take care of other people, you’ll be taken care of. Treat people as you wish to be treated,” she says. “That’s been the philosophy of Blisk Financial Group.”

Blisk arrived at financial services on a nontraditional path.

A competitive baton twirler, she put herself through college — first at Tennessee Technology University, then at George Peabody College — with student loans and winnings from beauty pageants. In fact, she won the United States Twirling Association’s Miss Tennessee competition, going on to claim that organization’s Miss America crown.

After graduating, Blisk worked at a department store in Raleigh, N.C., rising to become one of its top managers. When she and her husband, David, relocated to Dayton, Ohio, an E.F. Hutton broker suggested she give financial services a try. Blisk did — and she’s never looked back.

She joined Prudential Bache in 1985 and within four years had her CFP. “My manager was very progressive. He really believed in the big picture, what I call the holistic approach. I’ve always approached my clients that way. You want to get your arms around the entire situation,” she notes. “It’s much easier to take all these complex things and make them simple by breaking them down into steps.”

After working with Prudential in Dayton and then in Washington, D.C., she joined Shearson Lehman Hutton in 1992. Five years later, she resigned from what was by then Smith Barney to take her team independent with a firm that is now called Spire Investment Partners. Blisk’s husband is Spire’s managing partner.

Today, Blisk — recognized by Barron’s earlier this year as one of the nation’s top 1,000 advisors — works with 300 households, primarily executives and women in transition. With $200 million in assets under management, she heads a team of five that includes a CFP and certified divorce planner, two investment analysts and an administrative chief.

In some ways, Blisk hasn’t strayed far from her family roots. Growing up on a dairy farm, she rose at 5:00 a.m. to milk before school. She still starts her workday before sunrise. The oldest of six, she took on management responsibilities at a young age.

“A farm is a family business. Everybody is organized. Everybody has a part to play. Everybody is expected to do their part and pick up someone else’s if they can’t do theirs,” she says. “And you’ve got to make a profit — feed the children, feed the animals and have a little left over to reinvest in the business.” It’s an ethic that deeply influenced the young girl — and guides her today as she leads her team in the initiative that is her driver: holistically helping people.

During the last 14 months, Blisk has worked hard to, as she puts it, “keep the clients focused on winning.” What does that mean exactly? “Winning to us is keeping them on track so they can retire, so they can have income security. The information gets so distorted,” says Blisk. “Our biggest job is keeping them focused and being there for them. Our clients know we’re going to be with them for the whole thing and that once you have a good plan, it’s important to stick to it.”

After 24 years in the business, Blisk is hardly starry-eyed. But, she adds: “It’s always new, every day. The thing that motivates me is seeing a smile on another person’s face. It’s so fulfilling to be able to tell them you’ve done it, you’ve reached your goal. You can retire and enjoy what you’ve worked so hard for. It’s those moments that are so rewarding. It’s what we work for.”

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John W. Cary III, Senior Vice President-Wealth Management, Portfolio Management Director, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

Career Began: 1979

Home Base: Tulsa, Okla.

Civic Affiliations: Oklahoma Museum of Military History,Vietnam Security Police Association

John Cary isn’t necessarily a contrarian; he simply does things his own way.

While the industry puts a premium on the team concept, Cary revels in being a solo practitioner. Just as he

was moving up the branch management career ladder, Cary jumped off. “The truth? I didn’t like it. I hate to be cynical, but there are so many in this business who are salesmen only,” he says. “They’ll say anything.” And while some advisors may overpromise, Cary has only one guiding goal: to outperform.

After three decades as an advisor, the 55-year-old Cary has created a business model that works just fine for him — not to mention the clients he serves from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Tulsa office. As semi-retired architect William Cavaness, Cary’s first client and at 90 one of his oldest, puts it: “John’s stuck with me and I’ve stuck with him. He’s always reevaluated things that weren’t productive and put me in more stable things that would hold their value through a crisis. I’d say we’ve done quite well.”

