Building Trust as a Fiduciary with Marc Aarons

00:09
Charlie Van Derven
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of RIAA Collective. I'm your host, Charlie Van Derven. We're going to have some fun today. This is a special interview for me. We've got a guest by the name of Marc Aaron with us today. Marc has been in financial services for about 15 years. Years. And we'll get the specifics on that. He's got a great name. We're going to get into that too, because who the heck ends up with a name like Money Managers Incorporated? Holy crap. Marc the cool thing about when I'm looking for guests for the show and mostly that's done browsing LinkedIn profiles or referrals that come from people who listen or who have been on the show before, you're looking for something unique, right? We're trying to bring something unique to the audience with every guest we bring on. And Marc's unique in that. 

00:56
Charlie Van Derven
Marc found the industry maybe his second or third career, right? He comes from a background in automotive. We're going to talk about that because there are fun things that he brought from that industry to this industry. Marc's growing a team, so I think that's good for our listeners. He's an interesting character and we're going to have some fun today. So. Marc. Erin. Welcome, my friend. Thanks for being here, charlie, thank you for having me. Yeah, this is awesome. You are a character, Marc. 

01:31
Marc Aarons
And I love that. 

01:32
Charlie Van Derven
If you're listening to the audio, like, the full effect might be on YouTube because it takes about maybe a month or six weeks to process and get something published. If you're listening to audio right now on Spotify or Apple or wherever you might be listening when you have a chance and you're not driving or something, check out YouTube and you'll get to see Marc and I are going to get a little animated. We're having some fun. Marc, we got to know each other a few weeks ago, right? We had a quick intro call and make sure we like each other and think this is a good thing for both of us. I liked you immediately, but you got some fun history and we're going to talk about a lot of that history before financial services. So we'll start there. Bring us through like, up to where you were in automotive because you and I both have experience with automotive. 

02:21
Charlie Van Derven
You more so than I do. Man, what a fun industry that is. I'm kind of winking because, well, it's fun. We, we just were just chatting before hitting record. What a brash in your face industry, right? Marc, help me out. How did you get to financial services? Man, it kind of found you, right? 

02:37
Marc Aarons
Yeah, it kind of found me. It was very interesting. I started off in the nonprofit world. I work for nonprofits, raising money, and managing people. I moved on to go into the corporate world. I moved on to corporate America, and work there like everybody else in the day. I got downsized, laid off, what have you. 

02:59
Charlie Van Derven
Sure. 

03:00
Marc Aarons
At that point, I was like, I got to find something I got to make against me. I ended up in the car business. It's not your typical person in the car business. I've never sold a single car in my life. A lot of people, when I tell them I was a car business or like, you're a car salesman, I said, no, I never sold the car in my life. I was a new business development person at a team of people that were on the phones, and we increased volume. I did help with all the advertisements and stuff like that, and I got paid very well. I was a salaried employee, of a major car company, and just was wonderful. The first week, because I had never sold a car. I went in there, and I was trying to learn as much as I can and spending time in the finance department. 

03:59
Marc Aarons
Now, my background in college is in international economics, specializing in finance. 

04:05
Charlie Van Derven
Wonderful. 

04:05
Marc Aarons
I understood finance coming out of college, but it was just amazing. The longer that I got stayed in the car business, it's just like, God, I hate my job. I was getting paid six digits. It was a good-paying job as long as I showed up. I got paid every month, and I just kept looking around. Every day I went in there, I dreaded my work. I was looking to do something different. I didn't take the traditional path where you go to a job fair and meet up with some firehouse and get a job. I basically just met a friend of mine. I was volunteering with the Boy Scouts, and we took a group of kids to Japan. One of the kids father worked for a brokerage dealer, an independent brokerage dealer. He said, kind of talked to me. We were talking about finance and economics in the stock Marcet. 

05:09
Marc Aarons
He's like, you should be in financial services. I said, I never thought about that. That's where it all kind of came together, where I came from, being in the car business, believe it or not. I learned everything you could possibly learn about in the car business and then ended up going into financial services. He introduced me to a gentleman that was starting an office in Newport Beach, California, and it was New England. 

05:39
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, you're right. 

05:43
Marc Aarons
I didn't really know what financial services were like, so I needed training, some kind of training to help me understand what I was doing. They were really focusing on life insurance, and I didn't know any better. People that were in the office kind of told me what was going on, and I was like, okay, that's really so I didn't end up moving to a group of us ended up moving to an independent broker-dealer, crown Capital securities. At a voice. 

06:20
Charlie Van Derven
Sure. 

