ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996 TAG: 9601050045
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
Financial Strategies, a Roanoke pension and investment consulting firm, has merged its operations with PR Taylor, a national investment management consultant.
PR Taylor is based in Palo Alto, Calif., and has other offices in California, Dallas, Tampa and New York. Roanoke will become its sixth office and will serve the mid-Atlantic region from Washington, D.C., to Charlotte, N.C.
Donald J. Potter Jr. founded Financial Strategies in 1979 as an independent consulting firm that primarily services sponsors of retirement plans.
Potter will be a senior vice president with PR Taylor in charge of the Roanoke regional office and will be president of PR Taylor Benefit Strategies, the firm's actuarial and benefit consulting division.
"The financial world is becoming increasingly complex," Potter said. "And in order to continue to deliver state-of-the art consulting solutions, we need a broader array of experience from which to draw on."
He said PR Taylor's consultants have extensive money management experience even though the firm does not manage assets.
Potter said PR Taylor has experience with some of the country's largest public funds and university endowments.
Phil Taylor, president and founder of the firm, said the merger means the company can serve clients from Washington to Charlotte within a few hours.
Roanoke, he said, "is in easy reach of the nation's capital to the north, as well as one of the nation's leading research and venture capital spawning grounds to the south."
Taylor said the largest consulting organizations have ignored fund sponsors with investable assets between $5 million and $100 million. That group, described by the investment industry as the middle market, is "hungry for advice that isn't tainted by bankers, brokers, agents or advisers who are trying to sell them a product," he said.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB