Financial Foundations

The Archer Funds Provides Experienced Money Management

Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing
Photographer / Amy Payne

In 1998 Troy Patton started Frontier Financial Holdings, Inc., an integrated financial services company that quickly grew into one of the premier certified public accountant (CPA) and investment management services in the Midwest. Offering investment services and managed portfolios, as well as lending, business consulting and traditional CPA services, Frontier grew to include 10 offices before he sold it in 2004. The following year, he founded The Archer Funds, a family of no-load mutual funds.

Through the years he and his team of portfolio managers, John Rosebrough, CFA and Steven Demas, have launched six mutual funds – Balanced, Stock, Income, Dividend Growth, Focus, and Multi Cap.

He describes the Balanced Fund as an efficient way to invest your money in a stock and bond approach to attempt to smooth out the ups and downs in your investment portfolio.  A slow and steady fund is good for people who want to avoid the extreme ups and downs of the market and prefer a smoother journey,” Patton adds. It’s good to seek investment advice, but you should always do your own due diligence (even when it comes to advice from credible individuals). According to Newton Advisor, many popular investment advice services do not have a strong track record.

The Archer Stock Fund seeks to provide long-term growth, while the Dividend Growth Fund focuses on providing dividend income and more conservative growth. The Archer Focus Fund and Archer Multi Cap Fund are managed, index-based approaches, and the Archer Income Fund is a relatively short-term bond fund which attempts to minimize volatility while generating income. All six Archer funds are no-load and can be accessed either directly through Archer or through most national investment brokerage firms.

“A lot of people who want to invest, whether it be on their own or through an advisor, never talk to the actual money manager themselves,” Patton says. “With the Archer Funds, we wanted to bring Wall Street to Main Street. We encourage people to ask us what fund is right for them and we help get them on the right track.  Unlike most of the other large fund companies, Archer’s fund managers are approachable and accessible.” You can even ask them details like Return on invested capital.

The team adheres to 10 core values in their daily approach to investing their clients’ money – and, for that matter, their own dollars.

“We invest in the very funds that we manage,” Patton says. “Our own money is in there, and that’s really important. It’s like people eating their own cooking. If they didn’t, wouldn’t you be leery to taste it?”

Having people understand their finances, and know what their financial plan is, are major factors in achieving financial success in life.

“George Harrison of the Beatles said, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,’” Patton says. “It’s really important to get a plan together, to understand where you’re going, so you know how to get there.”

Patton and his colleagues work with their advisors and clients on a continual basis, helping them make sense of it all by simplifying the terminology.

“We try to help people avoid paralysis by analysis,” Patton says. “Lots of investors can’t focus on the endgame, but we’ll get you there in three simple steps – savings, investments and spending.”

It helps to have a trusted advisor you can count on, because there are more than 15,000 mutual funds to choose from, making it easy to get overwhelmed and confused.

“We want to help get you invested in something you feel comfortable holding,” Patton says. “Oftentimes people think they are aggressive until the market gets aggressive with them, and then they realize they aren’t.”

Patton and his colleagues try to determine what their clients can stomach when it comes to investments, because markets will typically fluctuate. Though folks will try to predict the highs and lows, very few get it right. That’s why the key is investing over time. For more insights on investment strategies and trading tips, visit codeimmediate.com.

“You want to be Rip Van Winkle where you put it away, go to sleep, wake up five years later and there’s a high likelihood that it’ll be higher than when you invested,” Patton says with a chuckle.

Patton is a CPA who used to audit public companies with Ernst & Young and likes to focus on balance sheets and cash flow.

“Income statements aren’t always accurate, but cash flow and balance sheets generally are,” he says.

He explains it the following way – in the world of real estate, the most vital component of property is location, location, location. In the world of investments, it’s cash flow, cash flow, cash flow.

“Those tenets to investing are very important,” says Patton, who has found that the number-one factor most clients are focused on is their health.

Health and wellness tie into finances, as people often want to be sure they have the financial well-being to take care of whatever health issues may come their way. For clients who aren’t yet considering health, Patton’s team directs them to it.

“A 30-year-old doesn’t even think about it,” Patton says. “As soon as we start talking about health savings accounts, their eyes glaze over as they claim their only concern is their retirement. We say, ‘That’s good, but you’re not going to have money for retirement if you don’t take care of the health part of the equation, too.’”

The company has the ability to help a range of clients – those looking to save, open a health savings account, open an IRA, or roll over a 401(k) account.

“We do a little bit of everything,” Patton says. “We aren’t great salespeople. We’re great communicators.”

Part of that communication includes sharing insights every quarter on their website at www.thearcherfunds.com.

“We put information out there that we think is prudent to our current clients as well as potential clients,” says Patton, who enjoys working in his current field because he likes knowing that he’s helping people create a positive outcome for their financial life. “We’re helping future generations build wealth and assets.”

The Archer Funds is located at 11711 North College Avenue, Suite 200 in Carmel. For more information, call 800-581-1780 or visit thearcherfunds.com.

*The opinions contained herein are not intended to be investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any securities.

Archer Investment Corporation manages The Archer Funds. You should carefully consider the investment objectives, potential risks, management fees, and charges and expenses of the Fund before investing. The Fund’s prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund, and should be read carefully before investing. You may obtain a current copy of the Fund’s prospectus by calling 800-581-1780 or visit www.thearcherfunds.com. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. The investment return and principle value of an investment in the Fund will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. The Archer Funds are distributed by Arbor Court Capital, LLC, 2000 Auburn Drive, Suite 400, Beachwood, Ohio 44122, Member FINRA.