06:21
Marc Aarons
Yeah, sure. I didn't know better because the people that were my mentors at the time were like, hey, this office isn't producing. We need to move to another company. They're going to be shutting the office down. Being green, not knowing anything, I was like, okay, just go where you go, because you guys are teaching me as we go. Was there for quite a few years. Broker-dealer learned everything, went through a lot of the different ends of being in my Series Seven there, ended up getting my Series 66 there, end up being my Series 24 there. I wanted to build my own career. I have my own branch. I was looking around and I was like, these people aren't these people don't want to work with them. I mean, they were doing some shady stuff. I'm in scale. I'm ethics. I was just like, I didn't want to do this. 

07:22
Marc Aarons
I ended up leaving them and going into another financial advisor company, and they just flat-out lied to my face. They ended up selling the company. I ended up losing that position. I was in the corner and I was like, well, I've been doing this for, at that time, eight years. I was thinking to myself, I love what I do. I have a platform. I have clients building my clients. I ended up going already schedule a wholesale due diligence meeting. I ended up meeting some people in Arizona, and he was a CPA and his wife was there, and his kid was there. They opened up a firm, and it was like an RIA firm. And I'm like, what's? RIA? What is that? I basically spent to them like glue the entire week. And I was asking questions. They were from Washington state. They told me it's very simple to do. 

08:25
Marc Aarons
I said, I don't have a lot of capital. I don't have things. The next thing I notice is, hey, you should research this, get into this. He ended up introducing me to somebody back east, and he basically put together my company for me. 

08:42
Charlie Van Derven
All right, man. 

08:43
Marc Aarons
And he's on the dollar. I mean, back then, in 2009, it was $3,000 with this issue. 

08:54
Charlie Van Derven
I want to pause there for a second because I want to talk about how easy it is, but I don't want to lose track of something that's on my mind. It's funny. I think I've got this right. The least trusted industry in this nation is the automotive industry. And maybe that's used automotive. I don't know if it gets that granular. The second least trusted industry in this nation, it might be third is financial services. 

09:21
Marc Aarons
I agree. 

09:24
Charlie Van Derven
You came through both of them. Not only that, I know you and I've chatted offline about your experience at the auto place but also walking into a situation where you're working for people whose ethics are completely compromised. Not only is that true on PAPERMarc, but you also got to experience both industries in a terrible way. 

09:49
Marc Aarons
Absolutely. I almost looked for another career because of it, because I couldn't sleep at night watching. I was like, what do I do? I did tell people, and they just kind of shrugged it off. It was amazing. 

10:09
Charlie Van Derven
I thought I knew what the title of this episode would be and something about the many pasta financial services or something generic like that. Right. What I really think a better title is, and we'll see if it fleshes out with the folks who do the post-production for me. 

10:24
Marc Aarons
Right? Right. 

10:26
Charlie Van Derven
If you hate your job, change it. Right. There are so many people in this country who are trading time for money at a job that they absolutely hate. I can understand, right, if you've got a family you need to take care of, and certainly, that money helps maintain a lifestyle. If you hate every minute that you roll into the office and every minute that you're there, you can't wait to leave. There's got to be something better, and Marc is a perfect example of that. 

10:55
Marc Aarons
Yeah, absolutely. I used to go to work at 630 every morning, six days a week, at the car dealership. On the way there, I would have to listen to Mozart to calm myself down to the door, and every time afterward, I would have to listen to Mozart to call me down on the way home. I was just thinking, I got to get out of this. I hate my hat. And then reality sets in. Just like you said, Charlie. Reality said I got to pay the bills. Support. I got to pay the bills. You got to be strategic in a way that changed things up. You can't just quit and look for a job. You got to have a job to go to before you move. I tell you, I learned a long time ago that there are only so many hours in a day. There are only so many days in a week. 

11:51
Marc Aarons
There are so only many days in our life. People don't really realize that our journey in our life is limited in time, and time is I say right now, I felt like time is the most precious commodity out there. Between time and health, our third place, because you have all the money in the world, but if you don't have the time to use it. 

12:16
Charlie Van Derven
Enjoy it, I can speak to both those things. I turned 50 on Tuesday this week. Thank you. You look at a number like that, and you're like, whoa, when did that happen? 

12:29
Marc Aarons
Right. 

12:29
Charlie Van Derven
I still feel 27. 

12:31
Marc Aarons
What happened? 

12:31
Charlie Van Derven
Up until yesterday, I had a little mole on the side of my nose. Some mornings I'd wake up and it would be light brown, and some mornings I wake up to be dark brown. My wife starts to go, oh, gosh, that can't be good, right? She made an appointment with the dermatologist. I went over there yesterday and they're like, why are you here? I said Because my wife made me come. They said, well, why is there good at helping us with longevity? I said, but is longevity really the goal? Right? And I asked that question very seriously. Right. I challenge authority a lot. Right. Maybe that was something of challenging this authority doctor figure. I said, is longevity really the goal? The goal is to be here as long as possible or to actually enjoy the time that you've got here? I agree. 

