10-17-2022 11:54pm

Mutually Focused Financial Advisors can help the "everyday person"

Michael McGinnis Editor

(L-R) Michael Fasano and Mark Forberg are the owners of Mutually Focused Financial Advisors in Roscoe.

Even though Mutually Focused Financial Advisors is a new company in Roscoe, its owners are not novice financial advisors. Mark Forberg has 24 years of experience, and his partner Michael Fasano has 18. Mark says, "We're basically two local guys who worked in the same bank" but wanted to provide more options for their customers.

Now that they have their own business at 5871 Elevator Road in Roscoe, Michael says they are able to offer "just a lot more services than we could ever offer in a banking environment." Whether a client needs help with retirement planning, wealth building, legacy planning, or protection, Michael says this greater flexibility means they can provide "more efficient services, from a cost standpoint for our customers" than ever before.

Mark is originally from Roscoe and recently moved back here from Rockton. Michael lives in Poplar Grove, but has focused on Southern Wisconsin clients for years. So did Mark, before he switched to the greater Rockford region. Michael says, "We're excited to be able to help the Stateline, whether it's customers in Wisconsin, customers in Illinois. We're excited to help grow the community and be involved in the Stateline community."

Mark agrees that community involvement is an important goal in how they run their business. "Being part of this market, doing it at our own pace, doing what we want, we're not looking to grow into a huge company or anything like that, just organically grow over time."

Many clients first come to them as they reach retirement age, wanting help with the money they have accumulated throughout their careers. Mark says these clients are typically in their 50s and 60s and 70s, but some of their clients are in their 20s, some are in their 80s. Asked who they can help the most, he replied, "There's not really a specific age... We can help the everyday person."

Elaborating, Mark added, "It's unfortunate, in the industry they have minimums on their accounts. Some places, if you don't have $250,000, they're not going to talk to you... Some people, they might be 40 years old, they don't have a lot, they might have $35,000 in a rollover that no one's helped them with. But we can help them. We're looking for relationships that can grow."

I guessed at a couple of investment types that I assumed would be most common, and Michael nodded, "We can do that." But their range of options goes beyond what I imagined. Michael explained, "We have a platform for everything, so if they need to be on the brokerage side with stocks, bonds, ETFs, managed money, mutual funds, we can do that. If they need an annuity, we have FIAs and indexed annuities and fixed annuities and variable annuities. And on the insurance side, we can do life insurance and long-term care. So, the full spectrum."

Mark says, "We sit down with the customer and try to uncover what they need and also what they want. Sometimes what the customer needs and what they want may not be the same thing. But maybe we can find something in the middle that's going to be there for them. It's really about trying to find out what's the best option."

Each partner's initials happens to be MF, which helped to inspire the logo of the company. But they see the name Mutually Focused as more than initials. Mark tied it to their business philosophy as he said, "That's kind of where the name comes from... I like it because we're focused on each other, us and the customer."

Michael added, "We want to line up their goals with the best investments that we can. And we're not tied to any specific investments. There's nothing proprietary or anything like that. We go out and find the best investments that are out there and utilize them for their goals."

After working for corporations for years, both men are excited about having their own business. Mark says with a smile, "I'm doing this until I retire and that's my plan."

To contact Mutually Focused Financial Advisors, call 815-623-0044 or look for their ad in Rockton-Roscoe News.