Last year, when many investors lost one-third or more of their portfolios, Cary’s clients took on average an 18 percent hit. Cary, a chartered financial analyst, credits the performance to a conservative investing strategy focusing on balanced portfolios that are well diversified among high quality securities whose companies have demonstrated high earnings growth and profitability. Clearly, something is working: Cary’s investment performance for his conservative growth composite has consistently beaten the S&P over short- and long-term runs.

“I always say people don’t pay me a fee to gamble for them. Most clients are more risk-averse than they say they are. I’ve learned to not go out and promise things,” says Cary, who manages $170 million in assets. “Needless to say, I don’t attract high-risk speculators.”

A native Oklahoman, Cary enlisted in the Air Force after high school and was among the last U.S. troops to serve in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Just five years ago, he was diagnosed with a cancer associated with Agent Orange. In typical Cary fashion, he says: “It’s turned me into a health nut. It’s not a bad problem, really. A lot of people who served in the war are a lot worse off than me.”

After returning stateside, Cary — interested in political science and economics as a result of his overseas tour — got an economics degree from the University of Oklahoma. He joined E.F. Hutton as a rookie broker in 1979 and then worked for Paine Webber before hooking up with Smith Barney in 1990. He credits his early success to seminars.

Today, Cary serves 300 households with an average net worth of $3 million to $5 million. Most of his clients — largely doctors, lawyers and folks in the oil business — are over 55. He’s the No. 2 producer in a branch of 60 advisors. Cary’s wife Emily is also a financial advisor in the branch, but the two operate separate businesses.

A million-dollar producer, Cary was named this year by Barron’s as one of the nation’s top 1,000 financial advisors. When he takes his own personal inventory, Cary observes: “Sometimes when I look up at the big guys, the star producers, I ask myself: ‘What’s the matter with me?’ The answer is I’ve chosen in the past to go back to school, to teach classes, to fly planes, to be involved in veterans’ groups, to coach boy’s baseball. What that adds up to, I hope, is a balanced life.”

Cary has always cared deeply about education and, while working, he got not only an MBA but a law degree. Both, he says, have made him a better overall advisor. A longtime student of the markets, he’s admittedly obsessed with economics and finance — which has helped him, and his clients, ride out the recent market turbulence with greater ease.

“It’s helped me to be a little more steady as she goes and not to overreact to every daily drip of bad news. And, after 30 years, I’ve seen crashes and corrections, recessions and panics. You get used to the boom to bust to boom cycles,” he notes.

Even so, three of his clients insisted despite Cary’s best advice on cashing out of securities at the market bottom. Again, Cary takes a long view. “One thing I don’t like about this business is people are oftentimes pushy. I don’t want to be that way. Tell them what you think, but none of us has a crystal ball. I just try to make my clients happy — and not worried to death.”

As for the future, Cary says: “I believe we’re not off of the roller coaster yet. Although the volatility is probably not over, I believe the bottoming out period has begun and the worst is behind us. I feel there is ample reason to be optimistic about the future. History is on the side of the bullish investor. You just have to have a little faith.” 

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Roger S. Green, CEO, Green Financial Resources, Multi-Financial Securities Corp.

Career Began: 1987

Home Base: Duluth, Ga.

Civic Affiliations: Rock the South/Franklin Graham, Gwinnett Children’s Shelter, Touching Lives Ministry

Roger Green describes himself as an “anti-niche” advisor. Why? “Instead of finding particular people that need my services, I want to help everybody regardless of their wealth.”

The statement goes to the core of this faith-based advisor’s practice — and his principles. He looks at his financial planning work as an “ongoing community service project.” Green’s focus today: increasing the number of people he personally can reach. When he says he wants to help everybody, he means it.

Green, 42, has assembled a team of eight to help him do what he does best: providing investment advice. As Green’s wife and COO, Laura Green, puts it, “All of our jobs are to make sure Roger can get in front of the clients and do the research. He’s a very effective delegator. He knows what he’s good at.”

