Mary Lyons • Dallas, TX
The Wealth Woman
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My father eventually entered the financial-services industry, first working for a national insurance firm and then founding his own advisory firm in Dallas, Personal Economics Group. I was exposed to financial planning when I was young and often had dinner conversations with my parents about using wealth as a tool rather than an end goal. I was a good student in high school and had an eclectic array of interests. I attended the University of Texas, where I was accepted into a competitive interdisciplinary liberal arts program and earned degrees both in that program and in journalism. I grew as a person in college, became much more outgoing, and obtained leadership positions in several organizations.

After a few years, my father started Personal Economics Group, where he applied advanced economic and actuarial principles to financial planning. By this time, I had become fully licensed and had worked closely with senior advisors who had extensive investment experience. The rest of the story is one of continually building my knowledge, cultivating a growing base of clients, and helping my father in the management of the firm. He has since retired, but I am still very involved as a managing director. I have also opened my own branded practice called The Wealth Woman.

I believe people work hard throughout their lives to establish a certain lifestyle. When they retire, they should not necessarily view that as a time of retrenchment. Instead, we want to help them have their assets work as hard as possible for them over a long time frame and to seek wealth protection via various strategies—so they may pursue their desired lifestyle. Our ultimate goal is to help clients get to a place where they can do the things they are most passionate about.

I think our industry has had issues in approaching financial planning. The traditional industry model is that financial advisors usually either have heavy insurance backgrounds or are primarily interested in managing a client’s investments. Our process breaks down those distinctions, and we approach planning without bias toward what strategies or combination of strategies can be used to help clients achieve their objectives. Related to this issue, most of the financial planning in the past has been focused on either accumulation or distribution strategies.

We believe financial strategies need to be integrated throughout a client’s life. No financial product can provide a perfect solution, but the probabilities for success can be dramatically improved. Insurance and investments are both important parts of an overall plan—and when our clients understand these tools, they can learn how to use them in ways that most advisors don’t talk about.

These are the types of concepts, among many others, that we educate our clients on during our planning process. The process typically takes four or five meetings with the client, with the first being a discovery session. They will hear about what we do, and then we will explore their objectives and what is important in terms of their life goals. I help people think through the problems and the opportunities they will likely face as they approach retirement planning and other important financial issues in their lives.

The second meeting is about how they might optimize their income and distribution rate in retirement. We look at various assumptions about retirement age, risk, and income distribution and assess what income their current plan might deliver. We then explore some of the opportunities for enhancing that income using various protection and income-producing strategies. That allows us to examine how different variables could be changed, such as retirement date, current savings, or retirement income levels. We use a methodology and software called Wealth Building Cornerstones during the process, which facilitates analysis of retirement-planning options.

At the third meeting, we look at customized recommendations for investment strategies. I focus on dynamic risk management for investment portfolios, educating clients about the sequence of returns and how significant drawdowns and volatility can derail their progress toward objectives. We think actively managed investment strategies that seek to mitigate risk can play an important role in client portfolios. We not only believe in diversification by asset class but also in diversification by strategy type and management style. We use professional third-party money managers who focus on the development of sophisticated strategies and the day-to-day management of portfolio strategies. We spend a good amount of time vetting these managers and understanding the capabilities of both their firms and their various strategies.

My longer-term goals are to use social media, media appearances, videos, and speaking engagements to achieve visibility for the brand. However, in the final analysis, the focus is on our clients and how we can help them achieve their financial objectives—hopefully beyond what they thought was possible. Making a positive impact on people’s lives is what drives my efforts each day.