Our Timeline - Through the Years

Timothy Partners, LTD (Orlando, FL), manager and adviser of Timothy Plan, announced on Thursday, July 20th that the family of funds has eclipsed $1 billion in assets under management (AUM). This is a milestone moment for any packaged investment product, but for the family of mutual funds that started an entire movement, it is particularly special.

Timothy Plan has existed for over twenty years, helping investors align their financial goals with their values in a way that honors God. We continue to be passionate about this approach to investing and believe this is a better way to invest.

Celebrating 20 years of Timothy Plan came with a redesign of our logo and a fresh new look. Our new logo combined a number of elements, some more subtle, and expressed them in a clean, simple design.

• Shield (integrity and protection)
• T (for Timothy Plan—it can also be interpreted as a cross)
• Leaf (growth and life—the leaf shape viewed in connection to the base of T also implies a P)
• Acorn (looking at the overall shield shape with the stem up top it resembles an acorn—representing investing for the future)
• The choice of a classic looking serif font for "Timothy Plan" and the subhead communicates stability and trust

Timothy Plan operates under the foundational principle that God owns everything. This is why it matters what we do with our money and how we invest it.

Art Ally records a short video talking about Timothy Plan and why we invest in a way that is biblically responsible.

Fourth annual pro-life concert to help raise money for local pro-life organizations: Adoption by Shepherd Care, Greater Orlando Right to Life, JMJ Life Center, Inc., Pro-Life Action Ministries, Sanctuary Ministries, Life for Kids, and True Life Choice.

Third annual pro-life concert to help raise money for local pro-life organizations: Adoption by Shepherd Care, Greater Orlando Right to Life, JMJ Life Center, Inc., Pro-Life Action Ministries, Sanctuary Ministries, Life for Kids, and True Life Choice.

The Biblical Stewardship Seminar Series was authored by Art Ally along with major input from Randy Alcorn's book Money, Possessions, and Eternity and Howard Dayton, co-founder of Crown Financial Ministries's financial study. This Seminar Series presents a biblical model for not only handling finances but also family and cultural issues as well. The workshop has helped numerous Bible-believing Christians understand how to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to them and how to achieve financial contentment.

Second annual pro-life concert to help raise money for local pro-life organizations: Adoption by Shepherd Care, Greater Orlando Right to Life, JMJ Life Center, Inc., Pro-Life Action Ministries, Sanctuary Ministries, Life for Kids, and True Life Choice.

Deborah Hart wanted to bring local pro-lifers and organizations together to celebrate life through music. Along with Timothy Plan's support, they successfully launched the first in a series of four pro-life concerts that helped raise money for local pro-life organizations: Adoption by Shepherd Care, Greater Orlando Right to Life, JMJ Life Center, Inc., Pro-Life Action Ministries, Sanctuary Ministries, Life for Kids, and True Life Choice.

Arthur Ally announced the formation of the National Association of Christian Financial Consultants (NACFC), a group of investment professionals committed to investment and financial planning disciplines centered upon biblical principles. Mr. Ally was elected president and served from 1998–2001.

Jonathan Byrd (1952–2009) had a passion for God, food, and racing. He was a man that achieved a very high level of success in business, yet it was his passion for God that marked his life, particularly through generosity. Jonathan Byrd has likely supported more ministries and given away more Bibles than any man on earth.

All of us here at Timothy Plan and Timothy Partners, Ltd. are blessed to have known such a servant of God. He not only caught the vision of Timothy Plan, he put his money where his convictions were and became a significant investor in our fund at its launch. He has since become an invaluable equity partner in the company that operates what has now become the Timothy Plan family of mutual funds. It has been a long, hard road, and Jonathan has always been there for us with encouragement and counsel when we needed it most. His family continues his legacy, and Timothy Plan still shows up on the Jonathan Byrd Racing vehicles.

Timothy Plan's first marketing piece concealed a penny with the following question:

How much money is ok to have invested in abortion or pornography? The answer is simple. Not a penny.

Our first fund, Timothy Plan Fund, was a no-load mutual fund that filtered out investments in companies that are directly or indirectly involved in abortion or pornography. In addition, Timothy Plan Fund will not invest in any company directly involved in the production of alcohol, tobacco, or casino gambling. This no-load mutual fund was designed to allow Christian institutions and individuals the ability to match their investment decisions with their moral convictions and to do so without compromising investment performance opportunities.

Art Ally compared the Timothy Plan philosophy to that of Daniel in the Bible, where Daniel purposed not to defile himself by eating the King's royal food. Instead, he filtered out objectionable food and, after ten days, he and his friends were in much better health than those who ate the royal food. Likewise, Christians no longer have to invest in companies that operate contrary to their Christian world view.

The original board of trustees for Timothy Plan. Back Row from left to right: Mark Schweizer (Trustee), Gregory F. Tighe (Executive Vice President/Secretary), Dr. J.C. Mitchell (Treasurer). Front Row from left to right: Wesley W. Pennington (Trustee), Arthur D. Ally (President).