With $275 million in assets under management, Green has a large book of business for one producer. Clearly, something is working. Since joining what is now called Multi-Financial Securities Corp. in 2000, he’s been ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the independent advisory network each and every year. Green works with 1,800 individual clients, representing 1,000 households. Not surprisingly, he requires no account minimum.

Green has been building his business one client at a time since 1987, when he joined First Investors Corp., a mutual fund company. He stayed three years. “I learned I really needed more tools and training and it needed to be nonproprietary,” he says. “I was feeling pressured.” After that he worked for MONY, then hooked up with Multi-Financial.

Success like Green’s doesn’t occur randomly. From the start, he has had a plan that involved staffing, marketing and a select approach to investment advice. When Green first set up shop, he immediately invested in staff to handle the firm’s administrative and service needs. “Many new business owners are not willing to do this because it cuts into their own financial bottom line. They try to be everything to everyone and end up failing,” he notes. “I cannot stress enough how important this piece is. To make money, you have to spend money.”

He has also always put a premium on marketing — contributing a monthly financial column to local newspapers and hosting a weekly program on a Christian radio station. While his goal initially was to attract new clients, he views the outreach today as another way to stay in touch with existing ones.

Green, who has a master’s of science in financial services from The American College, for more than a decade has taught classes on financial strategies for successful retirement. A full half of his current clients attended classes or were referred by those who did. Notably, the money management principles he teaches are built on “financial wisdom” from the Bible.

Green, recognized earlier this year by Barron’s as one of the nation’s top 1,000 advisors, also developed what he believes is the key differentiator between him and his peers: an asset harvesting plan used by retirees to make asset allocation decisions. The long-term capital appreciation program is designed to capture up-markets and not participate in down-markets.

“I almost never have to make their lifestyle change a lot,” Green says about his clients, many of whom are at or nearing retirement. “But I do redirect their money. I kind of work within their cash flow to make a new, better picture for them based on what they were already doing.”

Green says the last year has been the toughest he’s experienced in the business. He has clients who are underemployed or unemployed. Others have faced foreclosure. And he’s lost more clients than ever before — 1 percent.

“To lose 17 clients this year was troublesome. Without a doubt, it’s the toughest year on record. But I look at the last 12 months and more than anything, I have to say it’s been good to be of use. Looking back, it’s been a meaningful bonding experience between me and my clients. I’ve been able to help when a lot of other advisors wouldn’t even want to talk to them,” he says. “Every day, I get to live the life of being able to help people.”

Green has always had goals — tangible, concrete goals that he writes down and concentrates on achieving. Highly competitive, he continually raises the bar on himself — which he says keeps him motivated, growing, focused and moving forward.

When he was 20, in the industry for less than a year, he set several goals he wanted to achieve by the time he was 40. Among other things, Green wanted to break through the $100 million in assets mark and to have an office with a “fact-finding” staff. He achieved both years ahead of plan.

His goal now: to manage over $1 billion by the time he’s 55.

“It’s not that important, but I feel I’ll accomplish it. I routinely refuse business. I just turned down over seven figures in muni bonds someone wanted me to manage. I don’t want to dilute my attention from the things I’m good at. This is who I am,” says Green. “If you’re clearly who you are, the who you are speaks loudly.”

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Mary McFadden Hastings, Managing Director-Investments, The Hastings/LoRusso Group of Wells Fargo Advisors

Career Began: 1993

Home Base: Waltham, Mass.

Civic Affiliations: Lexington (Mass.) Chamber of Commerce, Lexington town boards

As a girl, Mary McFadden Hastings attended a one-room schoolhouse in rural Maine. The bathroom was an outhouse, the heating system a wood stove. A single teacher tended to four grades.

It’s an amazing slice of Americana that has slipped away but one thing has stayed constant: Hastings’ unrelenting adherence to principles taught long ago like integrity, honesty and hard work.

“We weren’t poor — at least I never felt it. But principles, I grew up wealthy in those regards. I was always told: ‘It doesn’t matter what you do, Mary, you do it right. Whatever you do, Mary, do it well. Nothing’s worth half-doing.’”

