'Boutique firm brings together multifaceted adviser team

A group of Springfield-area businessmen has brought three separate-but-related entities together under one roof to help individuals navigate the complexities of financial planning.

In 2008, Sean McCurry, Jim Batten, Tim O’Reilly and Chuck Kohout founded Pinnacle
Family Advisors, a financial consulting firm. Pinnacle Private Equity Fund I, which allows accredited investors, as defined by the Securities Exchange Commission, to buy into real estate or small businesses, was founded in 2009. Pinnacle Consulting CPAs, an accounting firm founded in 2009, is led by managing partner Dan Wiser CPA, who along with CPAs
Batten and Steve Strobel are its majority owners. Kohout and McCurry are minority owners and O’Reilly is not an owner in the CPA firm.

All three entities operate at 3010 E. Battlefield Road, Ste. A, though they were created as separate entities for regulatory purposes.

“We’re offering multiple-disciplinary advisory solutions,” McCurry said. “There are other larger companies doing this in other places, but we’re small and integrated, more like a boutique firm.”

McCurry said Pinnacle Family Advisors has 85 client households on its roster, and more than 300 clients for the accounting arm. He declined to disclose any specifics about the equity fund, citing regulatory concerns.

He noted that many investors handling their own funds have a lot of assets in cash, treasury bonds and money market accounts. Where Pinnacle clients invest, he said, depends on their financial goals. For example, someone who needs their money soon will be more conservative than someone whose plans for their assets is intergenerational without an immediate need.

“Most clients need comprehensive advice and comprehensive financial planning,” he said.

Tailor-made team
McCurry, who was the catalyst for bringing the three entities together, has 13 years of experience as a financial adviser and formerly worked with Raymond James.

All of the partners involved in the Pinnacle businesses bring varied knowledge.
O’Reilly, who practices law at O’Reilly & Jensen LLC, is the grandson of O’Reilly Automotive Inc. founder “Chub” O’Reilly and a hotel developer whose properties include Springfield’s Doubletree Hotel. He and Kohout, a commercial real estate agent with CJR Commercial Group, were two of McCurry’s clients.

Batten, former chief financial officer of O’Reilly Automotive, has been a longtime associate of McCurry’s and is now executive vice president at nonprofit Convoy of Hope.

“My experience in employment and real estate law has helped me give the firm a look from a different perspective … on matters of developing the firm,” said O’Reilly, whose family built the Springfield-based auto parts empire, which posted sales of $4.85 billion in 2009.

He knows, too, about the challenges families face when managing their assets.

“For example, my parents have a foundation, and there’s a separate family foundation. To outsource all of that and have different companies manage the different aspects is complicated, but this is (a group) that can come in and have the flexibility to manage all or part,” he said. “Anyone can do a trust and transfer wealth, but it takes a special group of people to work with families on the purpose of their wealth.”

Local roots
In addition to the partners, the separate Pinnacle companies also employ two financial advisers, a certified financial planner, two certified public accountants and an office manager on staff.

Among them is Betty Neal, CFP, who has more than 40 years of experience in banking and securities at firms including Edward Jones Investments and, most recently, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

She said she was drawn to Pinnacle because of its local focus amid merger and buyout activity in the financial services sector.

“(Pinnacle) has the ability to offer any of the investments or services of the larger firms,” Neal added. “We are regulated by the same regulatory bodies, covered by the same insurance, but all decisions are made in Springfield.”

That’s one reason Dr. James Coulter, a semiretired Springfield pulmonary and internal medicine physician, said he’s a client. Coulter was previously a client of Brian McCracken at Morgan Stanley. McCracken is now a Pinnacle portfolio manager, and Coulter is working with Pinnacle’s advisory arm for management of some of his retirement funds.

“You have to have confidence in the people you’re dealing with,” Coulter said. “You want to know they’re in it with you for the long haul.”

Chief Investment Officer Paul Carroll noted that clients can choose to work with just one Pinnacle entity, and no client information is shared between the firms without the client’s consent.

CPA Strobel said the multifaceted group is convenient for clients who choose to use more than one service.

“A lot of times you have your investment people telling you to do one thing and your CPA telling you to do another,” Strobel said. “Here, we can get together in one room and do the right thing for the client.”

Walter Grimes, of Auburn, Ala., also was a client of McCracken’s before McCracken joined Pinnacle. Grimes, who worked with Pinnacle to set up a college fund for his grandchildren, likes knowing that he can access other services, too.

“I’m retired but have a horse boarding facility as a business, and I can talk to them about that, and I know if I need the CPA services, they’re available,” he said.

Though McCurry declined to disclose revenue figures for the companies, he said the advisory arm met its revenue goals in 2009 and expected to exceed those by 40 percent in 2010. Wiser said the accounting firm expects to exceed its revenue goals by 75 percent.

McCurry said the Pinnacle group will stick to its focus on purpose, stewardship and freedom to reach those goals.

“We want to help families define a purpose for their wealth, steward their wealth and both of those principles will give them a sense of freedom,” McCurry said.[[In-content Ad]]