Changing my Role at RBC Dominion Securities

 

Tax season has come to an end and the workload on our team tends to ease once that happens. This is the time of year I begin semi-annual review meetings with clients (May – August).

This season will be different as I have decided to begin the pathway towards retirement.

Instead of a simple review meeting, I will be sharing with you why now is the time to change my role at RBC Dominion Securities and how it will enhance your overall wealth management experience by offering a broader range of services that Markus and I alone aren’t able to offer.

I am grateful that circumstances last fall created a natural opportunity to join with Saul Hilchey’s wealth management team. The way Saul’s team functions is at the cutting edge of where client service models are heading. This makes my pathway to retirement a much easier walk.

I’d like to share the two main life reasons leading to my decision to begin the pathway to retirement.

Many of you know that my wife had a serious heart attack last June.

The cause of her heart attack turned out to be a genetic blood cancer and she is still receiving treatment for her condition. I can’t tell you how hard the past year has been for us. She has been so strong, and we have battled together the best we can.

But, being honest with myself, I feel worn out and spent. It is time to start taking better care of myself and my wife.

The second situation relates directly to the services we provide for you at RBC Dominion Securities.

I’m pretty sure you all know I am passionate about investing, markets, and current events impacting the economy.

But the role of an Investment Advisor has grown and matured past simply “the markets and investing”. RBC has invested billions of dollars in wealth management infrastructure that enhances your service and offers the most complete financial advice suite in Canada.

It takes a lot of time to be a great wealth manager. More time than I am willing to devote to the role at this stage of my career. I now have team members that are passionate about wealth management and devote most of their efforts to seek solutions for clients in these areas. Leveraging their passion and expertise on your behalf is the right thing to do to improve your RBC wealth management experience.

One of my clients, who runs a business centered around internal corporate communication structures, gave me some sage advice about how to properly move towards retirement making it a positive experience for everyone.

Step one is for our team to be clear about what each member’s role is going forward. What does each person love to do and do well? Can we continue to coordinate those strengths internally to offer a better client experience?

Step two is to communicate with you about the background of each of our team members and how everyone fits into the servicing of your financial plan. The next note I send out will clarify who you can contact when it comes to your needs or questions as team members have specific roles they fulfill.

As I begin the cycle of semiannual client meetings, I will do my best to answer your questions and be sure you get a chance to meet our entire team.

Let me share one more personal attribute about myself that also plays a huge role in this decision:

I have always believed that you do something 100% full throttle to the best of your ability. Over 36 years I have learned the language of the financial markets and done my best to translate it for you in a way that you could apply to your personal situation.

But I can’t run full throttle in the role of wealth manager. It requires a broad commitment to several fields of expertise, and I don’t have enough mental capacity at this stage of my life to give each field 100% due diligence.

This puts me in a place of internal conflict because I don’t do well at only 50% on anything!

With a team of five I believe everyone gets the chance to run at full throttle at what they do best! This is what our team is endeavoring to create for you!