Hastings, in her sixties, has never done anything halfway.

When, after graduating high school, she went straight to work, she promised herself: “I’m going to college. I will do it one way or the other.” Years later, a working parent by then with two daughters, she put herself through night school, graduating from Lesley College at the top of the class.

Always active in her community, Hastings in the late 1980s was named president of the Lexington (Mass.) Chamber of Commerce, the first woman so honored. And, after walking away from a banking career to join the brokerage business, it was just a few short years before Hastings achieved another milestone — this time as a million-dollar producer.

Today, with $140 million in assets under management at Wells Fargo Advisors, Hastings is something of a local institution. She and her husband, Steven, have lived in Lexington since 1962 — and it’s doubtful there’s a civic organization she hasn’t been involved in. Lexington Rotary, Lexington Discovery Day,

Lexington Historical Society, Lexington Council on Aging — they are all part of her community footprint. For 30 years Hastings worked off and on in banking, first as a teller and ultimately making her name as a vice president with management responsibilities in two counties.

But Hastings gave up banking to join Merrill Lynch in 1993 because it promised something she wanted: the ability to control her own destiny. She built up her business quickly, cold-calling and staging Saturday morning “doughnut seminars.”

Notably, she never reached out to her own vast network of friends and business acquaintances. “I never called one person I knew, not one,” Hastings says. “I wanted to learn on people I didn’t know.” Not surprisingly, as Hastings’ reputation as a certified financial planner grew, many friends and associates did sign on. “I’ve always said that when they know what you do, they’ll come to you,” she adds.

Over the years, Hastings has also attracted clients who have attended a Hastings staple: her “Why Women Should Become Knowledgeable Investors” presentation. Hastings says she has seen too many women made financially vulnerable as a result of death or divorce. Even today, it’s come “so far” — but not far enough. She still gives the seminar.

In 2002, Hastings and her husband, by then her business partner, joined A.G. Edwards (now Wells Fargo Advisors) and formed the Hastings/LoRusso Group. Tony LoRusso, who was already an advisor at A.G. Edwards, is Hastings’ son-in-law. A second son-in-law, Peter DelGreco, a chartered financial analyst, joined the group in January.

Today, Hastings serves 450 households, 60 percent of whom are pre-retirees and retirees. Remarkably, Hastings — named a Premier Advisor by Wells Fargo — says the last year has been among the best in her career. “Truthfully, it’s been the most rewarding time — because of the clients, no other reason.

The day the Dow went down 900 points the phone rang four times, one after the other in the morning. It was clients saying: ‘Mary, are you OK?’ I was almost in tears, they were so concerned about me,” she says. “Unbelievable. What it’s done is cemented the relationships even more.”

If Hastings has a signature, it’s her strong service ethic. She makes house calls for older clients who find it difficult to make it into her office. She routinely sets up and attends interviews with real estate agents for widows who wish to sell their homes. And, if a client is ill, Hastings says, “I try to find out what they’re doing when recuperating. Flowers are nice, but a good book is better.” Without a doubt, Hastings places a premium on what she calls “the little things.”

And sometimes “little” things speak volumes.

Stephen Doherty, a retired police chief, remembers that after his father died, Hastings on her own initiative came to his mother’s home to rebalance her investments in light of her changed circumstances. “It’s like that old phrase: ‘She felt she should do what she should, not what she can,’” he said. “She went that extra mile.”

Hastings made a similar visit to see Doherty when his mother died two and a half years ago. Today, Hastings’ client list includes Doherty and his wife, their son and his wife, and a young granddaughter.

As Doherty tells it, “When my children and their families asked for my advice on money matters as their situations changed, my advice was always the same: Call Mary Hastings and see what she says. Then decide what’s best for you.”  

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Mark J. Smith, President, M.J. Smith and Associates, Raymond James Financial Services

Career Began: 1983

Home Base: Englewood, Colo.