13:23
Marc Aarons
I've met so many different people, friends, family, whatever that passed away in you never know when the pop-ups. 

13:35
Charlie Van Derven
That's right. 

13:36
Marc Aarons
You might as well enjoy your life and not have any regrets. I mean, of course, I don't know the afternoon, but if you don't like what you're doing, you need to change. You need to change because this was a scary change for me because I was going from a salary six-figure job to commission only. I had faith in myself that I was going to work my b*** off at first, start building, go through the process, and you need a mentor. And that's what I was looking for. And that's definitely not only my healthier. I've lost 150. 

14:31
Charlie Van Derven
Wow. Awesome, dude. Awesome. 

14:35
Marc Aarons
Stress was my biggest I was a stress eater. Now I'm not stressed. I have control over my time. If I want to go do something, and you may say later, but the way that I've set up my company allows me to do, yeah, that's amazing. I have to tell listeners, and it doesn't even have to be like me. I'm not traditional. I didn't come from a wirehouse or a broker-dealer to another broker-dealer right out of college. I've had three jobs before you. Career. 

15:20
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, three careers. More than jobs. So, Marc, our listeners largely are people who are thinking about going that independent route. I paused you before you talked about starting the RIA, because first off, it's scary. Second, you are betting on yourself, but what better place to bet, right? I mean, if you're going to put your money down on something, I hope it would be, you go from really not knowing what an RIA is to having one. How easily and how quickly did that happen? 

15:57
Marc Aarons
Happened in six months. 

16:00
Charlie Van Derven
Awesome. 

16:01
Marc Aarons
In $3,000. 

16:02
Charlie Van Derven
That's awesome, man. 

16:04
Marc Aarons
And one mentor. 

16:06
Charlie Van Derven
One mentor and obviously a lot of learning. Certainly, the knowledge gap is a real thing, so I don't want to minimize it. It's an easy leap, but it's also a scary jump because now it's yourself and you right? 

16:27
Marc Aarons
Yeah. I learned as I went along. When you're doing something for the first time and you read up and talk to as many people as you can and then you start doing start implementing plans and you learn real quick what you don't know. You don't know what you don't know are kind of the same because you're like, how do I deal with this situation? How do I deal with that situation? Then you start asking mentors. And that happened a lot. That happened a lot in the beginning and I just kind of learned and just kept going through it. It was hard at first. Not only running a risk investment advisory firm but getting clients and going from a commission based to a fee-only base. I had an opportunity after about two or three years is all right. I had broker-dealers knocking on my door saying, hey, how would you like that? 

17:31
Marc Aarons
I think it was the second year of my license. My seven and 60 24 were going to drop off my record because it was two years old. They started telling me you want to keep your seven, wanting to come here and do that one. I looked at that and my whole thought because I was in the car business and unethical and then I was in this broker-dealer that the guy I worked with, my OSA that I worked with that was unethical. I was like, I don't want to have that. I want to be a truly good Fidgeter. One thing I could never get over was if someone is hybrid they call it a hybrid where you're registered with a broker-dealer and RIAA, I couldn't understand it. If I have a client and I want to sell them an American fund and I could either sell them a class A share on this platform and give them 5.5% commission or I could sell that same fund on the RA platform and charge 1%. 

18:36
Marc Aarons
You're going to make more money going to the commission route. If you're a Fiduciary, if you're a true Fiduciary, I don't know how any adviser can be a hybrid because how can you make a decision whether you're going to be charging a commission versus a fee? Because as a beneficiary the best thing for a client is to charge a fee because it's cheaper for them and they're getting the same asset. They're actually doing better with that asset. They're not five and a half percent in the whole beginning. They have the full funds in there. 

19:13
Charlie Van Derven
Listen, that's all about a transparent relationship and I think it just speaks to who you are and I love that. Tell me what that fast-paced was talking about the automotive industry and I'll share that. Social advisors. Nine years ago when I started it was always all about social advisors. Because it was self-funded and coming out of the meager savings account my wife and I had built up. We took revenue where we could find it. We did represent a handful of car dealerships over the years. I won't name any because it's a small community I live in, but I met with one of the sales managers one day, and this dude was yelling Sob chewy up one side, down the other, and then he would quote Bible verses to justify the way he was treating other people. I was like, wow, man, what a crazy environment. 

