After 15 years in downtown Dowagiac, financial adviser Charles H. Maher the Friday before Thanksgiving opened an LPL Financial office at 212 S. Front St.

“Dowagiac’s been very good to Charlie Maher,” he said, “and I think Charlie Maher’s added value to Dowagiac. It’s positive for Charlie and Charlie’s family to continue to be in Dowagiac.”

He’s president of Cass County Habitat for Humanity (on leave for six months) and serves on the Downtown Development Authority.

“The college is helping” construct Habitat’s latest house on N. Front Street, “and the Land Bank Authority for the county, so it’s a very good community effort.”

“Amid an ever-changing investment landscape, investors need an expert and experienced partner who can guide them through the intricacies of investing and financial planning,” Maher said in an interview Friday in his new office before a bank of four computer screens where Scotty’s was once located.

A leading source of objective advice for accumulating and managing personal wealth, LPL formed in 1989 through the merger of two small brokerage firms, Linsco (established in 1968) and Private Ledger (founded in 1973).

LPL has been named the nation’s No. 1 independent brokerage firm for 12 straight years.

“My wife and I spent about 2 1/2 years doing our due diligence on independent broker-dealers,” Maher said.

“A lot of people don’t understand that broker-dealers are the back office, the compliance, the research, where statements are generated, where checks are issued from. I’ll be getting my principal’s license, which is branch manager. Banks use LPL as their broker-dealer to do compliance work and research.

“My investment advice has not changed and will not change” by leaving Edward Jones. “Some people think I’ve gone rogue and I’m going to be a stock jockey. One thing my tenure in the financial services business taught me is how to be a conservative financial adviser. That’s who I am and who I will continue to be, with other products I can bring in.

“We’re definitely in a different world of investing than five years ago or 10 years ago. Just since 2008, a totally different world,” he said. “In 10 years, two horrendously down markets. Those who try to time a market and buy the lows and sell the highs will never win, I truly believe.

“I often remind clients about December 1999 when the Y2K scare was going on. The world was coming apart. Our portfolios were going to be gone. But it didn’t happen. The tech bubble that burst wasn’t different than any other market correction. These things go in cycles. We happen to be in a particularly bad cycle and there’s no predicting when these cycles are going to come.

“The world of investing has changed inasmuch as we still buy quality in the right amounts and plan on holding it for long term, but we also need to be more nimble. Not trading, not panicking. So many times, what drives the market is a company’s ability to make profits. But what really drives the market is emotions. We sometimes need to get our emotions out of investing.”

Maher, a Sturgis native named for his grandfather Charlie, Western Michigan University’s baseball coach in the 1960s, wasn’t the kid who grew up reading stock tickers instead of box scores.

“I was a single parent who raised two kids by myself for 12 years. My son was 15 months old when I got custody, my daughter was 3,” Maher said. “As a single parent with two little ones, I was working as a purchasing agent for a company in Sturgis. Salesmen called on me and I (realized) that was the job I wanted. Sales is measured daily. There are definite benchmarks. If my sales were up, the company didn’t care if I was on the golf course, home with a sick kid or going to school with a kid.”

After his company closed, Maher decided, “If I’m going to get fired, I’m going to fire myself, so I started a medical supply company” he eventually sold, then partnered with a pharmacist on another venture.

“Then he bought me out. I went to my local Edward Jones financial adviser in Sturgis and told him I was going to start another business, lawn and garden. Sell mowers in the summer, leaf blowers in the fall, snow blowers in the winter and cow manure in the spring,” Maher laughs.

He didn’t feel “smart enough” to join Jones, but the offer was there: ‘You pass the securities test and we’ll teach you everything else.’ Here I am. This is not only my career, but my passion and my hobby. I don’t see myself retiring. I thoroughly enjoy this.”

Another passion is acting in community theater.

Maher, who continues to live on Lake Templene near Centreville in St. Joseph County, anticipated setting up shop in Battle Creek, but there was an opening in Dowagiac.

“My wife and I drove up from Cassopolis, across the railroad tracks, took a left into downtown and said, ‘Yes.’ We knew instantly this was the town where we wanted to be.”

They have four children ages 14 to 35.

He met Chris, who supervises Coldwater-based Adapt’s day program for developmentally disabled adults in Sturgis, when he was in the medical supply business and she was a social worker.

“I get that question quite often” about his long commute, Maher said.  “We’ve been there for 20 years with 135 feet of lake frontage, no neighbor on the left and the neighbor on the right’s house is back, so I’m surrounded by nobody.”

“I thoroughly love the relationships. Jones is a great firm that taught me well.” And it really is all about building relationships, said Maher, who often hears, “You probably don’t want to mess with my small account.”

“That’s wrong,” he said. “If a kid comes in with their first paycheck from mowing a lawn and they want to learn to invest, that money is just as important as $1 million because it’s all the money that person has — and it’s got to be treated that way. I believe everybody’s money is important, and every client deserves the same attention to their financial needs.”