OUR FOUNDER

Matt McCracken's Autobio - Principal and Chief Investment Officer

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 the 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 (and helped to keep me out of too much trouble).

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 some of the 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 products 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.

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 the Independent Adviser platform provided me the best opportunity to manage my clients’ assets.

Organized as an independent RIA, I work directly for my clients without interference from outside sources such as mutual fund families, brokerage firms and investment bankers.  This provides me considerable flexibility to do what I feel is best for my clients.