20:11
Charlie Van Derven
I don't think that was an isolated situation, maybe the Bible verse part of it, but that kind of brash, that kind of rough interaction with people. 

20:19
Marc Aarons
I had it every day because the way my position was with the car dealership, I never sold a car. I think in both ranks I had no respect for any of the sales managers. The general manager, I report directly to the owner, so the general manager couldn't control me at all. I would go to the general manager and say, because we did a Q and I with all the salespeople, he would keep track of their sales and the profit margins and how they blew through people. We would call people back. To find out about how the service was or how they bought the car, it was like a daily whipping every day to the point where it's like, I'd have to think, should I bring this up? Or am I in the mood to get yelled at? They do yell and they scream and try to throw things at you, and it's just a whole nother world. 

21:21
Marc Aarons
They can walk out behind the doors and customers, and they're all. 

21:24
Charlie Van Derven
Happy, oh yeah, turn it on. That toxic environment. Obviously, you're not in that environment anymore, but that toxic environment, what did that teach you, going into your early financial services, working with others, and then of course, or cried? 

21:45
Marc Aarons
It really put me in a position where I wanted to make sure that people I dealt with, that they knew that I was transparent. Ethics, it was really all around ethics. It was around ethically, dealing with clients. It was about whether the Marcet went down, it went up, or sideways. It didn't make a difference. I wasn't going to hide the truth. This is what it is, living expectations. It really put a stone into me that I don't want to be like the other broker-dealers. I don't want to be like that. Our industry so not so untrusted. I wanted to change that process and say, hey, I'm a fiduciary. I explained fiduciary a lot of times to a lot of my clients and what that means. I actually print out the definition, and give it to them just so they understand that you come first as a client. 

22:45
Marc Aarons
Or I think about my end of it, going from the car dealership to financial services. It really just made me think I can make a difference for people with I didn't have to widescreen and be slithering and what have you to make. That was the biggest push for me. 

23:12
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, that's awesome. I think as we see this industry move more independently, the reputation built around this industry that really is lingering from decades ago and stockbrokers and commission sales, where if I can't afford the payment on my big house, maybe I can sell some stocks. A little lady in my book and make the money in a hurry so I can take care of myself on the back end. As our industry continues to migrate to an independent space, the reputation around that industry, industry is going to change too. So that's awesome. 

23:48
Marc Aarons
I hope there are a lot of people that are thinking they're going independent and getting away from that model. Unfortunately, a lot of people I talked to, a lot of different people going into the industry, and I asked them, what have you met with the big wirehouses? I don't want to mention names, but the big wirehouses, I mean, have a paid training program. They pay you a salary. You can start there and learn and then move forward from there. Like I told you, I had a mentor. You have to find someone that will be able to walk you through this and trust them as much as you can. Be aware because they're in it for the dollar. 

24:30
Charlie Van Derven
Sure. 

24:31
Marc Aarons
And I'm convinced of that. Those people are in it for the dollar and they're just using you to get to that. 

24:38
Charlie Van Derven
Well, your greatest skill in that environment is your ability to sell. Right. It speaks volumes. I don't think that there's not a cloak around that. I think that you walk in that door and you might have a different idea based on what you want to bring to financial services. When you walk through the door, one of those big four is right. It's your ability to sell that is what's most important to the firm. 

25:05
Marc Aarons
Using their culture, their way of thinking, and what they think is important. They just want you to bring in an asset. 

25:19
Charlie Van Derven
That's it. You're their sales channel. That's it. Like I say, I don't think there's anything hidden about that. It might be a rude awakening when someone walks out of college with all these altruistic ideas, and certainly, they're still serving clients and they're still doing a good job of clients, but typically the firm initiatives come first. That's it. I want to Marc, I want to switch gears just a tiny bit because you've got an asset above everything. That is, you are not above but in addition to everything that you make up as a person. Your name, man. How does a guy end up with money Managers, inc. I guess so I went through a. 

26:11
Marc Aarons
Whole bunch of different names. I started off with different names and I was talking, I believe some friends and I said, hey, I got to come up with some name because I want to build something bigger than myself. A lot of independence, their name in the DataLight before financial services, my last name. Right. I was like I got to change because I want to make this bigger than myself so people feel part of a company and not just I had lost your goals when I started this before, it wasn't just going to be myself. I wanted to have other people involved in it. One of my friends says, well, you deal with people's money, why not just call you money and then you manage people. You manage the money and why don't you just call yourself money manager. They incorporate and that's really where the name came from. 

27:07
Marc Aarons
I went on to the state of California's website, CPA and I filed my consultant that I hired and filed with the state of California, no one had the name. Now there is a money manager independent in Texas. I found out. Okay, so out of the state of Texas, I don't know how they allowed both names. Two different regulators allowed two different names. 

