Ex-minister Preaches Faith in Mutual Funds

Morris Vickers has faith.r

A former Baptist minister for 30 years, Vickers operates Financial Security Advisors Inc. out of his 3,700-SF lakeside home in Rogers. He said he advises investors on mutual funds using a conservative, “well-studied” approach.r

A recent transplant from Arnold, Md., Vickers said he retained all 108 of his clients who are dispersed throughout 12 states. He declined to disclose the size of his assets under management, although as a state-registered investment adviser in Arkansas and Maryland regulations provide that they must be under $25 million.r

Vickers said he has studied investing in mutual funds for 35 years — full time for the past decade since retiring as a preacher. He became a certified financial planner in 1984.r

“I use financial services as a ministry,” Vickers said, explaining that he often presents a three-part study on “financial understanding for Christians” to church groups.r

The service allows the participants to learn about 401Ks and how to use them, investment strategies and other typical financial information in a Christian setting with frank answers in lieu of a sales pitch. Vickers doesn’t solicit business from the participants, and there’s no follow-up advertising.r

“My basic business philosophy is that anyone who wants to help themselves financially, I will help them, regardless of how much they have,” Vickers said.r

Vickers said he has no minimum account size and that his revenue is fee-based as opposed to coming from commissions.r

“We not only help people be faithful with little, we also help them be faithful with much,” Vickers said on his Web site at www.fsainvestments.com.r

Because of his background, Vickers said he’s developed a reputation for helping ministers with their investment strategies, although he’ll work with anyone who agrees with his conservative approach. He said his interest in financial planning for ministers goes back to the 1982 dissertation he wrote to obtain his doctorate in ministry at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Vickers analyzed a 20-year study of the five approaches to funding retirement plans specifically directed for ministers.r

His investment philosophy is “safety first, then performance second.” That type of approach generally means less money lost in down times but earnings as well as typical market averages in up times.r

“In the seven years I’ve been doing this primary program called ‘Timeless Strategies,’ we’ve done as well as or better than the primary indexes in up years,” Vickers said. “We really look to see which mutual funds go up more when the index goes up and come down the least when the index goes down.”r

Financial Security Advisors’ clients throughout 2000, 2001 and 2002 — three years of market decline — saw their investments go up, Vickers said.r

Bob Simpson, director of communications for the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware, said Vickers has handled his 401K funds for a number of years and “done an outstanding job” of it.r

“Especially during the last two years, I cannot imagine anyone else doing a better job in the financial market we have experienced,” Simpson said. r

Wayne R. Kempson, pastor of a Maryland church, said Vickers advice over the past 20 years has helped him reach his personal financial goals for retirement.r

Financial Security Advisors buys market analysis information from three independent research companies to determine the best performing funds.r

It takes three different strictly independent sources to “get the big picture of what’s going on,” he said. “We’re looking for the least volatile and most durable — the better trending mutual funds in stronger trending indexes.”r

Vickers studies as many as 2,600 mutual funds with a software program that evaluates various indexes showing strength. His primary program is “a mutual fund exchange program,” he said.r

“We’re interested in long-term trends meaning once we’re committed to an area we stick with it for six months, nine months or a year or longer,” he said.r

Years of visiting in-laws and vacationing in Arkansas brought Vickers and his wife, Twyla, to their new Beaver Lake home. She is a native of St. Paul, Minn.