Erna Morgan McReynolds’ professional life (thus far) may have started and returned her to a small town in Upstate New York but it’s been anything but circumscribed.

She’s had successful careers in newspapers, radio and TV—as both a reporter and broadcast producer. Lived on three continents. Raised a family. Advised foreign governments. And been named a Barron’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisor (for two years running*).

“I’m my father’s only son,” is how she laughingly explains her decision to abandon college and move to New Zealand while still a teenager. “I wanted to live in another country,” she says. So, at the suggestion of friends—including the man she would ultimately marry—Morgan McReynolds took off for the other side of the world.

It was the early seventies, and New Zealand, a tropical paradise known as the godzone (God’s own), was a magnet for adventurous young people.

Trading on experience she’d gained as a reporter on a local paper while still in high school, she landed a job on a New Zealand daily, taking over the energy beat that no one else wanted—just as the global oil crisis (1973) struck. Eventually, she gravitated to radio work, joining the NZBC, New Zealand’s version of the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC).

A year or two later, London beckoned. Following a boyfriend to the Old World capital Morgan McReynolds won a producer’s spot at the LBC, eventually she produced London Broadcasting’s The A.M. Show, the most widely listened to radio show in Europe. She was 23.

Fast forward to 1981, she headed back to the United States, to the first of a series of high-powered producing jobs with NBC radio and TV in New York City.  Now married to Tom Morgan by 1987, this phase of Morgan McReynolds life was over. She returned to Upstate New York, to a small town about 25 miles from where she grew up.

Career transition
“It’s where my husband was living,” she explains. “I’d moved back to the States to be closer to him.” When it became apparent to her that he wasn’t moving to New York City, she headed north, to Otsego County, where Tom was successfully combining two careers: syndicated broadcast columnist and E.F. Hutton stockbroker.
 
“His firm approached me about getting into the business,” she says. At the same time, managers warned her that the two would never work together. In those days, it was highly unusual for brokers to form partnerships. Rarer still were female brokers.

In the end, though, her new career was more hampered by external events: The stock market crashed in October of 1987, shortly after she joined the firm, taking E.F. Hutton down with it. When she finally launched her financial services career it was as a member of the first training class of the new Shearson Hutton Lehman (the firm that eventually became Smith Barney). Soon afterward, she and her husband Tom were partners, using his syndicated radio show and newspaper column to market their joint business nationally.
 
“We made a huge investment to set up shop together,” she says, recalling the home studio they created. “We had three kids in college and we borrowed a lot of money to purchase the right broadcasting equipment.” The assistant they hired that year earned more than Morgan McReynolds herself did. She says they also had the good fortune to be mentored along the way by highly successful people.

A passion for travel and business
The couple’s investment paid off. Over time, the two built a business that today serves individual and institutional clients in 22 states as well as the government-run pension funds of two Caribbean nations, Anguilla and St. Lucia.

“We loved vacationing in that part of the world but we weren’t good at lying on the beach,” Morgan McReynolds says. Instead, the pair spent their holidays “visiting every government department to find out how things worked.” It helped that Tom was a cricket fanatic. “It’s how we got to know people.”

It’s been more than 20 years since they first forged ties to the region. During that time, she says, other brokers have tried to emulate their success—without understanding (or undertaking) the huge amount of work required. “We worked very hard when we went there,” she says, eventually lending their support to local charities, and instituting a student exchange program. More recently, Morgan McReynolds hosted an investment conference in New York with social security officials from Eastern Caribbean nations.

She considers this work a sacred trust. “These are pre-emerging nations, and they haven’t always been treated well,” she says. “It’s very important that their capital stays there and works hard for the community.” Working with these foreign government pension funds today is a small but satisfying part of her business.

Focused on investment and/or financial planning
Much as she does with her nation-clients, Morgan McReynolds focuses on planning with her other clients: individuals, foundations, endowments and universities. From the start, she says she was never comfortable being a stock trader. “I didn’t want to make one-off recommendations that wouldn’t fit in with other things my clients were doing,” she explains.

So, in her early days as a Financial Advisor, she developed a questionnaire—which she still uses today. It helps her clients think carefully about their financial goals and objectives.

Today, the Morgan McReynolds Group manages close to $450 million in assets and includes a team of six—two registered Marketing Associates, an Operations Associate and a part-time Sales Assistant—all of them women, who draw on their diverse backgrounds as a teacher, psychologist and banker to help clients. Her sister, Wendy Brown, a former intensive care unit nurse, is now her partner. She joined the business four years ago in what the two women thought would be a stint as Morgan McReynolds’ personal assistant.

“In a way, investments are the easy part of what we all do,” the veteran Financial Advisor says. “We work hard to understand where our clients are in their lives and what they need.” Like Morgan McReynolds, the members of her team are deeply involved in the community—and these experiences, too, further enrich the business.

“Being successful in a previous career gives you a base of understanding,” she adds. “And without that, you can’t give clients the advice they need, deserve and demand.”

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*Source: Barron's “Top 100 Women Financial Advisors,” 2007, 2008, as identified by Barron's magazine, using quantitative and qualitative criteria and selected from a pool of over 450 nominations. Advisors in the Top 100 Women have a minimum of seven years of financial services experience and $200 million in assets under management. Qualitative factors include, but are not limited to, compliance record, interviews with senior management, and philanthropic work. Investment performance is not a criterion. The rating may not be representative of any one client's experience and is not indicative of the Advisor's future performance. Neither Morgan Stanley Smith Barney nor its Financial Advisors pay a fee to Barron's in exchange for the rating. Barron’s is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company, L.P. All rights reserved.

Investments and services offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, member SIPC. © 2009 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.