27:33
Charlie Van Derven
Sure. 

27:34
Marc Aarons
I was really curious how it was going to work out when I moved to the SEC. I'm an SSC registered money manager. 

27:44
Charlie Van Derven
Money manager say, I love it, man. 

27:46
Marc Aarons
And that's where it came from. It just was a friend of mine that said you deal with people's money and you manage it. Why not tell people what you do when you're titled company. 

27:57
Charlie Van Derven
I am so shocked that name was available to you. That's where the question comes from is like, wow, only one person gets that. 

28:06
Marc Aarons
Yeah. 

28:07
Charlie Van Derven
How fun. Well, lucky man, the timing was right. Now you got offices in Vegas. You got offices in Southern California. 

28:15
Marc Aarons
Yes. 

28:16
Charlie Van Derven
So the team is growing. 

28:18
Marc Aarons
Yeah, the team has grown. I have social advisors that's working up in Atescadaro, California. I have social advisors that's working in Orange, California. That's where we originated from. I moved to Vegas and opened up an office in Las Vegas. It wasn't like I was looking to open an office in Vegas so quickly. My spouse is CPA and was offered a promotion in the company and moved us for the promotion. I'm going to be here, might as well open up an office. Half my time in California have my idea. 

28:52
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, that's cool. With those kind of remote locations and this is a question that I like to ask because I've got my ideas around it because we've got a remote team as well. Talk to me about culture. How do you help to maintain culture? The interconnectivity there obviously zoom you can do a lot with. It's difficult to go grab a beer together or take some downtime with each other. What do you do to combat that with you guys being in different locations? 

29:22
Marc Aarons
Well, that's a struggle. To be honest. That's a struggle. We all have the same mindset on the people on the team. We're all about we're all about helping the client to be the most ethical as possible. I do meet with the Orange Advisor monthly. I talked to the advisor at Cascadero. We have systems set up where we have a back office secure site that we can message each other anytime, picking phone. We share spreadsheets, so we track things together. So someone changes it. They can see the change and see what's going on. The culture, it's a different kind of culture, I have to admit, because when I used to work in a car dealership or when I worked for another broker dealer, you go into an office and you can do I find myself to be more productive doing it this way. It is a challenge for the culture. 

30:26
Marc Aarons
My goal is once we get the team big enough, I will probably do once a year annual conference cool. Bring everybody together with their families and be able to go over some ideas, kind of brainstorm. We started to do a Monday Zoom call with everybody where we just talk things out, run ideas past each other. This is what I'm coming out of. I have a chat. How do I deal with this? How do I deal with that? Because people have different levels of experience, so we kind of back each other. Another good thing is that I can cover when you have your own business, you can't take a vacation. The way that our system is set up is that if I want to go on vacation, I have my adviser that we have a very similar ideology of how we invest. He understands my investment strategy, I understand his investment strategies, both of them. 

31:30
Marc Aarons
Everything is in a way so I can take a two week vacation, and if anything needs to happen, they can take care of still their date, right? Still take care of it. It allows flexibility, allows you to balance your life. Because remember, what cost about money is not everything. I mean, you need money to live, but time is more important. Spending time with your family, having off time is more important. Able to develop this backup system where if you take a vacation for a couple of weeks, my social advisors goes to Brazil for a couple, three, four weeks, and we're able to I mean, he checks in once a week, but we're able to take care of his clients. 

32:15
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, that's awesome. I echo the productivity piece of it, right? We had right up until March 2020, we had an office in downtown Daytona Beach where we had gosh, I don't know, eight or nine people come into the office. Were in an area where there were bars. And restaurants and fun things to do. If you have a meeting and a beer at the same time, there's a lot of camaraderie that's built around, hey, let's go grab lunch together. Kicking out at 430 for a happy hour one day a week or whatever that might be. Our team now in Daytona Beach is four. Actually, it'll be four Monday. We hired we got a guy starting Monday that is local. The rest of our team now is spread out. We've got we got people in Virginia, North Carolina, we've got one person in Dominican Republic. So I agree with you. 

33:10
Charlie Van Derven
The productivity of working remote is awesome. It's the culture we lose. So I'm going to share. When we do our Monday Zoom, our staff meeting is unlike any other I've ever been a part of because it's everybody getting together. It's usually a 45 minutes meeting. We don't talk about, but we talk about work right? We take turns going around our Brady Bunch Zoom screen and we talk about one positive impact we've had on the business in the last week, one positive impact we've had on our personal lives in the last week. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see this. If you're listening to the podcast, we've got a book called 3000 Questions About Me. 

