Running a financial planning business in the new millennium

By Mike Switzer

Published June 6, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT

Anchor Investment Management in Columbia, SC — Anchor Investment Management, LLC

Since the current millennium started 25 years ago, we have experienced significant financial upheavals. Everything from Y2k fears to the Great Recession to the Pandemic and now to massive government layoffs and tariffs. How does a financial planning firm cope and grow during these challenging times? Well, let’s ask one that was born when it all started. Mike Switzer interviews Margaret Ellen Pender, a principal at Anchor Investment Management in Columbia, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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