Brothers Chris and Samuel Dixon started Oxford Advisory Group to bring sound retirement planning strategies to families in Central Florida.

Chris and Samuel Dixon are far from alone in the fact that they witnessed a loved one suffer dire financial consequences as a result of the Great Recession in 2008. What makes the brothers different from most, however, is that they were inspired to do something about it.

Having seen their beloved grandmother lose a significant portion of the savings she had worked so hard to accumulate through no fault of her own, the Dixons were fueled to take their complementary talents and use them to help others. They eventually formed their own independent financial services firm, Oxford Advisory Group, which has grown to five locations in Central Florida and has experienced unparalleled success in the nine years since it was founded.

“Our main motivation for starting this company was because our grandmother, or ‘Nana’ as we call her, really got hammered back in ’08,” Chris Dixon says. “That made me quite angry, and it left a lasting impression on both of us. Our goal is to make sure no one else’s nana has to go through what ours went through.”

Offering a wide range of services, including wealth management and investment guidance, Oxford Advisory Group is a full-fledged planning firm that goes above and beyond just managing retirement accounts. Instead, its team works tirelessly to build a rapport with clients and devise a detailed, long-term blueprint for retirement that is tailored specifically to each person who walks through the door.

“You would be very surprised: We talk to a lot of people who are in highly taxable accounts and they come in with no real investment plan,” Chris says. “They go to a firm where they’re put into a one-size-fits-all model, and there’s no real management happening. When you go to these cookie-cutter firms, they don’t take into account market downturns, inflation and everything else that revolves around the client. With us, it’s all about the journey, and as life changes we adjust the plan to make sure that it’s sustainable.”

With a staff of high-character employees who have the same passion for treating clients like family members, Oxford has set out to change the landscape in financial planning. With new offices in Tampa and Spring Hill, the team can reach even more clients with the same approach that has proven so successful. It’s all about educating clients and treating each meeting like a financial checkup in which they diagnose and analyze any potential issues.

“We do a good job of explaining the hows and the whys,” Chris says. “Because we don’t push products and because we’re serious about retirement planning, we’ll have four or five meetings with someone and make sure they understand what we’re trying to accomplish.

“Being invested in your working years is a lot different than being invested in your retirement years, because in your working years, your job pays you on Friday, and in your retirement years, your money pays you on Friday. That’s why we customize portfolios and we use different kinds of investments. We prescribe those after we really understand what the client’s goals are and what their monetary needs are every month to survive without their money running out.”

Dixon, who works strictly with clients 55 and older, finds that many people have simply been feeding into a 401(k) plan through their working years without fully understanding how to invest. Since life expectancy has risen substantially in the United States in recent decades, it is critical for retirees to make sure they have enough money to live comfortably.

“Many people are left on their own on how to distribute that money throughout retirement and make it last, and that’s where we step in,” he says. “When you step on the football field you have plays that you have drawn up and you go out and execute. In retirement, it’s the same thing: You need to have plays drawn up.”

When Oxford is able to intervene and get clients on track for a secure future, there is no better feeling. Dixon shares the story of a woman they recently assisted.

“She was purposely not spending a lot in retirement because she’s just gotten started and she wants to make sure her money lasts,” he says. “She was living pretty meagerly, but after we got involved, now she’s able to spend about four times more money per month than she thought. That not only brought her peace of mind, but a lot of happiness and joy.”

Examples like that make it easy to understand how both Chris and Samuel Dixon were inducted into the Advisor’s Excel Hall of Fame, an honor usually bestowed upon those with two decades or more in the industry. Oxford Advisory Group has received numerous awards as a firm, as well, and is the official wealth management partner of Florida State University.

But as impressive as those accolades are, nothing beats helping someone achieve his or her dreams for retirement, whether that be traveling, spoiling grandchildren or pursuing new hobbies.

“The object is to keep helping families and keep growing as a firm to be able to help more families,” Chris says. “We want to be that staple in the community, that refuge that people know they can turn to.”

Oxford Advisory Group
Locations in Orlando, Tampa, Clermont, Mount Dora and Spring Hill
(407) 743-6468
OxfordAdvisoryGroup.com