Bio

Eldon D Brown, CFP®, is founder and owner of Brown Financial Group. As a native Texan with a history rooted in business, his family has been in Del Rio and in business for almost 40 years. As a family of entrepreneurs, Eldon’s father, mother, sister, and himself have all started and managed several different businesses in Del Rio.

Eldon began his career in the financial services industry in 1994 with Edward Jones. In 1999, wanting to expand his knowledge base, keeping with his educational standards, and being dedicated to keeping abreast of current trends, he earned his Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) designation after traveling every other weekend to Houston for 12 months. After spending 7 years as the local Edward Jones representative and 2 years with Investment Professionals at The Bank and Trust, it was inevitable that Eldon, with his entrepreneurial history, would go independent with LPL Financial, the largest independent broker dealer in the United States. Dedicated to doing the best for his clients, Eldon sought out the opportunity to work with Matson Money, which led to his founding of Brown Financial Group.

Keeping with his family tradition, his wife, Michelle, is also in the financial services business. She holds a PhD in Education and specializes in Retirement and Long Term Care Planning. Eldon is also the proud father of a daughter, Lauren and granddaughter, Parker Isabella.

At eighteen years old, Eldon worked with his father at his Western Auto business, where he gained an interest in the stock market. It is a passion that he and his father have shared ever since. With 17 years of experience behind him in the financial industry, the skills of an entrepreneur, and his passion for investing, Eldon shares his knowledge, passion, resourcefulness, dependability, determination, and responsibility with his clients.

Eldon is an avid cyclist and trains constantly for challenging races. He has discovered there are many similarities between cycling and finances. When it comes to planning for the future, he advises his clients toward planning the best routes to take before investing their money. He understands the opportunities as well as the dangers that lie behind hidden curves. Most of his clients are business owners, doctors, professionals and retirees. As a “personal financial coach,” he is there to consult with you on which road to take, help you to make sound decisions at each stage of your life, and define your goals never sell or to steer you one way or the other.

Eldon is also a past Director of the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Del Rio Lions Club. He has served as a member of the Val Verde Regional Medical Center’s board of trustees and on the board of Warm Springs Rehabilitation Center. Eldon is a Registered Principal with and securities offered through SICOR Securities, Inc. Member FINRA, MSRB, SIPC.

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, I was always taught to be resourceful, persistent, dependable, determined, and responsible. Eldon Brown

If you picked up this book, you must be looking for answers, just as I did throughout my career as a financial advisor. If you are tired of those who say they know how to pick the right stock and time the markets, then read on.

You may be surprised to find out that I have been as misled as you by the financial industry, the mutual fund companies, brokerage houses, and the media. Why is everyone hiding the truth? Unfortunately, just to sell products and make profits.

When I was just 18 years old, my father’s passion for the stock market drew me, and I found I really had a talent for it. I had bought and had successfully run my father’s retail business for 20 years. However, at the age of 37, I took a leap, left the retail business after 20 years, and pursued my passion. I sold my business, applied to, and was hired by a nationally recognized brokerage house that has a world-class training program for financial representatives. When I found out that I could get even more expertise and knowledge in my field, I traveled every other weekend to Houston for 12 months to obtain my Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) designation. Eventually, my entrepreneurial past would not let me continue as a corporate pawn. As an experienced business owner, I could not conform to the dictates of a big brokerage firm that makes decisions on how to invest clients’ money based on what benefits the company, not always the client. I left the big brokerage house to go independent and start my own business.

As an independent certified financial planner, my goals were to:

Explore and use my resources to help my clients diversify their money
Search out investments that had a better return than the traditional CD.

My resourcefulness and determination for my clients had me always shifting from this product to that product, this fund to that fund, and this expert to that expert. Each product and idea sounded like the next best thing, only to find that the experience was similar every time. It was becoming a never ending cycle. Many times we faced unknown risk until it was too late.

Even as a certified financial planner, I found a written financial plan did not get at the heart of investing for my client. My clients were more than just numbers on paper. I found most financial plans were formulated just to sell the client a certain financial product. The financial planning process fails investors because it is too rigid and product-based instead of client-focused.

After 16 years in the business, I was disgusted with the industry. Then a friend of mine told me about Mark and how his philosophy was different. I took one last leap of faith and went to his class. At last, I found a client-focused approach - an approach that provided coaching to follow the ups and downs of people’s lives instead of just being limited to offering funds, products, and numbers. A strategy that offered my clients the best possible return for the risk they wanted to take, based on Nobel Prize-winning experts in academia with a global perspective. This was it—back to basics, back to the proven strategies of academia experts and coaching that helps the clients consider their personal life - No more media hype, stock picking, trying to time the market, or riding the emotional roller coaster of fear and speculation. Knowledge and coaching are provided for peace of mind instead of forecasts and predictions, because the reality I have come to learn is:

No one has true insight as to which stocks will perform well in the future or what the market is going to do next.
No one can be consistently accurate about how the market will perform or how individual stocks will perform.
All the hype about methods of stock picking, trying to get in and out of the market at the right time, and all that research and analysis that is supposed to give you an advantage in the stock market, is just that---hype.

We have always been required to tell our clients that “past performance is no indicator of future results.” Yet we, as advisors and clients, are trained to follow the brokerage houses, mutual fund companies, and expert media economists down the path of the exact opposite truth: that they can predict the future based on the past.

This book reveals the real truth that I have found during my quest to be resourceful, persistent, dependable, determined, and responsible in the financial industry---- the truth about my passion of investing for my clients and for myself.

Experience is the best teacher of all. Hopefully, my journey and experience will be the truth that enlightens you.

Rather than thinking of herself as a financial advisor, Michelle Brown, Ph.D., likes to describe herself as a financial coach. “My goal is to help my clients come away with real knowledge of how to reach their financial goals,” she says. “They aren't just walking away with a product they purchased; they have a partner who is going to give them the guidance, tools and support they need to get where they want to go.”

Michelle R. Brown, Ph.D.

Michelle, known as the Texas Money Maven, has been helping clients make informed financial decisions since 2003. Specializing in retirement and long-term care planning, she works with clients step by step to personalize a comprehensive strategy for building and preserving their life savings.

Her expertise includes both federal programs, such as the Thrift Savings Plan, and Texas-specific plans, including the Teacher Retirement System. Michelle is even “LSW Certified” in the 403(b) and 457 markets.

Michelle uses her vast knowledge of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and VA Pension strategies to help her clients make informed decisions, avoid costly mistakes and provide a more holistic type of retirement and long-term care planning. To this end, she has become a certified Medicaid Planner and an Accredited Claims Agent with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Holding a bachelor's degree in business management and a doctorate in education, Michelle's work with clients is a blend of two worlds—finance and education. “As a former teacher and counselor, I feel an obligation to educate my clients rather than sell them on money management. It upsets me when people purchase a financial product and do not know what it is or how it fits into their financial needs,” she says. “ I'm not here to sell a product; I'm here to help them solve life's money challenges. I want my clients to feel in control of their financial future.” By bringing clarity and her specialized knowledge to their financial issues and options, Michelle assists her clients in taking advantage of opportunities that will bring them closer to reaching their goals.

Her commitment to education includes her own dedication to getting the most up-to-date instruction and certifications. This helps her understand the complexities surrounding her clients' particular retirement plans and the programs available to assist them after they retire and when they need long-term care.

When she isn't advising clients, Michelle and her husband, Eldon, also a financial planner, enjoy exercising and traveling, making frequent trips to visit their daughter and granddaughter in California.

Bio

Michelle R. Brown, Ph.D.

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