When Erna talks, people listen

“When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen.” — 1980’s advertisement tag line.

ONEONTA — News flash from the Spectrem Group, an Illinois–based investor research and consulting firm: Total millionaire households in the U.S. jumped during 2013 to more than 9.6 million. That’s an increase of more than 600,000, or nearly 7 percent, over the previous year. The number of households with more than $5 million in assets grew to 1.24 million.

What to do with all that wealth? The answer is to manage it. But how?

Enter Erna Morgan McReynolds, financial advisor, managing director, wealth-management portfolio manager, and international-client advisor of the Morgan McReynolds Group — headquartered on Outer Chestnut Street in Oneonta. For the past six years, she has been recognized by Barron’s as one of “America’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors,” based on assets under management, revenue generated for the firm, and the quality of the practice.

Research magazine nominated Morgan McReynolds as “Woman Consultant of the Year.” Morgan Stanley named her an “International Client Advisor” because of her experience working with non-resident clients and in 2010 invited Morgan McReynolds to sit on the company’s Business Owner Executive Council. In 2013, the financial-services firm named her to the Chairman’s Club. Most recently, the Financial Times included Morgan McReynolds in its list of America’s “Top 400 Financial Advisors.”

The Morgan McReynolds Group at Morgan Stanley is a wealth-advisory business located in Central New York, an area designated by Morgan Stanley that includes Albany, Binghamton, Elmira, the North Country, and Syracuse.

“As of February, we have more than $500 million in assets under management,” says the managing director, “and we accomplish this with a staff of six. The team assets have grown more than 50 percent just in the last five years. Our clientele is diverse … A lot of them have been with us for 25 years, and the average client has been with us for seven years. We are now getting to know their children and even their grandchildren.” In 2013, the typical account size for Morgan McReynolds’ clients was about $1 million and the clients’ net worth averaged $3 million.

Navigating change and adversity
Morgan McReynolds started with E.F. Hutton in 1986. The stock-market crash in the fall of 1987 forced Hutton to merge with Shearson Lehman/American Express in 1988. The brokerage house subsequently changed names at a dizzying pace, becoming just Shearson, then Smith Barney Shearson, Shearson again, Citi Smith Barney, and finally Morgan Stanley. Morgan McReynolds became the Oneonta group’s managing director in 2005.

Through all the changes, Morgan McReynolds and her husband and business partner Tom Morgan focused on their clients. “I never believed in selling ‘hot stocks,’” asserts Morgan McReynolds. “My approach was to think of the client first and look at a client’s total picture and give advice on not only investing but also in financial planning, business succession, and estate planning. When I started, we were called brokers. Now, we’re called financial advisors, but I always considered my role to be advisory. Whatever the name, it’s the idea of looking at the total picture and matching the client’s aspirations to a strategic plan, [i.e.,] total financial planning. There is no cookie-cutter approach; no canned plans. Every client is different.”

Morgan McReynolds says that the secret to her success is listening. “[In my first career], I was a journalist. I became passionate about writing after I won a Dow–Jones scholarship to a summer writing program at Blair Academy in New Jersey. I took several jobs as a local newspaper reporter, including a … [stint] as a sports reporter, even though I was not athletic and knew nothing about sports or the lingo. I even talked a newspaper editor into making me the news director, to which he agreed as long as I sold advertising in addition to directing the news. As a reporter, I was always a good listener which prepared me to listen to my financial clients.”

Tom Morgan, now retired from the business, has a broader view of the reasons for his wife’s success. “Her clients understand she cares about them,” avers Morgan. “She also has an unbelievable memory for their details and situations, wishes, and fears. If their affairs are particularly complicated, she has the perfect mind for dealing with such. [Erna also] … brings excellent judgment to their situations. Many older clients feel she is like a daughter to them … [while] many younger clients feel she is like a mom to them. Her memory and judgment have helped her find solutions to some … [very] complex problems … [and her] solutions … have saved clients considerable amounts of money … [Erna also] treats and trains her staff with care and caring. They have been faithful to her over many years, and together they are a formidable team.”

When Tom Morgan was in the business, he developed “Money Talk,” a radio show that runs on weekdays and also appears as a syndicated newspaper column. The radio and newspaper recognition attracted large numbers of people to his investment seminars. Those who attended already knew the Morgan name and investment philosophy, which proved more effective than the typical prospect interviewing a financial-investment advisor. Not surprisingly, many of his attendees became clients. The broadcasts and columns brought investors from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and locations all across Upstate.

How she started

Ultimately, Erna Morgan McReynolds’s success is due to her brains, hard work, and grit. She grew up in Gilbertsville, N.Y., an historic village in Otsego County, population 399. The family was poor, and Erna, at an early age, took responsibility for overseeing the family budget. When her father was unable to work, Erna’s mother took a job at the Bendix Corp., requiring Erna at age 8 to assume the cooking role for the family. In her early teens, she worked after school and on weekends, while earning perfect grades in school. She found time to develop a love for classical music and also enrolled in a Cordon Bleu cooking course. McReynolds read every book in the school library and then in the public library, while finishing her high-school curriculum and simultaneously taking some college courses.

Her passion to live in another country took her to New Zealand, where she landed a job on a daily newspaper as the energy reporter. Shortly after she took on the assignment, the 1973 energy crisis erupted. Her stories got front-page leads. Next, she journeyed to London where she won a producer’s spot on the London Broadcasting Corp., eventually producing the most widely listened-to radio program in Europe. McReynolds was 23. Tom Morgan, who had also grown up in Gilbertsville, was courting McReynolds at the time — long distance. He convinced her to return to New York City, where she became a producer for NBC radio and television, including the “Today Show.”

Today, The Morgan McReynolds Group serves individual and institutional clients in 22 states. It also provides consulting services to two Caribbean nations — Anguilla and St. Lucia. “In 1994, we signed an agreement with the National Bank of Anguilla to provide a broad range of investment services to its customers,” notes Morgan McReynolds. “The agreement was unique. We were proud to have been part of the development of the island … It’s important that their capital stays there and works for the community.” The Morgan McReynolds Group also pioneered the concept that some of these countries’ social-security funds should be invested in stocks and bonds, and they pushed two of the islands to create and endow community foundations.

In addition to managing the group practice, Morgan McReynolds is active in the Otsego and Delaware counties’ communities. She helped to found the Executive Service Corps of the two counties, chaired the United Way, and served on the boards of the chamber of commerce, Hartwick College, and Friends of Bassett. She also served on the boards of the Orpheus Theatre, the Indian Hills Girl Scout Advisory Council, the New York State Historical Association Development Committee, and the Catskill Symphony Orchestra. Along with husband Tom, she has been an active fund-raiser for the Franklin Stage Co. and the Catskill Area Hospice. In 1997, the couple set up the Tom Morgan & Erna J. McReynolds Charitable Foundation, which makes grants for cultural, educational, and artistic endeavors. In 2011, according to the most recent reporting on file, the foundation reported assets of $328,241 and revenue of $47,837. It disbursed $20,855.

Morgan McReynolds and her husband of 30 years reside in the town of Franklin in Delaware County, surrounded by 100,000 daffodils. As long as people continue to listen to her, she has no plans to retire.

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com