Civic Affiliations: University of Iowa, Iowa Central Community College, Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants’ Education Foundation

In the Raymond James Financial Services Network, Mark J. Smith is the stuff of legend. He’s been one of the firm’s top-ranked advisors — including a nice ride at No. 1 — for more than two decades. His breakout sessions at Raymond James conferences routinely attract several hundred advisors. As for his assets under management? A cool $480 million.

But one of the most special things about Smith, who grew up with scarce resources, is that his abundance today is also about giving back.

Consider: When the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants failed to hit its endowment target a few years ago, Smith, 55, wrote a check for $55,000 to make up the difference. And, on an ongoing basis, Smith directs the proceeds from his advisor business-building workshops toward college scholarships he provides for needy students in two states. So far he’s raised close to $300,000 — not exactly loose change.

Smith credits his success to his late mother Gladys, a single parent who worked a double shift waiting tables in Fort Dodge, Iowa to provide for her three children.

“Everything I am I owe to her,” says Smith, who was recognized by Barron’s earlier this year as the top independent financial advisor in Colorado. “She worked so hard to give us a home and an upbringing. Because of how hard you saw her work, and with the love you felt, you never wanted to disappoint. Fortunately, instead of going to the other side, we stayed on the right paths.”

Thanks to scholarships, Smith attended Iowa Central Community College for two years, topping it off with a degree in business administration from the University of Iowa. He formed M.J. Smith and Associates in 1983 after working as an accountant for Deloitte, Haskins & Sells and later as income tax director for Affiliated Bancshares of Colorado, a holding company of 37 banks.

Today, Smith — a CFP and a CPA — heads a team of 12 who tend to 440 households. Most of his clients connected with him as result of money in motion: a widow taking over management of an estate, inheritors, executives who are about to retire with a lump sum rollover, an owner planning to sell a business. “Typically, the phone rings when one of those events happens and the person needs help making decisions,” says Smith.

Smith has been through a lot of down markets but this last year was especially tough. As he bluntly puts it: “A good number of my clients are my friends. I never once in 25 years felt like I was being shunned by my friends. People were just so fearful and angry. I never once, until this past year, felt like I wasn’t wanted [as a fourth] on the golf course because my client friends didn’t want me to be there. Talking with your team, anyone in the business, was very helpful this year. You just get worn out after awhile.”

Smith recently called his team together with some good news to report. He had met with two clients, both of whom had been “ugly” the previous time they’d met — as he defines it, in a “sky is falling mode.” The clients were warm, they were cordial and they thanked Smith for not letting them panic at the market bottom. And, he adds: “My friends don’t mind playing golf with me again.”

Over the years, many Raymond James advisors have sought Smith’s guidance — so many that he built a series of workshops on “how I do what I do.” One presentation last March, during the week the market bottomed out, attracted 400 advisors.

“As I look back, this is one of the rewarding aspects of the business,” say Smith. “When I get two or three people coming up at a conference and thanking me for making them a survivor of this last bear market, to me I feel I’ve not only helped them individually but hopefully helped 20 or 30 of their clients. I sort of thrive on that.”

In recognition of his mother, Smith has endowed scholarships at several colleges, including Iowa Central Community College and the University of Iowa. To quote one of his scholarship recipients, Uyen Nguyen:

“I was born in Vietnam. My father was the only one that finished high school. My mother had only finished tenth grade. Your scholarship has not only been a financial contribution, but also one of hope and encouragement.”

Hope and encouragement — Smith hallmarks.

Looking forward, Smith says, “This has come to me personally as a revelation in the last 12 months. I think I personally know what I could do to make this a $2 billion or $3 billion firm. Do I want to put the energy into that? Quite frankly, I don’t think I’ve got it in me anymore. If the next generation wants to do that, I’ll be their mentor and guide. You hear about these people who get to a point in life and ask: What’s next? That’s where I am now.” 

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Editor's Note: The December 2009 print issue of Research magazine misstated the author of this cover story. Our apologies to Ellen Uzelac, who wrote both the print and online versions.

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