Garrison Financial Tallies First Year

It’s been a little more than year since Tom Garrison’s company, Garrison Financial Corp., bought out Rebecca Garner’s firm, Garner Asset Management. The pair signed papers on Feb. 23, 2005, creating a Fayetteville financial powerhouse.

Garrison is the former CEO of Fed Ex Freight East of Harrison, and now the chairman of GFC.

Garrison Financial Corp. is the parent company of Garrison Financial Advisors Inc. and Garrison Asset Management (previously Garner Asset Management). Each division reports its assets under management to the Securities and Exchange Commission and they essentially operate as two different, yet related, registered investment advisers.

Garner recently told the Business Journal that the transition has gone well.

Though she didn’t want to reveal exact dollar figures, she said her GAM division was up about 11 percent in assets under management just for the first two months of the year.

Garner Asset Management reported $185.2 million in assets under management for fiscal 2004 (before the merger), and the parent Garrison Financial Corp. reported combined $250 million in assets managed for 2005.

Garner said the jump in her division’s portfolio is due to new clients, not all located in Northwest Arkansas.

The group now has clients in 18 states and Germany, she said, and she’s gunning for 25 states by the end of 2006.

“It’s way cool,” Garner said.