C.H. Douglas & Gray Wealth Management is an independent financial planning firm "dedicated to working closely with every client to develop and implement sound financial strategies." They are located at 7040 North College Avenue in the former Merchants Bank branch.

Chris Douglas and Tom Gray have long-time ties to the Broad Ripple area. Douglas is an eighth generation Hoosier. "My grandmother lived in this neighborhood and Tom had a paper route in this area. It (the building) was the right size for us. It's truly a unique location. I've reoriented my life a bit towards Broad Ripple, going there to run errands. My mom and dad went to BRHS. Dad was a soda jerk at Lobraico's on the northeast corner of Guilford Avenue and Westfield Boulevard," he recalled.

Gray's interest in finance began at an early age: "My father was the chief financial officer of GenAir Corporation. He would come home every night and find out what his stock prices were doing. Like Chris, I've always had an acclimation to it and I've always been aware of investments and their importance. As opposed to families who didn't have an experience with investments, investments were always a background assumption for us. It was a business that we felt qualified to engage in, that gave us the ability to be independent, and in which independence is a virtue."

A former Air Force intelligence officer, Douglas followed in family footsteps of business ownership.

"My education had a strong finance-related component to it at the Wharton School, but when I first returned to Indiana, it was with an eye towards manufacturing. I represented an Indiana manufacturer in Asia, then I ran a small manufacturer which I attempted unsuccessfully to buy. I entered the financial industry in 1999 when the walls fell between banking, investing and insurance. It seemed to me that we could start a business that could serve families in all aspects."

Douglas and Gray first met at Northview Middle School as classmates. They graduated from North Central High School, but took separate paths to college. Douglas earned his Bachelor's degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Gray graduated from Northwestern University and also received a PhD from Princeton University in German Literature and Philosophy. "We fell out of contact and then resumed contact when I moved back in 2000. I worked on Wall Street from the fall of 1994 to the fall of 1999," Gray mentioned. Earning a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1998, he was an international equities analyst with Dean Witter, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

Douglas' fluency in Mandarin Chinese began at an early age. "I decided to study Chinese at North Central when Deng Xiao Ping was Premier. I was about to go Princeton on an Air Force scholarship and thought if I studied Chinese, it would put me into a more interesting role in the Air Force. They gave me a scholarship for it..... then sent me to Alaska! Once out of business school, I traveled to China in the 1990s giving seminars in Chinese on the installation of electric motors made here in Indiana."

A shared interest in investing was a catalyst in starting their investment advisory firm. Their staff includes investment advisor Doris J. Roberts, account administrator Misty Carmen and financial analyst Brian Rykovich.

"I think that one thing that has contributed to this partnership is that we have the same sense of roots and ethics, and the same belief that we're going to be here for a very long time to come. We don't ever want to have a client wonder why we did something. Tom and I have complimentary styles. I tend to think both that the market is efficient, so to try to outperform it through stock picking can be a fool's errand, but that the market can also be so irrational that it's important to identify and mitigate risk," Douglas noted. Gray noted a quote from the late economist John Maynard Keynes: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

"What inspired us to become independent a decade ago was a desire to avoid a lot of the conflicts of interest that we saw in the industry," said Douglas. We wanted to be fee-based, with a fiduciary responsibility to our clients rather than to any institution. I think that independence has served us well through the past decade. The value we add is to be able to think skeptically about the markets. There's so much information out there. We're able to follow the theories and the trends, the competing and often differing opinions, in a way that our clients are not able to. It's not that our clients couldn't do this work, but they've got their own businesses to run. It's tough to stay on top of it. We try to do that, but with humility. Studies show that the trait bad forecasters share is ego and overconfidence; good ones have humility. I feel that we never know enough. Because we are always looking for new information, we serve as an effective source of early warning for our clients," he explained.

Douglas described their financial services: "Our core strength is certainly assets and investment management, managing portfolios for households, an institution or two, and trusts. We do financial planning and provide insurance on an as-needed basis. We primarily use Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to construct investor portfolios. There are times when it is appropriate to index and then times when an actively managed fund will get the job done better. Our fees start off at one percent and go down from there. When we first meet our clients, it is a bonding experience. We get to know their lives thoroughly, and learn what they want to accomplish in life, because money is a means to an end.

"People shouldn't be intimated by us. We're members of the community," Douglas emphasized. "And it's important work. We know we have clients' lives in our hands here. It is rewarding seeing clients, who have become friends, be able to progress through life and, in some instances, traverse even tragedy, yet ultimately achieve fulfillment as a product of the work we've done for them."

An updated economic blog ("The Advisory") is provided by Douglas and Gray at their website, www.chdouglas.com. Information on their financial products and services can be read, along with their investment philosophy, and also can be obtained by calling 843-8300.

Douglas reflected on the domestic and international economy: "Europe is in recession and showing no signs of resolving its challenges. It's creating a drag not just for the U.S., but as significantly, for nations like China which have contributed so much to world growth themselves. So we have problems reverberating all across the globe, and in combination with our own political dysfunction. Under the circumstances, we, like most, anticipate relatively slow growth ahead, with a lot of volatility. From a long-term perspective, large company stocks appear to be reasonably valued provided that current earnings levels can be maintained. From a short-term perspective, there are several reasons to be concerned. A lot rides on what comes out of Washington."

"We are cautiously optimistic," Gray said. "Companies are looking at many hurdles out there; that's why they're sitting on hordes of cash." Douglas added, "They're also wondering where demand is going to come from."

"The Vanguard image of a sailing ship is apt for this business," Douglas observed. "We have winds and currents that shift. Seas that get rough. We're constantly scanning the horizon for the next gust, the next calm, the next storm, and thinking how to adjust the sails to get our clients through as successfully as possible."

Chris Douglas, Tom Gray and their staff can help you financially navigate these challenging economic times with their insightful investment knowledge and perspective.