33:53
Marc Aarons
Wow. 

33:54
Charlie Van Derven
Once you go through the impacts now, you pick a number one through 3000 and we ask you a question and you've got to answer it to the best of your ability. Some of them, Marc, are like, what's your favorite color? Others are like, what's the meaning of life? You never know what you are. You might get something really hard hitting, and you might get something like, do you like cheese? You know what I mean? It's fun because it's a time that we all look forward to. We're all getting to know each other better. Now, if you don't want to answer the question, you've got to bring a show and tell third grade, right? You got to bring something that, again, the team gets to bond with you over something. 3000 questions about me. It's really fun when our team was really small and we could maybe be crude, I guess maybe we used to play cards against humanity. 

34:54
Charlie Van Derven
You can't do that as the team expands. Just too much stuff in there you can't talk about. So, yeah, we had to expire that as we got bigger. 

35:06
Marc Aarons
It's awesome. I think that's the closest that you can get to getting people to connect. We're working towards that direction right now because something that's very different than most companies, my company is that, yes, they don't have an equity stake in the company, but we do revenue share. So it's their own book of business. They're an entrepreneur themselves and what they do, but they're under my umbrella. They use all the resources but minimizes their costs by spreading the resources on many more people. That just comes into lowering your cost to be more productive and being able to have a team of mentors with you. 

35:55
Charlie Van Derven
I love it. Now, you've talked about growing that team. 

35:58
Marc Aarons
In fact, I'm looking to grow the team. 

36:00
Charlie Van Derven
Awesome. 

36:01
Marc Aarons
You have to be the right person. We're currently looking social advisors that are in the business that want to leave that trench and want to join up and build their own book of business and be independent. I call it be independent but not by yourself independent. It's kind of a hybrid of an independent but not by yourself. Going through the business, going through doing this, I learned that it's very interesting because one of the advisers been with me since 2014. He said, you realize I've been able to grow my business better, more as I've been with you than I was with my last few awesome. I said, well, tell me, why is that? Because you handle all the administrative stuff, you handle all the compliance. People don't realize if you're doing this by yourself, you spend a lot of time on compliance, on making sure that compliance is happening. 

37:04
Marc Aarons
Yeah, it's easy when you only buy yourself and do your own compliance, but you spend a lot of time on compliance, it really lowers the cost. We're looking for people anywhere in the United States that has a license 65 or 66 and that wants to build their book of business and be independent. You own your own clients. It's a very different model than a lot of other ras out there. There's ras out there. I'll pay you $5,000. I look at it as kind of the model of warehouses because when they pay you a salary, your clients aren't your client, they're the business client. They're the company's client. I can tell you right now, no genius. They're looking to build their book of business so they can sell their retire and get out of business. And they're using it just like warehouse. They're using it just like a car dealership and it's no different. 

38:00
Marc Aarons
I started, money managers think I wanted to do something different that help financial advisors truly become independent, but not by themselves and be successful. 

38:10
Charlie Van Derven
I love that. 

38:13
Marc Aarons
We're trying to walk that line between and I love the idea about the Zoom call with the questions and I'm going to definitely start implementing that. 

38:22
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, it's fun. You get to know a lot about people so long as they answer honestly. Some of those questions are tough, but you get to know a lot about people. Marc, before we expire here today, there's one thing I like to ask. Right. You've gone through AI transcription. You built the RA from the ground up. There anything that two sides to this question. There anything that you did particularly well that you want to recommend that others who are going to follow that path do the same. The opposite end of that, is there anything that you did that you're like, oh, God, that was a bonehead move, don't do that? 

39:03
Marc Aarons
First question. A lot of us have our own egos and we want to start our own IRA. If I would do this, all I would look for someone like myself. I would look for someone that I could plug into and there are other companies to plug into and just focus on building your business and your brand and what have you. I think that I've tried a lot of different kind of software, a lot of costs that I did to try things out. As much as you research and do stuff, you definitely have to get you got to have that mentorship for someone that's been down that path already and be able to see and you might like or dislike things like that. That's something that I would do differently. Okay, what you don't know, right? Starting this business, I've been doing this since 2001. I wish back in 2001 someone would have told me, Marc, you should start an RAA business. 

40:17
Marc Aarons
You should plug into this company and they have all the contracts, they have everything, and then you're independent and if you don't like them and you want to start your own, you can move from there. That's what I would have done differently than just going through all the headaches of I've been through multiple audits. They take time out of your day, I mean, months out of your job. I wish everyone else would do it. Yeah, but, yeah, I would definitely research companies. Look at the end game in mind. Where do you want to end up at? Try to find a path that ends that direction. 

