The History of MCG

What happens when your clients need a service that no one is offering?

You offer it yourself. Just ask Don Schlosser.

The year was 1976. "In those days, third-party administration for retirement plans was done quite badly by insurance companies and banks," remembers Don, who had left a 20-year career in pharmaceutical sales to work in the insurance industry. "I didn't want my clients to have to suffer the consequences of terrible service. So I decided to do the administration myself."

Midsouth Pension Consultants was born. Operating out of an office in Nashville's West End, Don began offering third-party administration services to his retirement plan clients. "This was definitely a side business for me," he says. "I just wanted my clients to have the kind of service that I knew was possible but wasn't available anywhere else."

Word got out about his service-oriented approach and the phone started ringing. "Other insurance agents started asking me to do the administration for their retirement plans. I was also getting calls from companies who were having bad experiences with their TPAs," Don remembers. "I worked a lot of 18 hour days but it was worth it because my clients were getting real service."

By 1991, Don had grown the business to about 85 clients. He had incorporated, hired his wife to be the company secretary, and was relying on college interns to help with client accounts. One intern, a Lipscomb University student named Jason Carpenter, showed exceptional aptitude for the work. "Even though Jason was in his early 20s, I could see that he was one of those people who could interact well with clients without losing sight of the details," he recalls. "You don't find a lot of people who are good at both."

By 1997, Don was at a turning point. He had run Midsouth Pension Consultants as a sideline for more than two decades and his workload was steady, thanks to the growing popularity of 401(k) plans. Now in his mid 60s, Don was concerned about his future. "I knew I needed an exit strategy so I could retire. I needed to find a partner, someone I trusted who could take the business to the next level."

That someone was Jason Carpenter, who joined as partner in 1998. In late 2001, Don retired, leaving Jason as sole owner of the business. By the end of 2002, Richard Tatum, another Lipscomb student who had interned for Midsouth Pension Consultants in 1998, became partner.

Jason and Richard began positioning the firm for growth. They streamlined processes, invested in technology, upgraded IT systems, offered a wider variety of investment products, and began developing new services that would further streamline workflows for their pension clients.

Payroll services were the first to come on line. In November 2002, Midsouth Payroll Solutions was launched, led by Jason Poling, the company's accountant who joined the company as the third managing partner.

By late 2002, the company had outgrown its West End office and moved to a larger location on Armory Drive. As the payroll business grew, the managing partners looked for other ways to offload administrative burdens for their clients. In 2005, Midsouth HR was born and Veronica Franks, a human resources consultant with extensive experience designing strategic and administrative solutions for small business owners, became the company's fourth managing partner. In 2007, the company completed its second growth-related relocation, moving to a spacious suite of offices in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Today, all three companies--Midsouth Pension Consulting, Midsouth Payroll Solutions and Midsouth HR--are known collectively as Midsouth Consulting Group. The company offers turnkey outsourcing solutions that simplify workforce management and retirement plan administration. The company's 31 employees serve 800 clients in more than 20 states.

Don Schlosser looks back at the company's growth with pride. "When I left in 2001, I thought the company was as big as it could get," he says. "But Jason and Richard had other ideas. In the kernel of what I had created, they envisioned a company that would eliminate administrative problems that our pension clients had been living with for years. Their vision has built a remarkable business."