20 Years of Global View Investment Advisors

Our team at Global View would like to give a heartfelt thank you to all our clients and others who have contributed to our 20 years of success and growth. Over the years we have seen quite a few ups and downs: a financial crisis, an interesting political environment, a worldwide pandemic, inflation, international wars, and many other events since the founding of the firm in 2004. Ken Moore founded Global View with the primary goal of putting clients’ interests first. 

After years as a management consultant, Ken wanted to apply his analytical and communication skills to help investors reach their financial goals. He had enjoyed coaching companies across the globe but felt that working at the individual level would be more impactful. 

Starting out in the professional development program at Merrill Lynch in 2000 while the economy had yet to recover from the dot-com bubble and was about to enter a recession was quite a challenge. Although Merrill Lynch carried with it brand recognition, there was no funnel of leads to field.  The sales environment was much different than today in that cold calling had not been disallowed by the FCC. He often stayed after hours calling would-be investors after dinner. He found the Greenville market very polite; rather than just hanging up many of the people he reached would let him know “that they appreciated the call but no thank you”. The Greenville market was saturated.

After many attempts to reach retirees outside of the immediate Greenville market, Ken found his niche in Keowee, SC. He had tried presenting Merrill Lynch’s offerings and his services in Greenwood at nursing homes where more than one attendee asked where the cake was. Amused but undeterred, he then pursued cold calling the Lake Keowee area. There he connected with many receptive transplants to the area, and this client-base launched his business. He would host wine and cheese seminars at the local wine shop. He was able to connect with retired executives from the Midwest and the Northeast, and many of these early prospects are still clients today.

In addition to the prospect generation challenge was the actual investment challenge. The Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals left a huge mark as Merrill Lynch reacted by cleaning house and wiping out the analysts. Not being allowed to invest in any companies without analyst-coverage meant that there were no investment options besides Merrill Lynch funds. Ken fought to be able to do his own research.

Merrill Lynch, like other big firms, would often promote sales contests to push the firms’ funds or other investments, which would have high internal costs and questionable performance. Ken would shy away from these contests; however, there was one contest, “The Road to Retirement", that he thought would be beneficial to the firm, his personal book of business, and his clients. The contest focused solely on bringing in retirement assets. He brought in new accounts and invested as he thought best for the clients. The influx of assets was enough to help him graduate from the professional development program during a time of 75% dropout rate and win the contest.

The prize for the contest was an extravagant ski trip for his family to Beaver Creek, Colorado. Other winners and many layers of management from across the country attended to enjoy the slopes, receive gifts such as Barbour jackets, and dine on lavish meals in a posh resort. Rather than being wooed, Ken was furious. As a former management consultant, his alarm bells went off. This waste combined with the lack of suitable investment options set the wheels in motion to start a new firm.

Ken left Merrill Lynch Labor Day weekend 2004 with all his clients following him. He was joined within a few months by Joey Hines who now acts as the Managing Partner and Rick Simonson (now retired). Shortly after, Adam Wiles joined and later became a partner who now serves as the Chief Investment Officer.

Being an independent fiduciary, the company focuses on serving the clients’ needs without any conflicts of interest. The firm works for the clients' commission-free and employs the most appropriate strategies to help clients meet their financial objectives.