Page 8 — THE BERLIN DAILY SUN, Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Morrissette celebrates 30 years in business BY GAIL SCOTT THE BERLIN DAILY SUN
BERLIN—Thirty years ago Stephen J. Morrissette, owner of the Morrissette Financial Center in Berlin, started his business out of his house in Dummer Today the business is on Main Street, just above the 12th Street Bridge, it is thriving and Morrissette loves the work as much as he did when he started. “I’m fortunate,” Morrissette said in a recent interview. “How many guys have a successful business for thirty years and still can say they love it?!” As the name implies, the Morrissette Financial Center covers the waterfront of financial services, helping people assess their financial needs and then providing routes through which to achieve them. Morrissette is an independent financial advisor, a certified financial planner. His professors at Boston University might be surprised to learn of his present profession. As a student at BU, Morrissette majored in music. He still plays a mean trumpet and plays in several bands, but after graduating from BU in 1970 and teaching music, first in Maine for two years and then in Berlin/Gorham schools for nine years, Morrissette decided to head in a new direction. The turning point, he said, was when he bought a house in Dummer in 1976 and got his first property tax bill. “I couldn’t afford to continue in teaching,” he said. He took a two-year course at the College for Financial Planning in Denver, graduating in 1984 with his CFP, and became “one of the very few certified financial planners in the country,” he said. “At the time, there were only about 1,000 in the country and there were no other CFPs in the Berlin area. This was before financial planning became popular.” With the sea change in pensions, “the demise of defined benefit plans,” and the rise of the 401K, some sort of financial planning has become a necessity for even those with the most modest of incomes. Morrissette points to other changes that were taking place as he developed his business. “In the ‘80s, the top tax rate was 72 percent,” he said. “Reagan dropped the tax rate and that started the economic binge. There was one crisis after another and the market became even more important. It’s been up and down but in 1980 the S&P (Standard & Poor’s 500 index) was 1,000 and now it’s 12,647—mostly it’s up.” “What we are finding,” he said, “is that the more the world changes, the more people need financial advice,
especially now that people have to manage their own pensions.” In 1986 Morrissette moved his growing business from his house in Dummer to a modest office at 1407 Main Street in Berlin and there he has been ever since. The business keeps growing. Morrissette and his staff of four have local and out-of-state clients. “We are licensed in a dozen or so states,” Morrissette said, explaining that new clients hear about Morrissette Financial Services by “word of mouth,” rather than advertising, which, he pointed out, is very strictly regulated. “People spread the word. This is personal stuff, People want to know some one who talked with me,” he said. Morrissette said that the office is planning to expand its communication ability, but “it’s a nightmare of compliance issues. Even to have a seminar, you have to have the program approved ahead of time.” In Morrissette’s view, heavy regulation is not helpful and a lack of regulation did not cause the 2008 collapse. He pointed out that Federal Reserve System chairman Alan Greenspan kept interest rates low during which time derivatives, one of the problems that led to the 2008 financial debacle, exploded. “Ironically, now they’re telling us that low interest rates will get us out of this mess,” he said. “The reason we will get out is that the American public has faith in the U.S. and will continue to invest.” The investment market has changed, however. “It’s a world economy,” he said. “Over 60 percent of the stocks available are foreign stocks. With all these things facing the investor, he needs an advisor.” Asked how the helpless would-be investor can judge whether or not he is speaking with an advisor who will steer him in the right direction, Morrissette responds that the odds improve when consulting a certified financial planner. “They don’t let everyone in,” he said, speaking of the governance of the CFP designation which Morrissette holds. “There’s a 50 percent failure on the test. It’s a tough test. That is the top of the heap.” He added, “Honesty goes by your reputation.” “People talk. They get to know me. We help a lot of people enjoy a better retirement,” he said, adding, “Through LPL, we have access to just about everything out there.” LPL Financial Services provides a host of services to independent financial advisors like Morrissette, includ-
The Morrissette Financial Services crew, including, l to r: Donna Fortier, of Berlin, who is the representative assistant; Stephen J. Morrissette, owner/president of Morrissette Financial Services; and Robin Lavertu, of Berlin, who is the marketing and sales manager for the company. Missing is Susan Mantooth, of Dummer, the data processor. Morrissette is celebrating having been in the business for 30 years. (GAIL SCOTT PHOTO)
ing a stock brokerage and access to different types of annuities. In addition, Morrissette regularly deals with Jackson Life Insurance, of Lansing, MI; and National Integrity Life Insurance Co., of Goshen, NY, both of which offer a variety of annuities. Over the years Morrissette has accumulated two walls full of awards from these various companies for his sales success. “What we try to do is customize the investments to meet the client’s needs,” said Morrissette. His payment is either by fee or commission, depending on what the client would like, he said. He finds financial planning much more interesting and challenging than teaching. Among other things, he said, with some humor, “You get paid better and the students (the clients) are actually interested in what you have to say.” “Basically you are trying to figure out what’s coming (on the future economic scene),” he said, noting with some pride that Morrissette Financial Services got its clients out of the stock market before the crash in 2007-8.
“We are constantly monitoring segments (of the economy) that will provide the best returns,” he said. He noted that he travels often to conferences where leading economic figures speak, in order to stay current with investment trends. This coming year, he will be traveling to Orlando, Chicago, Boston, and San Diego. “They bring in top people in the financial business—fund managers, economists—and we have access to these guys. This keeps us up to date and helps us calculate where the economy is going to go. You get different opinions and we come up with our own analyses. Everyone has his own agenda. We figure how that matches our clients’ agendas,” he said. “I love the business,” he said, “every single minute of it. It’s one of the most rewarding jobs I could imagine and one of the most stressful. Millions of dollars of other people’s money is resting on my recommendations, but the beauty of owning your own business, is that you can make it as good as you want to make it.” Morrissette has no plan to retire, but he can assure clients that there is see MORRISSETTE page 9