Our Firm

Although Misty Childs has been in the financial services industry since 1992, Childs Capital Group officially opened its doors in 2001 when Merrill Lynch abandoned their rural office pilot program of which she was a part.  Misty had the opportunity to return to her Galleria office in Dallas, TX; however, she and her family had fallen in love with the beauty, quality of life, and people of east Texas.  Holding a strong desire to improve upon industry practices, Misty decided to become an independent financial advisor.     

When Misty began her career, she was handed two archive boxes filled with over 4,000 abandoned account holding pages to investigate.  Some belonged to little elderly widows, others to a hotel family and a Heisman trophy winner.  Over the course of the next 6 months, while studying for her Series 7 Securities Exam, she learned that regardless their situation in life, they all desired one thing, to feel that they were valued.  At that point, Misty determined that she would make a difference in an industry that she'd discovered had become very numbers driven, product focused, and relationally void.     

1)  Business Model - As independent advisors, it is truly our business.  From the business and investment philosophies we follow, to the products and services we use, all the way down to the number of clients we believe we can best serve, the design is completely up to us.  There are no quotas, "product of the week" to sell, new account minimums to meet, or upper management to appease.  In case you weren't aware, most wirehouse firms now prohibit advisors from accepting new clients below a minimum asset level.   If existing clients are below the minimum, the advisor isn't paid commissions on the account.  Clients below $100k are often shipped to an 800# desk and have no dealings with the advisor they entrusted. 

2)  Quality vs. Quantity - As an independent, we are able to build our asset base as we deem appropriate.  Therefore, Childs Capital Group intentionally only serve about 65-100 families.  We don't believe that anyone can provide the caliber of service our clients deserve with 400 to 800 clients in a book, which is not uncommon in the wirehouses.  Therefore, we limit the number of clients we accept at any given time to avoid having too many balls in the air and risking that something or someone gets dropped.   

3)  Products and Services - Independent advisors have several product advantages over the wirehouse brokers. 

• There are no proprietary products to sell. 
• Independent firms have all of the products the wirehouses have and much more. 
• Our independent broker dealer, Berthel Fisher & Company Financial Services, Inc. is renowned in the industry for providing various types of  alternative asset inventory to their advisors and clients.  Many of these avoid the day to day volatility of the exchange markets as they do not trade on an exchange, which also makes them fairly illiquid investments.  They also serve to meet a niche need of the client, for example tax advantage investments. 

4)   An "Outside the Box" Advisor - Independent advisors are more prone to free-thinking and creativity by necessity.  We have the entire gambit of investment vehicles at our fingertips, so we spend a great deal of time doing due diligence to know the solutions and potential pitfalls of each product.  When a client enters the door that is selling their business, has passive losses but no passive income, has a child headed to college, or a tax burden the size of Texas from selling stock options, we're prepared and adequately equipped to provide solutions, not products.  I like to compare it to being a puzzlemaster.  You give me all the pieces and a little time and I can create a masterpiece.  You give me a box missing some pieces and I'm incapable of completing the task.   

5)  Quality of Life