Doing it All

Doing it All

Money managers by Mark Gordon | Managing Editor

Mike Mott has parlayed a home-based tax preparation firm into a money management firm with several services.

In an era of financial services specialization, where mom and pop investment shops tend to focus on one or two areas, Mike Mott stands out as a do-it-all practitioner.

Over the past 25 years, Mott's self-named Bradenton-based firm has grown from a home-based bookkeeping service into a firm providing insurance, tax preparation, wealth management and financial planning and advice, among other services. Revenues have grown too, buoyed by the recent bull market; Mott, 57, says the firm's revenues have grown 20% a year each of the last three years.

The all-encompassing approach suits Mott, and not only because it has helped his firm grow. The strategy also meets a driving ambition he's had since he first began working as an accountant after graduating from Georgia State University: providing individual financial advice.

In the early 1980s, as a young accountant working for himself, Mott, a Bradenton native, realized he only had one shot to work with client's portfolios. And by the time he got to the client's books, for tax purposes, much of the important decisions had already been made. Says Mott: "There were so many people that clearly had no financial planning."

By 1988, Mott was a certified financial planner. The tax preparation and accounting business he was running with his wife, Barbara, was thriving: It had grown more than 500% in terms of clients over its first five years, from 100 when it started to 600 in 1988, but Mott was still determined to broaden his approach.

So he sold off parts of the accounting business, keeping the clients he was already responsible for the complete financial approach. In 1999, Mott became a registered representative with Jefferson Pilot Securities Corp. Using outside firms such as Jefferson, says Mott, allows him to "leverage an institutional approach to money management for consistency and predictability."

That last part - predictability - is especially important for Mott, as a majority of Mott & Associates' clients are right on the cusp of retirement: Either they are about to or they just did, and as such, they tend to like investments with more stability and less risk.

To meet that demand, Mott predicts the financial planning industry will be shifting in the next few years from a growth and accumulation phase to one focusing more on income distribution. He is getting ready to unveil a new product in that area, based on past experience of what works and doesn't work.

"There's a lot of rules of thumb out there," says Mott, "but I've found that a lot of those rules of thumb don't always work."

Review summary

Company. Mott & Associates, Bradenton

Business. Accounting; money and wealth management

Key. Providing multiple financial services with one firm.