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Below is our recent interview with Marco Lima, CEO at MRA Advisory Group:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to MRA Advisory Group?
A: With a fee-based focus, we’re independent RIA with on mission to “simplify financial planning and wealth management across generations.” We believe that financial advice should be easy to understand, follow and implement no matter what stage you are in your financial journey. Our founders have been using a tried and trued process for over 15 years to help clients uncover financial blind spots, find financial opportunities, implement those opportunities with an agreed upon plan of action, and track and update their plan as needed.
Q: You’ve recently rebranded Morris Retirement Advisors to MRA Advisory Group; could you tell us something more?
A: The rebranding is designed to better reflect our recent growth as a firm. In September 2017, the firm had approximately $103 million. In July 2018, MRA’s AUM was approximately $175 million. This rapid growth was derived from a combination of expanding our offering beyond retirement planning services such as business planning, taxes and insurance solutions. Also, the recent growth resulted for intensified marketing, an advisor addition to the team and organic growth through client acquisition.
Q: Can you give us insights into your services?
A: We have four distinct service offerings: MRA Personal Planning, MRA Wealth Management, MRA Business Services and MRA Insurance Solutions.
We believe that every client relationship should start with MRA Personal Planning. Planning helps identify to who, what, where and when as it relates to our clients’ financial goals. To that end, we offer a free self-guided financial planning tool – WealthBuilder Planning. With WealthBuilder Planning, users can organize their finances, add and track their financial goals, investments and net worth. We also offer subscription services starting at $69/month to those who want to partner with one of our Wealth Advisors to help them create, implement and monitor their financial goals. For an additional fee, clients can also obtain tax planning and preparation services provided by our in-house CPA.
We offer two distinct solutions for investment management under MRA Wealth Management. WealthBuilder Investing is our digital investing and planning with a human touch solution. It’s not a robo advisor. Using the latest technology, we offer clients the ability to open and begin investing via our website wealthbuilderinvesting.com while giving client access to an investment professional. The WealthBuilder Investing Portfolios are created from a pool of hundreds of low cost Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and/or no-load mutual funds across major fund families. Clients can open an account with a minimum of $2,000.
Features:
– No account maintenance fees, trading commissions or custody fees charged to clients.
– Automated rebalancing and/or re-optimization
– Offer a dedicated client dashboard
– Paperless onboarding, with streamlined account opening and funding processes
– 1.00% cash minimum in each portfolio. Cash held at FDIC-insured account and pays an indexed, market-based interest rate
– Portfolios comprise of Core (traditional asset allocation) and Explore (tactical asset allocation) investment themes
We also offer custom portfolios comprise stock, bonds and alternatives for household accounts of $250,000.
MRA Business Services solutions focus on helping business owners identify opportunities to make their business work for them as opposed to them work for their business. From evaluating past tax returns, auditing or implementing benefits to managing business risk using insurance, our advisors and CPA take a full x-ray of a business, and provide recommendations based on the business owners’ current and future financial goals.
Lastly, MRA Insurance Solutions help personal and business clients form a foundation for their respective financial plans. We help our clients protect what they can’t afford to lose such as their ability to earn an income and their loved ones from a premature death or illness.
We educate and help protect clients in the areas of insurance using a comprehensive due diligence process. The process includes:
1) Determining insurance needs based upon personal financial situations
2) Evaluating multiple insurance types and providers
3) Facilitating underwriting process, which determines insurance eligibility
4) Helping clients choose a plan based upon their needs
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Q: How would you convince the reader to start using your services?
A: Most of our growth has been by word of mouth and take advantage of our free consultation session. Most personal and business clients come to us because there are looking for a second pair of eyes on their financial situation. These clients also find alignment with your focus to simplify our clients’ financial lives using technology and service structure, instill confidence with a plan and pursue growth.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: Our goal is to reach $1 billion in AUM over the next three years. This growth path will emanate from attracting advisor recruits to our turnkey solutions for them and their clients, from organic growth and from practice acquisitions.
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