40:56
Charlie Van Derven
Wonderful. Wonderful. Of course, I think a lot of it is you go from being an advisor to a CEO, even if it's just you right now. You're responsible for accounting, you're responsible for all your operations. You're responsible for, again, your archiving and your records keeping. There are so many facets that you don't have to do when you are a producer. 

41:19
Marc Aarons
I even take out the crash. 

41:21
Charlie Van Derven
You have to take out the trash. We've had one guest say that. I've even got to fix a printer. 

41:29
Marc Aarons
Bathrooms, depending on the time of day. Someone says, what do you do for a living? So I'm a janitor. Yeah. 

41:40
Charlie Van Derven
I'm the chief custodian at Money Managers Inc. So, Marc, it sounds like you're interested in hearing from any of our listeners that may be looking for a new landing spot. That's awesome. You said a few times, and I love what you said. I echoed, I agree with it. Find a mentor now. Your time is valuable, as is everybody. I know you can't be a mentor to everyone but if we got some young advisors and listening and they're thinking about making a change and they got some ideas and questions, would you be a resource to those folks? 

42:16
Marc Aarons
Absolutely. I love helping people. 

42:18
Charlie Van Derven
Awesome. 

42:19
Marc Aarons
That's why I'm in this business. I had a client's daughter asked me, I'm thinking about doing a CFP. You have a CFP? And kind of talk about, I don't. And I thought, Why? I don't. Because I went a very nontraditional route of doing this. I learned all the stuff from college and then keep learning as I go. Yeah, I have no problem having conversations with people and kind of telling them and listening to them to see what they want to do and then kind of pushing them in the direction of what they should do. I think newer advisors coming out of college definitely had this financial I learned actual financial services, bachelors that wasn't available to me. I would have taken that when I went through. They get to see you and all the other different things. What those titles mean when you're younger is that it's showing the public, showing potential clients, that you have the knowledge base to help them. 

43:29
Marc Aarons
It's important for younger people to have that education. I would definitely be very open to helping people out and steering the right direction. Very interested if you're in the business and you're tired of your clients person taking a week and a half to get you approved on. Advertisement it's usually about maybe five minutes at the longest. I have all these automated systems that are set up where you upload and I look at it and then wherever I'm going to look at it. I have a couple of other people that look at it as well if I'm not available. And we're pretty fast for that stuff. All the stuff that I was frustrated with, the broker dealer, I've mitigated that in our company so that people have to do answer to potential clients about the Marcet. How is the Marcet going to be affected by Elizabeth queen Elizabeth's death? 

44:27
Marc Aarons
Are they in? Stuff like that. You can't write a piece about that and send it out two weeks after the thing. You got to do it within the time frame and it's on everybody's mind. We really focus all of our compliance stuff that people are very fast. It's very easy. It's all automated. I do believe that these people have to lower their costs. We do cost sharing, but it's very minimal. Very often they can call me up. My cell number is 714-470-3430, my direct line to my cell phone. I'm putting this out to your listeners only because I don't normally get out my cell phone to the public because I do have it for an office that usually goes to my 71488 seven 8000 number, which is a unique number that I also got. 

45:26
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, man. 

45:27
Marc Aarons
Jeez. 

45:27
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah. Right time, right place for something. 

45:30
Marc Aarons
I'm definitely open to talking to people. It does make a difference what level of a producer you are. I mean, if you have 5 million, 20 million, 100 million, it doesn't make a difference. We're very open. It really needs to be a win situation where we are on the same level or culture wise of what we're trying to accomplish. 

45:51
Charlie Van Derven
The website is OC Moneymanagers, is that right? 

45:54
Marc Aarons
Yes. The story behind that, a lot of people get that I tried to get moneymanagesinc.com right, but that was taken by the Texas company because I started in Orange County. We also have a website, we also have a link called Ldmoneymanages.com for Las Vegas. It all goes to the same website and we also have Slo moneymanages.com for San Luisville. Yeah, it all the same website for Ocmoneymanagers.com. If you go to my profile at the top where you go into about us, and then my profile at the bottom of my profile, there's a link to book an appointment with me and I'll give you a call and we'll have ten to 20 minutes conversation and see if I can help you or steer you the right direction. I've gone through all the bad and ugly, so I have no skin in the game in telling your listeners or potential financial advisors that, hey, if you're going to go, that understand. 

47:01
Marc Aarons
This is how they work. I've researched, I've been through it was interesting when one of my advisors came to me, he said he actually talked to me back in 2009. He didn't come back to me. He called me up and he said, Marc, I'm going through this issue with my RIAA and everything that you told me back in 2009 has happened to me because I've been through it, I've done it. I've been through the broker dealer and what they did and how they lied to you. And I've been with an OSA. That's unethical. I definitely need to move over to you and be part of the team. 

