ABOUT FGA / OUR MISSION
FG Advisory Services (FGA) is the wholly owned Registered Investment Advisory subsidiary of the Financial Gym.
The Financial Gym was created in 2013 when our CEO, Shannon McLay, left her career as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch to start a financial coaching business.
The Financial Gym helps people of all financial shapes and sizes get the support they needed to drop their financial fear and shame and build a strong foundation from which they could achieve their hopes and dreams.
When Shannon McLay chose to become a financial advisor in 2011, only 31% of U.S. Financial Advisors were female.
She wanted to help more women become financial advisors at Merrill Lynch; however, once she was in the industry, she realized the bigger issue wasn’t the inclusivity of advisors but the inclusivity of clients. She learned so much valuable information from her training at Merrill Lynch that she knew could change people’s lives, and yet at Merrill Lynch, she needed to limit her clients to people with at least $250,000 in investable assets. So, she started the Financial Gym with the hope of helping people build wealth rather than just managing it like she was charged to do at Merrill Lynch.
Ten years later, after helping more than 15,000 Financial Gym clients build wealth, she knew that the next step was to head back into the industry she left and finish the work she started by bringing more inclusivity to the financial planning industry. Despite being out of the industry for a decade, the demographics of advisors haven’t changed much. As one teammate said, “They continue to remain male, pale, and stale,” yet our clients look nothing like that.
Over the past ten years of building the Financial Gym, Shannon and her team have learned numerous lessons, but the biggest one; money comes with emotional challenges.
Money is a taboo topic, and as with most taboo topics, people hold tremendous shame and guilt regardless of how their balance sheet looks. We wanted to create a safe space for everyone to build their wealth free from shame or guilt.
We support your unique goals and we want to help you craft the best plan for how to get there.
If you work with us, you’ll be supported by a diverse team whose foundation was built on financial wellness and a desire to serve all people.
Our team is rooted in a coaching philosophy but with the care of your best friend. Clients of FGA should expect a team who thinks of them as more than just numbers in an account, who sees them as unique individuals trying to accomplish something special, and most importantly, who wants to give sound financial guidance and advice to someone like them.
All financial shapes and sizes are welcome here! We do not have asset minimums. We will not judge the financial state you come to us in, but we can promise that we will be your partners on your financial journey.
