Marvin Mitchell: ‘I’m working in the memory of my grandmother’

Marvin Mitchell is the president and founder of Compass Retirement Solutions and is in the top 1 percent of retirement advisors nationwide. Mitchell was born and raised in St. Louis and graduated from Parkway North High School. From there he went on to Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville and became the first member of his family to go to and graduate from college. 

While he was attending law school at Texas Southern University, his grandmother, Betty, was diagnosed with cancer. Mitchell made the decision to come back from school to be by his grandmothers side.

“My grandma passed away with very little money due to receiving bad financial advice,” Mitchell said. That family tragedy became the catalyst in his decision to go into finance and become a financial advisor.

Launching his career at Edward Jones, he remained there for about five years. At age 21, he founded his own practice, Compass Retirement Solutions, and he has been in business for 10 years. He describes the goal at Compass as being able to protect his clients assets in retirement and making sure they get a better return.

“We don’t focus on aggressive investments,” he said. “We put people in places where, when the market goes down, they don’t lose any money at all, and when the market goes up they can get some of that return.”

Often described as an advisor who cares deeply for each and every one of his clients, Mitchell attributes this to the fact that he has “a big why” – the reason why he initially went into the field and why he continues to do the work now.

“I understand the plight of baby boomers.” he says. “Every day I’m working in the memory of my grandmother, that hopefully the bad advice she was given doesn’t happen to anyone else,” he said. “I made it my mission to educate all communities, but especially to come back and give that advice to our community. I’m more focused on helping them and not just earning a commission, and people can tell. I make things simple and easy to understand, and I think people appreciate that.”

Mitchell described the culture at Compass Retirement Solutions as one of community involvement and family. He said his business brings the feeling of Southern hospitality to St. Louis. He said Compass tried to develop the kind of relationship with their clients where they know that it’s not just about a transaction.

“They become a part of a family,” Mitchell said. “We do events to keep people involved so they know it’s not just a one-time thing.”  

For years Mitchell has been a generous contributor to many organizations, such as 100 Black Men and Pink Angels Cancer Foundation. “To whom much is given, much is expected,” he said.

Outside of Compass Retirement Solutions, he hosts a weekly radio show “Rethinking Retirement” on KTRS every Sunday.  He is a speaker, coach and trainer certified by the John Maxwell Company and a top 5 finalist for National Advisor of the Year. He is the author of  “Protecting your Retirement Nest Egg: What the Wall Street Brokers and Bankers Don’t Want you to Know.” He is also a 2016 recipient of the St. Louis County NAACP’s prestigious Legacy Award.

Mitchell hopes to one day start a Success High School. “I want it to be a place where people are taught some of the things they don’t hear about in normal high school,” he said. He would want it to be a high school where students come dressed to impress. They would learn about finances, investments, community service and entrepreneurship among their core studies. Beginning Freshman year, the students would develop a business plan and community service project that they must expand on until graduation.

Given that he is the first person in his family to earn a college degree, Mitchell is passionate about helping first-generation men earn a college education.

“I understand that with a  single mom the odds were stacked against me, so one of my biggest missions is to make sure that I go back to the kids – not necessarily the A students, but those on the borderline of not going to college – and give them the extra belief that they can do it too.”