What a Ride

Majestic Financial's Three Year Anniversary

Three years ago this week, I was feeling serious pressure.  Brandon and I had decided to leave our former firm and create a new company – Majestic Financial.  The idea was truly Brandon’s and his enthusiasm won me over.  The world was trying to fight its way out of a pandemic and many financial offices had not even re-opened to in person appointments.  Laurie and Kendra agreed to make the move with us, and on April 12, 2021, Majestic was officially open.  Josh created our logo, the ladies chose our colors, and we all had input on our build-out of the office.
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Over the next 60 days Leon, Jaime, Alyx, and Becky joined the company.  The work was overwhelming – Laurie and I worked seven days a week, mostly 10-hour days.  We made many mistakes in the processing of new clients to Majestic.  We never had the chance to get trained on the intricacies of account processing until almost a year passed because the normal training was on pause due to COVID.  We physically moved into our office at a time when most companies were still having work done remotely.

As we fielded daily calls from people wanting to become Majestic clients, the markets slid into a 24 month bear condition.  So as people were getting experience with this new company, they were also seeing their portfolio values drop.  Luckily, most of our clients understood that when the overall market drops our job becomes more defensive rather than growth based.  I believe we did that job very well.

As I write this on April 3, 2024, I am humbled and amazed at how Majestic has evolved.  The chaos of 2021 has turned into solid processes for both current and new clients.  Any client who knows me realizes that I shouldn’t be doing processing, but in 2021 I was opening accounts.  Today, every employee of Majestic has a specific role to play and can fill in for each other to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.  Isiah joined Josh to create client events that span the spectrum from charity golf outings to creating personal fragrances.  I believe we have the best staff in the financial world in our geography.  I am proud of them every day.

Why did we have only three clients leave the firm during a 24-month bear market?  When we created Majestic, we specifically wanted to be able to invest in the best way possible to enable clients to meet their financial goals.  So, when the market turned and stayed negative, we weren’t forced to simply shrug and say, “stay invested, it will eventually turn around.”  Instead, we added structured investments, options, and indexed annuities.  All three of these investments were brand new to clients – they had no experience with any of them in their old portfolios.

As Majestic Financial enters its fourth year of existence, we continue to look for new ways of helping clients.  Brandon is leading the faith-based portfolios.  Kendra and I continue to add options strategies.  I don’t believe we will ever stop growing and learning, which should only continue to help clients.
Thank you for joining us on this adventure and I look forward to many more years of working together.
 
Written by Sean Budlong, CFP®, AAMS, Chief Executive Officer, Majestic Financial, Financial Consultant, RJFS

​Disclosures: *Any opinions are those of Sean Budlong and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. The information contained in this blog does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material. There is no assurance any of the trends mentioned will continue or forecasts will occur. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected.