About Us
Our Firm
Our Clients
Our Founder
McKinney Avenue Capital (The MAC):
The MAC provides fee-only Investment Advisory services to individuals, including Retirement and Financial Planning. We also serve as an Advisor to company retirement plans. Matt McCracken founded the firm in 2005 and is registered with the Texas State Securities Board1. Our primary office is in the Uptown area of Dallas and we have a satellite location in Central Austin.
As a fee-only advisor, we provide objective advice void of the traditional conflicts inherent to the financial services industry. Our clients are our sole source of revenue therefore our loyalty lies solely with them.
1. The recognition of The MAC as a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) by the State of Texas does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for the firm.
A word about Fee-only versus Fee-based Advisors: Fee-only advisors derive their revenue solely from fees paid by the client. They do not receive any commissions, marketing fees (i.e. 12b-1 fees) or any sort of soft-dollar compensation. Financial Planners who operate on a fee-based arrangement receive compensation in addition to client fees which creates a conflict of interest. Unfortunately, in the financial services industry, conflicts of interest often lead to abuse. The fee-only model of providing financial services seeks to minimize conflicts of interest.
Our Clients:
Our firm’s focus is to provide investment advisory and planning services to those who populate “Middle America” and are either in or near retirement. The founder of our firm, Matt McCracken, came from a blue-collar, middle-income family and seeks to serve those from whence he came. In addition to ideological reasons, there are several fundamental reasons why we chose to target Middle America:
Qualified Assets: The majority of Middle Americans retain the bulk of their liquid wealth in a qualified account(s) (IRA’s, 401k Rollovers and Lump-sum Pension payouts) which grows tax-deferred. We implement an active investment management strategy which involves trading positions on a fairly consistent basis. The tax-deferral status of a qualified account allows us to base all of our investment decisions on fundamental valuation and relative technical strength without concern for tax implications.
A significant percentage of our asset base is held in cash/non-qualified accounts and we do take substantial measures to minimize taxable gains in these accounts when appropriate. For many of our clients, we manage both their qualified and non-qualified accounts allowing us to be more active with their tax-deferred money and provide tax-efficient strategies in their taxable portfolios.
Underserved: We have found that the average Retiree is grossly underserved by financial professionals which provides an opportunity for those willing to serve it. Unfortunately, Wall Street firms cannot profitably serve accounts with less than a couple of million in assets. At the MAC, we deliberately set up our retirement planning practice in an efficient manner allowing us to provide the same level of service to individuals with $200,000 or $2M.
Ill-served: Because Wall Street can only turn a profit on large accounts; their solutions for smaller accounts tend to be watered-down applications of their primary strategies designed for wealthier clients. For example, the uber-wealthy participate in Hedge Funds and Private Equity ventures; the semi-wealthy can gain access to Separately Managed Accounts, meanwhile a sub-million dollar account is likely dumped into a few mutual funds.
We believe that the financial needs for the majority of Americans in retirement are different than the needs of the wealthy; therefore, planning and investing for retirement should be approached differently. Wealthy individuals are seeking to build wealth while the majority of retirees are primarily seeking to preserve it. We believe that the preservation of wealth requires investment strategies that pay special attention to risk management.
Furthermore, we believe that few financial planners understand the destructive impact of market volatility on an account which is distributing income to an individual. We seek to provide positive absolute returns to our clients regardless of market direction so as to minimize the impact of volatility.
Matt McCracken’s Bio:
The following is a little bit about my background and how I wound up as a Registered Investment Adviser.
I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could. My family moved to Plano, Texas when I was three months old. I grew up in DFW Metroplex and attended high school at Trinity Christian Academy in Addison.
My parents, in their infinite wisdom, encouraged me to leave Texas for college in order to broaden my horizons. I attended Washington University in St. Louis where I received a business degree while majoring in Accounting, Management and Marketing. While at Wash U., I played Basketball for the school to keep me busy on top of my studies. After four enlightening years away from the Lone Star State, I promptly returned to Texas.
I began my professional career with Arthur Andersen L.L.P. as a public company auditor. I quickly became uncomfortable with the blinding conflicts inherent to the public accounting profession and left Arthur Andersen. (I had no idea that these same conflicts would lead to the some largest financial scandals in US history.)
In 1997, I went to work for a boutique consulting firm that worked closely with many of our nation’s largest insurance companies and brokerage firms. Gradually, I became fond of the challenges and opportunities offered by the financial services industry and decided to make a career of it.
Throughout the Tech Bubble of the late 90’s, I saw so-called “financial professionals” push product that made themselves and their firms a lot of money but left their clients short-changed when the bubble popped. I couldn’t believe that in the face of such tremendous fundamental and technical evidence of impending doom, “professionals” were not able to better prepare their clients. I knew I could do better!
In June of 2001, I took the appropriate licensing exams and became a stock broker. I’ve worked with several organizations but I never found a major brokerage institution, insurance company or wirehouse that was willing to sacrifice it’s own short-term interests for the sake of their client’s welfare.
I determined that the Independent Adviser platform provided me the best opportunity to manage my clients’ assets. As an independent RIA, I work directly for my clients without interference from a brokerage firm. Since there are minimal conflicts of interest, I have considerable flexibility to do what I feel is best for my clients – and I like it that way!