47:41
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, timing is everything, right? I mean, you can put it out there and you can give help and when the time is right, I say it a lot. It doesn't matter what the move is, what the buy is, what it is. It's all about timing. Listen, you're awesome. You're fun to talk to, you're animated guy. Anybody watching on YouTube knows that you've got a lot of great experience outside the industry that helps you, I think, be a better professional in the industry. 

48:12
Marc Aarons
Thank you very much for doing this. This is fantastic. No matter who I talk to myself, I always am learning like I'm learning from you. That's a great idea because you always have to do something better for yourself and for your team to make it better. And I'm always looking for ideas. Another thing is the one thing I asked my advisor because I didn't expect them to stay with me. Basically our conversation was, hey, let's move your clients over establish here and then you'll have time to start your own RIAA and then move over off to them. So that's the goal in mind. I wasn't looking social advisors back then. It was like, here, you can use me. I'm going to charge you, but you're going to use me. And then eventually, he's still with me. And he's still with me. 

49:03
Charlie Van Derven
Awesome. 

49:04
Marc Aarons
The thing about it that he said was I said to him, why are you still with me? Marc, I actually have input on how we run things here. If any adviser comes up with an idea that's better than mine, we'll try it. 

49:24
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, we got a similar situation. Right. I started the company, but that doesn't make me the smartest guy at the company. One of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes and I'll butcher it but I don't hire smart people and tell them what to do. I hire smart people and let them tell me what to do. 

49:40
Marc Aarons
Exactly. Same here. 

49:43
Charlie Van Derven
That's great. Listen, it's a credit to you, but also that's how you retain good people. Right. We've done a lot of recruiting over the years and so in doing that, I've done a lot of research based on that. Do you know that money is like third or fourth? 

50:03
Marc Aarons
Yeah. 

50:05
Charlie Van Derven
When you're hiring somebody, it's like growth, opportunity, input into final product. I mean, these things rank well ahead of the money that you provide. Just the gratitude for the work that they do, things like that. 

50:19
Marc Aarons
Look at me. I went from a six digit income zero. And it wasn't about the money. It was about me, what to do and how to do it. My expertise on the car dealership side and I was willing to walk away from six digit income in California where it's expensive to live, had it planned out, where I had savings, don't get me wrong. It's the same thing with social advisors. The number one complaint I hear my whole career was my manager just told me I have to put this round peg in a square hole. It doesn't work that way. This is not the way to do it. I think we have a very valid point. It's most valuable that if you're part of the team, you don't have to have ownership. Part of the team to make them different or to grow your own business or grow everybody's business. 

51:12
Marc Aarons
We all learn from each other. We all have different brands, different ways of perspectives, different perceptions. I think that's what's unique about us is that the only reason I've ever said, no, we can't do that because of compliance. That would be the only reason. I would show you the rule and regulation. Why? But besides that, it's within the lines. We're ethical and we will try. I mean, right now we're in the process of rewriting. I had made up a new investment agreement and sent it out to the advisors. This is kind of our new investment agreement because we moved from the state of California to see this year, and so we had to redo our investment advisory agreement. I used to have two or three of them, financial planning, PTA, only under management. So I had different ones. I ended up saying, how can we make this simple? 

52:09
Marc Aarons
I put it all together in one sheet. You just Marc box's initial, and advisor can make those. I don't like how this three this first paragraph, the old one was better. You got to get rid of this section. This section. I talked to the other buyers. He said, I guess that makes sense. I bring that and I talk to I have an off site compliance consultant that's been doing it for many years. We want to change this up. Can you help me? It's okay if I take this out of the agreement? Yeah, there's no problem. You can do that. You have to have this in there. Now we have an agreement that was inputted by all the advisors. 

52:52
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah. 

52:57
Marc Aarons
There's an agreement. I don't do what they said. This is our agreement, and you need to be doing what it says. That goes back to what we're doing. 

53:08
Charlie Van Derven
Marc, Erin, thank you for being a resource to our listeners. Thank you for being a guest. Thank you, listeners, for tuning in to another episode of RAA Collective. If you like what you heard, I'd love for you to tell your friends about it. I'd love for you to subscribe and, of course, leave us a review so more people can be impacted by awesome minds like Marc. Erin Marc, thanks for being here. I've had a wonderful time. Thanks for the chat. 

53:31
Marc Aarons
Thank you, John. Enjoyed it. Thank you for having me on your pocket. 

53:35
Charlie Van Derven
Of course.