About Marathon Mission ®

We are a fee-only Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm. Fee-only means that we charge a fee for our investment advice. We are not salespeople and do not sell any products to our clients. We do not collect commissions in any shape or form. Investment management and financial planning is offered solely by Michael Ryan, a Certified Financial Planner professional. We work with our clients on a fiduciary basis, which means we have a legal responsibility to act in our client’s best interest in everything we do. We are held to a higher standard. A legal standard. We feel this is a moral obligation that we willingly accept. As an RIA, we are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, Section 206, we are considered fiduciaries. Marathon Mission® always makes decisions and recommendations from the viewpoint of what we would do, considering the knowledge we have, if we were the client. To learn more about the CFP fiduciary standard click here. For more information about the SEC and their fiduciary rule click here.

It has become common-place for brokers to call themselves financial advisers, which has created the illusion that there is no difference in standard of care and responsibility to the client between an adviser and a fiduciary. Over time, this has evolved to the point that many “financial advisers” have come to call themselves “fee-based” which further confuses the public since “fee-based” sounds a lot like “fee-only”. A registered representative of a broker dealer who calls him or herself a financial adviser or fee-based adviser is considered a salesperson under FINRA, the regulatory body created by Congress that oversees them. Here is a link for more information: FINRA. Under FINRA, these advisers are generally required to have reason to believe that the investments they sell you are suitable for you. That’s a far cry from being a fiduciary and having a legal obligation to act in a client’s best interest.

Marathon Mission® believes that given the choice, investors would prefer an adviser who is held to a higher standard of care and legally bound to act in their best interest. As the investing public becomes more acutely aware of this difference, they will demand it. We are here now, and will be in the future, with open arms to welcome clients who want to have the peace of mind that their life’s savings are in the hands of knowledgeable and caring people who have made it their mission to help them thrive through the marathon of life.


How We Get Paid

Marathon Mission® is a fee-only Registered Investment Advisory firm. Our firm works exclusively as a fiduciary with every client and has a legal obligation to act in his or her best interest. We charge fees for the advice we give on investment management and financial planning. These costs are entered as a line item on your statements and are clear and easy to understand.

There are no additional hidden fees paid to our firm from the investments we recommend. There are many situations where investors have no idea what they are paying their adviser because their fees are buried in the operating costs of their investments. We at Marathon Mission®  believe that investors should not have to guess or wonder what they are paying their adviser. We do not and cannot legally receive commissions in any shape or form on any investments. What you see on your statement is the actual amount that is being paid to our firm. We believe that it is unethical to operate any other way, and that the future of our industry is a transparent and easy to understand compensation structure.

We understand that each client is different and has different financial goals and needs. Some clients hire us for investment advice and money management only. Others are also in need of comprehensive financial planning. The fees we charge are in line with industry standards and are based on the size of the portfolio being managed and the scope of any financial planning engagement. Contact us at info@marathonmissionwealth.com for more info on the fees we charge and the services we provide.


Michael Ryan, CFP

Michael Ryan grew up in Albany County, New York, and never left. He still lives there today with his wife and family. He graduated from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance with a concentration in accounting.

In early 1992, he joined a division of Raymond James Financial, and cleared through Raymond James for the next 25 years. In January, 2008 he earned his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. During the summer of 2017, he left Raymond James to establish his own Registered Investment Advisory firm, Marathon Mission®.

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