EAGLE Wealth Management Group, LLC | Taylor

EAGLE Wealth Management Group, LLC | Taylor

By Suzanne Haberman Friday, 12 March 2010

GEORGETOWN — Brothers Bo and Mo McKinney advocate you do not have to be wealthy to need wealth management advising. The team strategically named their financial consulting firm EAGLE Wealth Management Group, LLC to include the word wealth in reference to the financial goal they aim to help their clients attain.

“In order for people to achieve what they want to do in this lifetime, they have to grow their wealth,” Bo said.

Helping their clients realize wealth through investments is part of the team’s mission to enrich peoples’ lives so they can be free to do what they want, whether the desire is to save for their retirement or children’s college educations. Bo and Mo learned the value of a stable financial situation early in life.

The McKinney brothers grew up in Odessa, where they lived on their father’s modest, postal worker’s salary. Bo and Mo attended college on grants and loans.

“We had a great life, but we didn’t have a lot of money,” Bo said. “As we became more and more aware of what was out there and available, we began to move into the direction of financial services.”

Both obtained licensing as certified financial planners and worked for the same corporate financial advising firm before opening the Taylor branch of EAGLE Wealth Management in 2008. They said they thought they could do a better job serving their clients independently than through a corporate environment.

“I came to Taylor and started knocking on doors, a great way in a small town to meet people,” Bo said of how he added to his client base. “There were people who invited you in and offered you a glass of tea and cookies.”

After more than 25 years as certified financial planners, Bo and Mo have helped people from all walks of life, starting with farmers and entrepreneurs who first welcomed them into their Taylor homes, and then Sun City retirees, professors and young professionals in Georgetown and Round Rock, where they recently opened two more offices. EAGLE Wealth Management also has out-of-state clients.

Despite everyone’s unique financial situation, two pieces of wealth management advice is a good start for nearly everyone, Bo said: Make a plan with specific goals early in life and stick to it.

“We take all the information about their goals and dreams and their current situation and come back to them and say, ‘This is what you need to do in order to get where you want to be,’” Bo said. “Then we try to do our part to help people get there the best possible way we can with all the tools at our disposal."

In the McKinneys' toolbox, there are budgeting options, debt repayment guidance and traditional investment opportunities such as stocks and bonds. Where the brothers pride themselves, however, is in allocating a variety of alternative fund sources such as real estate, cash and private equity not linked to the fluctuating market. The diversified investments, many offered through the firm’s connection with the broker dealer and equity company First Allied Securities Inc., help their clients achieve financial security, Mo said.

“The part that’s most rewarding to me is helping people solve their financial problems,” Bo said, “seeing those goals come to fruition.”

(Correction: We incorrectly stated in the print edition that Eagle Wealth Management opened in Taylor in 1989. The business opened in 2008.)