The "Timothy Plan" name was an inspiration of Art Ally's wife, Bonnie. She was currently studying 1 Timothy and felt verses 5:8 and 22 defined the purpose of the fund perfectly.

Our desire to be biblically founded came through in our name, and our first logo image (a scribe writing God's Holy Word) showed our commitment to submit all aspects of our business to the Lord and His Word.

At age 52, God called Art Ally to change his career path (a 15 year financial consultant/branch manager and 12 year public accountant) to launch America's first pro-life/pro-family mutual—fund. Through much prayer and faith in this calling, Mr. Ally sold his financial planning practice and pressed forward, moving into a nearby modest building, where Timothy Plan was born.

Raising one million dollars from a small group of loyal and faithful Christian investors through a local limited partnership (Timothy Partners, Ltd.), Mr. Ally went forth on the mission God had called him to embark upon.

Mr. Ally decided to initially focus on five major factors: abortion, pornography, alcohol, tobacco and casino gambling. Years later, the filters for anti-family entertainment and alternative lifestyles were added to the mix, rounding out the filters that the Timothy Plan is known for today.

In 1992, Arthur Ally, then president and owner of Covenant Financial Management, was challenged to design a retirement plan for pastors of independent churches and offer it on a national scale. Mr. Ally searched the entire investment industry for any professionally managed program that would complement the Christian world-view of evangelical pastors.

The search unveiled several socially filtered funds, which only filtered for a few social issues such as alcohol and tobacco, but none that filtered for more central issues such as abortion and pornography. The Lord used this challenge to burden Mr. Ally and cause him to rethink the current investment culture and ask the Lord if there was a better way—a way that would honor the Lord and allow others to invest with a clean conscience.

Through prayer and soul searching, he was convicted to make a life changing move. Mr. Ally spent the next two years developing and testing a moral filtering model. This quest brought some very uplifting results, since the majority of companies, not necessarily run by Christians, had moral ethics that passed the biblical filters placed over them. That discovery indicated the potential for a filtered fund to enjoy comparable performance to non-filtered mutual funds.

In 360 cities nationwide, close to 700,000 participants lined intersections to declare their support for the unborn and to raise awareness that abortion kills children. Florida had the strongest turnout of the nation, and Art Ally had the privilege to help organize Orlando's life chain with 20,000 people attending near downtown Orlando.

Not long after the success of the first pro-life chain, Art began planning for the second. He planned for 30,000 to be in attendance in the greater Orlando area.

The Christian Action Council, led by then president Art Ally, organized a commitment of 10,000 people from 200 churches to join in a "life rally" to make a very firm statement that abortion is killing children.

Art Ally continues to advocate for the lives of the unborn by holding a pro-life rally in Orlando, Florida.

Art Ally aligned with hundreds of others to stand for the protection of the unborn in Boca Raton. He served regularly as a volunteer for Why We Stand in the late 80s. This served to fuel his unwavering passion in for the protection of the lives of the unborn.

Art Ally, along with thirteen other businessmen, vowed to offer indigent pregnant women in Boca Raton a choice: If they reject abortion and choose life, they would help pay the cost of raising those children for 18 years.

Art Ally, branch manager of Shearson Lehman Brothers' Boca Raton operation, says that his office is heavily entrenched in financial planning as it relates to investment portfolio. Because the investment programs there are in all aspect of the market place, diversification insulates their investors, says Ally.

"We're not an aggressive kamikaze-type of trading house here," says Ally. "When the market is crashing, we don't die."

By day's end (October 19, 1987), the Dow Jones average crashed to 1,738.74, a loss of nearly 1,000 points from the year's high set last summer.

"We've just seen a year's worth of movement corrected in one day," said Art Ally, Shearson Lehman's Boca Raton branch manager. "It makes no sense; it's purely emotional, a real panic!'

Earlier, when volume hit 300 million shares, Ally said that traders were worried whether the market's computers could handle 500 million orders, as the tape ran more than an hour behind the heavy trading. It had never been tested beyond 412 million shares. "I think we're close to the bottom," Ally said. "I definitely would not be selling now. On a value basis, there are some great buys today."

Never being one to stay idle, Art buckled down to study and become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ^® so he could be more knowledgeable and better able to serve his clients.

Not long after returning to Florida, Art Ally was asked by Shearson Lehman/American Express to help open a new branch as Branch Manager.

After spending a few years as Branch Manager for Bache Halsey Stuart Shields Incorporated in Lexington, Kentucky, Art returned to Florida to provide financial services to clients through Shearson Lehman/American Express's Winter Park branch.

After serving as a Certified Public Accountant for four years with Gulf Oil Corporation, Art Ally moved his family to Florida and began his journey in the financial planning arena with Bache Halsey Stuart Shields Incorporated.

Arthur Ally earned his Certified Public Accountant license and took a job as an accountant with Gulf Oil Corporation. He maintained his CPA license for five years.