The Eastern Progress - Thursday, September 11, 1997

Eastern grad goes to ‘Top of Table’

by Laettia Clayton, Activities co-editor

For someone who was once on the clean-up crew at the Kentucky Horse Park, 1981 Eastern graduate Don McNay has come a long way.

This year, McNay was the only Kentuckian to be named to the Top of the Million Dollar Round Table for his achievements in the field of financial planning, Only about 500 people worldwide are given this honor.

McNay has owned his business, The McNay Settlement Group, Inc. in Lexington for 15 years, but this is the first year he was named to the Top of the Table.

According to The Million Dollar Round Table’s web site, the association was founded in 1927 and is an international association of qualifying professionals in the financial services industry.

Top of the Table (TOT), which was created in 1977, is the highest of the three levels of membership. It is also the highest form of recognition given in the financial industry.

McNay said he has been a member of The Million Dollar Round Table for the past 11 years and was named to The Court of the Table - the second level - for the past four years.

In order to be named to TOT, a member must meet certain production requirements and ethical standards, the web site said. The 1997 production requirement for TOT is $309,000 in first-year commissions in the United States.

Although McNay has earned master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University and The American College in Pennsylvania, he attributes much of the credit for his success to the education he got at Eastern.

He said he had teachers at Eastern who took time with him individually and he was involved in more activities, such as student senate, that he might have been at a larger school.

“I love EKU,” McNay said. “There was a personal touch to my education. It was the opportunity I needed at that time in my life.”

McNay has two stepdaughters, one of whom is presently a sophomore at Eastern.

He and his wife, Landra Lewis, have recently moved from Lexington to northern Madison County with their two daughters and two cats. McNay is originally from Edgewood in Northern Kentucky.

Even though McNay majored in political science and journalism at Eastern, he became interested in financial planning in 1982 by “sheer accident.”

“Originally I wanted to be a political campaign manager,” he said.

He then became acquainted with former gubernatorial candidate Bob Babbage, who helped get him started in the financial planning field.

“He convinced me that the financial planning business would be a good career move for me,” McNay said of Babbage.

In 1983, McNay read about the concept of structured settlements, which was then popular in California and attended some seminars there.

He also began helping injury victims who were involved in lawsuits with settlements.

In the past eight years McNay said he has handled a lot of workman’s compensation cases in Kentucky and its surrounding states.

“I’m always referred by attorneys,” McNay said. “I am focused on people with unique financial problems. It’s very specialized.”

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