Don Angel's office is in flux. As I conduct an interview with him, there's a constant drone of noise with hammering and sawing taking place on the other side of the wall. Boxes are stacked against walls. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
At 68, Angel was supposed to be winding down his advisory practice, maybe even sell off the business. But there was one major obstacle to living the good life of a retiree: the clients.
You see, Don Angel is one of those rare birds in the advisory business, as you will soon find out—he's an advisor who really does put his clients first, even at the expense of bigger sales.
When I told him I wanted to feature him in Senior Market Advisor, he didn't miss a beat.
"You want to interview me?"
I'm not one of those mega-guys, he told me. I'm just a guy, he was saying, just a guy with an advisory practice.
And I almost believed him, thinking maybe I did have the wrong guy, until I flew to Memphis and sat across from him in that office and heard his story.
The Peabody
The Peabody Hotel is a historical landmark in Downtown Memphis. Maybe not as famous as Elvis, OK, definitely not as famous as the city's number-one son, but a landmark just the same.
The current Peabody was built in 1925 in the style of the Italian Renaissance. It was a mainstay of the Prohibition era and held great cultural and historical significance, but as urban blight took over Memphis' Downtown in the '60s, the hotel fell on hard times, eventually filing for bankruptcy. New ownership saved it and a $25-million renovation was completed in 1981. Thus, giving generations of tourists the joy of the Peabody Ducks, who waddle the red carpet of the hotel lobby every morning at 11 a.m., accompanied by the "King Cotton March" by John Phillip Sousa, before taking a dip in the hotel's fountain.
Why is this story of the Peabody important to the story of Don Angel? Because the Peabody is part of Angel's story. Angel Construction Co., Inc. was a general contractor on the Peabody overhaul.
"That was my Daddy's company," Angel says in that manner of pride and awe that sons have when talking about their fathers.
On the wall is an article from The Commercial Appeal, Memphis' daily paper, about the Peabody renovation and Angel Construction's role in the development. The article is not in paper form but is the original metallic typograph that Don Angel acquired from The Commercial Appeal. Thirty years later, he still smiles when he looks at the article and what it represents.
The family business did well. Construction was all Don knew for roughly 20 years, but then the patriarch retired, the company shut down and Don Angel, married at the time and with children of college and high school age, was set adrift.
Starting Over
Angel didn't know what to do after Angel Construction closed its doors. Debts mounted. He got divorced. He lived the bachelor life of a man much younger than his 48 years.
Maybe it was a light bulb moment that led him to financial services. More likely, though, it was a confluence of ideas that built over time. One catalyst was a friend, an advisor, who nudged him in this direction. Another was a woman, who would provide a calming influence; they would eventually marry. The final impetus was a personal one. Angel had stared down the barrel of financial disaster and come out of it with an insight on how to help people.
During the early '90s Angel took to the business like those Peabody ducks take to the water. He got his life and health licenses and he knocked the securities licenses out, one right after another—the series 6, 7, 22, 63, 65. He decided early on he wanted to provide a full range of services to clients. His different designations allow him to help clients with insurance, investments, taxes and retirement advice. He says to advisors making their way in the business—take a look at taxes. Too often they're overlooked and "they're an integral part of the overall plan."
As to building the practice, he echoes what many successful advisors say: "referrals, referrals, referrals are a big key."
While he was driven to succeed over the past 20 years, he's never become a slave to the work. In recent years, he mulled over the idea of what to do with the practice and decided on bringing in a partner, Chatham Rogers, who has added marketing and technical insight to the business.
In talking to hundreds of clients over the years, Angel admits that every person is different, but he has a goal in helping them.
"My number-one goal is to help people from worrying about their retirement so much."
The New King of Memphis
We all know Elvis is the King. But maybe there's room for another King in Memphis. For years, Angel has been connected with Carnival Memphis, formerly known as the Memphis Cotton Carnival. Think of it as Memphis' version of Mardi Gras.
This year, Angel's Krewe elected him the king, an honor that comes with full crown and royal regalia. (See photo of Don and his wife, Susan, right.)
It's an interesting twist for Angel who's always viewed himself as something of an underdog. To symbolize that point he even has an autographed picture of himself with the ultimate underdog, Rudy Ruettiger, of Notre Dame football lore.
Before I leave I ask Angel about his philosophy on advising. As he pontificates, he almost sounds like Brando from the famous taxi scene in "On the Waterfront." In Angel's version, he says: "Sure, I could have been bigger. I could have had more clients," but he's not wistful as he says this. He's proud of the choices he made: "I want to be there for every one of them. I never want to be one of those guys who's too busy to take the call, too busy to pick up the phone and give my clients an answer."
He's not one for catchy slogans, but he's got one, just one, that is embossed to this day on his business card: "Helping Create Financial Independence."
"As corny as it sounds, I didn't want people to go through what I went through. My goal is to insure that people avoid what I had faced in 1990."
While he's telling me this story about helping people, his cell phone erupts to the ring tone of "Bad to the Bone." We both laugh at the irony because at the end of the day Angel, as his name might suggest, is one of the good guys.
He's not one for catchy slogans, but he's got one, just one, that is embossed to this day on his business card: "Helping Create Financial Independence."
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