Local investment office able to combine the power of Charles Schwab with hometown service
Heading up an independent office of Charles Schwab located in Fort Mitchell, Crystal Mann oversees a branch whose clients and investors have access to the resources, power and technology of one of the largest investment firms in the world. That includes access to the expertise, specialists and market insights that can help your investments grow. Yet, this office also prides itself on friendly, personalized, hometown service.
Mann wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The story of how I got involved in the investment field is a little different than how many other people got involved in the industry,” says Mann, who received her undergraduate degree in mental health and human services. “When I graduated from college, I worked in that field for less than a year before I realized that I didn’t have the ability to go home at the end of the day and turn everything off—so I realized it wasn’t the field for me.”
On the advice of her father, Mann started working at Fidelity Investments.
“That was back in the ‘90s and Fidelity was hiring like crazy,” she recalls. “The idea was to go to work, and if nothing else I would learn a little bit about investing. It was just going to be a job with good benefits until I figured out what I was going to do with my career.”
But lo and behold, Mann actually found her calling.
“I found that I could still help people achieve their goals, but just in a different way,” says Mann, who went back to school for an MBA before moving into a managerial position with the firm. “But again, I found what I really liked about the business was interacting with the clients, that’s what really made me love to get up and go to work each day.”
Mann went on to serve a decade with Fidelity and an additional decade plus with TIAA. Four years ago, when she learned Charles Schwab started opening up independent offices, she seized the opportunity.
“Schwab wanted to establish a local presence and partner with an adviser who was entrenched in the community,” says Mann. “At first, there were over 30,000 applicants nationwide, so there was a stringent vetting process. We were the 42nd independent branch opened in the nation and I couldn’t be more proud of what we have built.”
Mann assembled a small team of dedicated investment professionals, some of whom she had worked with at other investment firms.
“And today we work very much as a team, each of us bringing different kinds of expertise to the table,” says Mann.
Bill Hennessey is the team leader and investment consultant who works at the Fort Mitchell office. Hennessey worked with Mann at both Fidelity and TIAA.
“While Bill and I share the same passion and experience for helping our clients achieve their goals, his expertise is more on the investing side,” Mann says. “So I’ll do a plan if needed and Bill will implement everything and see that it goes smoothly… Clients enjoy Bill’s friendly and efficient manner and our branch has grown tremendously with Bill helping the majority of our clients.
“My passion has always been planning—building financial plans entails more than just knowing how to invest. It also requires income planning, insurance planning, tax planning, estate planning. I serve our clients at our branch as the planner for those clients that need a robust plan.”
At that first meeting, Mann will simply ask pertinent questions: When do you want to retire? How much income will you need? What have you done?
“And based on the client’s goals, I will build their plan and the client will come back in a week or so later,” says Mann. “Then we will review the plan and make any adjustments that are necessary.”
Another investment consultant who recently joined the Fort Mitchell team is Matt Malafa who also worked with Mann and Hennessey at TIAA. Aaron Satterfield, who just passed his Series 7, runs the office administratively.
“The idea is we work as a team to the benefit of our clients,” says Mann. “In addition to our personal service where you are dealing directly with the principals, our clients also have access to the full width and breadth of Charles Schwab services.
“And the technology Schwab brings to the table is unparalleled,” adds Mann.
The Fort Mitchell Independent Charles Schwab office is also extremely flexible, when it comes to how accounts are managed, Mann notes.
“Clients can manage and trade their own investments using our impressive trading platform, utilizing our research tools and expert insights,” says Mann. “Other clients don’t want to be involved at all. They want to delegate and let somebody take the reins and we are happy to assist.
“Most people are somewhere in the middle—they want help but they also want to be involved and we love seeing our clients learning and engaging with our guidance.”
At the Fort Mitchell office, there are also no minimums for the size of an account—whether investors are brand new or have been accumulating wealth and managing an investment portfolio for some time and now want to take a step back they are welcome.
“Clients are welcome regardless of account size,” says Mann, who recently set up an account for a 4-year-old boy, whose father had just given him an allowance. “He wanted to invest in Disney and McDonald’s. It was one of the coolest things we have done at this office.”
As you might guess, one of Mann’s passions, in terms of both the investment industry and serving the community, is financial literacy with children and young adults.
“These efforts don’t always come back to help Schwab, at least financially,” she says. “But it is something that we are really passionate about; helping the community become more financially literate and helping them avoid the pitfalls that can happen when someone starts to invest, especially when no one is there to help them figure it out.”
Four Common Investment Mistakes
Crystal Mann of Charles Schwab in Fort Mitchell shared four of the most common mistakes that investors make:
1.) “One of the most common mistakes people make is not starting soon enough. Even if you can’t start because you haven’t set up an emergency fund, it pays to sit down with someone who can help you get your ducks in a row. We can sit down and tell you what steps you need to take before you open your first investment account.”
2.) “Not paying attention to fees is another mistake that people make. The cost of investing has come down and is low as it has ever been. But on some of the older products, you may be paying as much as 1% or even more. That may not seem like much, but if your rate of return is 10%, then that 1% is actually 10% of your return. The long-term impact of fees cannot be ignored.”
3.) “Not diversifying is another pitfall. A diverse portfolio can be an excellent hedge against market changes, or a bear market.”
4.) “Real balancing. People come in and make allocations, and then don’t look at it for five or 10 years. During that time, the market has changed. You may have been perfectly allocated 10 years ago, but now your investments may be completely out of balance.”
