Reviews

Review Details

• Review fromKen P

  Date: 01/30/2023

  1 star
  I went to the Melia Group in Tulsa, about two years ago, I told Greg I am retired and 75 years old, I would like to look at something stable, like bonds or other low risk options. He showed me a program that he said is like bonds but pays better. I would loan money to companies that were established and wanted to buy equipment, or add on etc. I would receive my money back with interest at low risk. I believed him and transferred my life savings to Greg M****. The first year paid me approximately 7%. About eight months ago my account dropped approximately 17%, which seemed impossible to me unless a lot of business went bankrupt but, Greg had only heard of one company going under in his whole career. Greg said I would have less than 3% of my account with any one company to reduce risk. This made no sense, that my account could drop in value like that. If I were in stocks, I could understand this loss. Well, I was in stocks, I found out later !!
  Greg said my account was like farmland, it doesn't matter the value, he told me this same story three times, this comparison still doesn't apply to my account, in a savings account the principle does matter. Greg never asked me any questions, he explained one program (loaning money) and then put me in stocks, he never asked me questions or called when the bottom fell out, just recited the same scripted review every time I saw him, I wanted information on a low or no risk plan to protect my life savings, and he put me in a high risk plan and told me a different story every time I talked to him. I sold some property and put it all in my Melia account, He cost me a lot of money.
  About two weeks ago I transferred my account to a national wealth management company, We are working on a recovery plan, looking at what risk I want to take, my goals--short term and long term. It may take one year or ten to recover this loss, no one knows.
  

  Melia Advisory Group LLC

  Date: 04/22/2024

  I was really disappointed in having tried so hard, and then failing in helping you understand what we were doing for you, and then watching you leave. We have legions of clients who are our biggest cheerleaders. They understand our work and live very happy lives in retirement because of the income we generate for them. The proof I offer for this is that we started this company fifteen years ago from scratch and now we are one of ******* largest and fastest growing firms. We manage almost 1/2 billion in assets and we generate close to 40 million dollars a year in income for our clients to spend in retirement. What we do is vastly different from what's being offered in the financial advising world. We don't use mutual fund type products as most do, but instead we use small individual security positions such as non common stock positions, to generate income that doesn't change when balances move up or down. I know you sincerely believe that we put you in common stocks, but this was simply not true. We don't use common stocks at all. What we do is unlike most retirement programs which often use high fee mutual funds/ETFs shares that don't produce any to very little income through interest or dividends. Consequently requiring the selling of fund shares to create income for retirement, thereby forcing the locking in ?of losses when the market drops. Since we are not selling the assets for income, but instead we are using the interest and dividends from the holdings, we don't lock in any losses when the market drops. This is why we like to use the phrase eating the eggs, but leaving the chicken alone" to best describe what we do for our clients' income needs. When covid hit the markets hard, I sent an email to my clients telling them the chickens are skinnier, but they are still laying their eggs. In other words, keep living your lives and do not stop spending your income. I wanted everyone to understand that they would be fine, and they were! This allowed them to continue spending their income with little worry. This could have been you ***. Any incomes you might have been taking would have been fine and your balances would have returned if you had just held on. This was true for 100% of my clients who did hold fast because things eventually returned to normal and actually kept growing. I also understand that what we do is so different from what people are used to, occasionally it happens where someone really struggles to grasp what we are doing for them. I believe this was you ***. I am truly sorry for this, and wish you the best.