Meet an Advisor: Michael Garry

Evan Harp: When and how did your practice begin?

Michael Garry: I left the last advisor I worked for in February 2006. I worked as a lawyer for a couple of years. I worked for Merrill for about three years, and then I worked for another independent RIA for four and a half.

We thought we were going to have an agreement where I would buy him out, but he decided that he’d rather sell to a big bank, so I had to scramble. It was hard. We started with zero clients and zero assets, but it was the best thing that could have happened. It was the push I needed because otherwise, I would be working for him or whoever bought him, and probably be miserable. Now I have the best job in America.

Harp: That’s a great story and speaks a lot about who you are and what you can accomplish amid adversity. To pivot, what is your investment philosophy?

Garry: We believe in being globally diversified. We buy ETFs that are low-cost and tax-efficient but that also skew towards small-cap value and highly profitable companies. We use mostly funds from Dimensional and Avantis, and we use Perth Tolle’s FRDM Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM C).

Harp: Perth is great!

Garry: She really is. She went to one of our client events and she was just fantastic.

Harp: We have had her at the Exchange Conference a couple of times, and she’s always, always been a gifted and thoughtful speaker.

Garry: That’s where I first heard about her, at the Exchange Conference!

Harp: Oh wow! We could talk FDRM all day, but let’s move on to my next question. What’s the biggest obstacle you had to overcome, and how did you do it?

Garry: I’m not very outgoing for a financial advisor, so I’ve never been one to go up and talk to people about my business. But it’s hard to bring in clients if you don’t talk to people about your business. Fortunately, the internet came along, and I got a book called SEO For Dummies from the local library, and we built a website and put together newsletters. Now we do socials, and so we have people coming to our various web and socials all the time. The best part is I don’t have to call strangers and I don’t have to talk to people that I don’t know and say something like, “Hey, please be a customer of mine!” Using SEO for Dummies was life-changing for me. I should buy that guy flowers, whoever wrote that book.

Harp: What’s something happening in the market right now that not enough people are paying attention to?

Garry: Well, it’s not an event happening in the market, but it is market-related. I think not enough people pay attention to all of the cost and tax implications of buying investments that are more complicated than mutual funds and exchange traded funds. All those other products are meant to enrich the people who provide those products at a much larger scale and to their detriment.

I think people should buy mutual funds and exchange traded funds, anything more complicated than that, they’re wasting their money and paying more in taxes.

Harp: Who’s another advisor that inspires you and why?

Garry: The other advisor in our firm, Maureen Donahue, inspires me every day. She is someone who got into this business right out of college and it’s really hard to do that. She’s worked for about ten years at two other places, and she’s worked for us since the fall, and now she’s juggling being a mom and working at a relatively new place, and that’s gotten hard, but she does great. She’s aggressively looking to do things for our clients, and I’m inspired by her work ethic.

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