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Guest

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:46 pm

I'm new to investing and thinking about letting Matrix Asset
Allocation manage my retirement account. Can anyone offer any advice
regarding this company? Here's a document I found that lays out their
plan, including fees.

Andrew Koenig

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:57 pm

Guest

<scottctr@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185419276.357442.4980@o61g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...

Quote:

I am going to assume that you mean the company sited at www.mymatrix.cc

Their home page says:

Founder and CEO, Mark Matson, is a noted speaker, author, and coach
within the financial industry.

For me, that's red flag #1, because the claim is so nonspecific as to be
meaningless. If he's a noted author, what did he write that's noteworthy?
Why aren't we told about it?

OK, so it's off to amazon.com, where a search for Mark Matson reveals a book
called "FlashPoint: Mastering the Art of Economic Abundance" by Mark E.
Matson. Sounds like it's likely to be the same person. The book is number
1,544,142 in their sales ranking. In contrast, "Live it Up Without
Outliving Your Money" by Seattle-area financial advisor Paul Merriman is
#43,281.

That word "coach" is a red flag, too. If I'm paying someone for advice, I
want an expert, not a coach. Maybe that's just me.

Anyway, back to the website to learn more. The home page has three
sections: "About My.Matrix," "Guest of My.Matrix," "My.Matrix Login." That
third one is for people who are already clients, so we can forget it.

I click "About My.Matrix" and get taken to a page that says "Find an
Advisor." I can enter a zip code and a distance, and get a list of names
and addresses. No other information--in particular, nothing about their
qualifications.

I click "Guest of My.Matrix" and find that I can proceed no further until I
enter an "Advisor number" -- the code of the person who has referred me to
the website.

So at this point I'm out of options. The only way to learn more about the
company appears to be to contact one of the people on their list, enter that
person's number into the website, and then whatever.

Oh wait, there's more at the top of the guest page. I can click on
"Matrix," then "Company Purpose," and learn the following:

Grounded in the conviction that Free Markets Work, Matrix provides
superior money management services through the integration of philosophy,
discipline and technology.

Matrix Asset Allocation founded by Mark E. Matson in 1991, was
established to serve the needs of investors nationwide by providing quality
investment services delivered through experienced financial professions.
Matrix, a division of Abundance Technologies, Inc., is firmly grounded in
the conviction that Free Markets Work. Matrix utilizes Free Market
Investing(TM) strategies based on Nobel Price-winning economic theories.
This disciplined papproach to life-long investing provides both the
individual investor and the financial professional with the academic
foundation upon which to achieve peace of mind regarding investments. We
manage in excess of $1.8 billion for investors across the country.

So the only actual content on this page is that they manage more than $1.8
billion.

OK, so I go to "My Library" and click "Articles" and then "Meet the
Academics." The first thing I see is a bunch of biographies of famous
economists. None of these people actually work for Matrix, so I'm not sure
why they're so prominently featured, but there they are.

The other page there is "The Financial Professional Relationship." I'm not
going to quote it all here, but the last sentence is key:

Advisors who utlize The Matrix Free Market Investing process have
committed to at least six months of training in the use and understanding of
this process.

What odd language! Does "have committed to at least six months of training"
mean that the advisors have signed up for a six-month course but haven't
necessarily completed it? Is that six months of full-time study? With
whom? Where? Under what standards?

All in all, this website is more interesting for what it doesn't say than
for what it says.

Unless I'm in the wrong place, or unless someone can point out something
important to me that I've missed, I'd be inclined to avoid this outfit.

joetaxpayer

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:21 am

Guest

Andrew Koenig wrote:

Quote:

I am going to assume that you mean the company sited at www.mymatrix.cc

Their home page says:

Founder and CEO, Mark Matson, is a noted speaker, author, and coach
within the financial industry.

I'll bite. Entered my zip code, and the first advisor listed has a web
site stating;

(name deleted)'s mission is to teach affluent Christians, especially
women, the real TRUTHS of investing and show them how to glorify God
with their wealth.
The results clients experience when matching their investments to their
values are increased happiness and peace of mind as they keep more of
God’s wealth in His kingdom.

This just doesn't seem like the type of advisor I'd rush to, if I were
in the market for one.

JOE

PeterL

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:56 pm

Guest

On Jul 26, 3:46 am, scott...@gmail.com wrote:

Quote:

What document?

ScottCtr

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:12 pm

Guest

On Jul 31, 2:56 pm, PeterL <po.n...@gmail.com> wrote:

Quote:

On Jul 26, 3:46 am, scott...@gmail.com wrote:

I'm new to investing and thinking about letting Matrix Asset
Allocation manage my retirement account. Can anyone offer any advice
regarding this company? Here's a document I found that lays out their
plan, including fees.

What document?

Sorry the link to the document didn't make it. Here it is:
http://www.wordhousewealthcoaching.com/forms/tca_matrix/MatrixAdviserPolicyGuide.pdf.

Thanks for everyone's help. I now understand things a bit better.
Maxtrix allows access to the highly reguarded DFA funds. Although
everyone seems to agree that the DFA funds are great, I'm
uncomfortable with the 2% fee. I'm now looking into AssetBuilder.com
with offers a similar plan for only a 0.5% fee.

Fred J. Tydeman

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:05 am

Guest

On Wed, 1 Aug 2007 12:12:43 UTC, ScottCtr <scottctr@gmail.com> wrote:

Quote:

Thanks for everyone's help. I now understand things a bit better.
Maxtrix allows access to the highly reguarded DFA funds. Although
everyone seems to agree that the DFA funds are great, I'm
uncomfortable with the 2% fee. I'm now looking into AssetBuilder.com
with offers a similar plan for only a 0.5% fee.

For a list of the DFA advisors (some lower cost), see:
http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/dfaadv.html
---
Fred J. Tydeman Tydeman Consulting
tydeman@tybor.com Testing, numerics, programming
+1 (775) 358-9748 Vice-chair of J11 (ANSI "C")
Sample C99+FPCE tests: http://www.tybor.com
Savers sleep well, investors eat well, spenders work forever.

ScottCtr

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 2:32 pm

Guest

Quote:

For a list of the DFA advisors (some lower cost), see:
http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/dfaadv.html

Thanks Fred, but with my [relatively] small account I'm still limited
to AssetBuilder.

Scott C.

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