[Norm] When I was in high school what they had in my yearbook was most unlikely to succeed and in a way I kind of laughed it off and from that day on I said just wait and see.
[Norm and Donna built a successful company over the past 25 years]
[Now it was time to pass it on]
We thought that's the easiest thing to do was to pass on to family.
[Donna] We have two children, and we had no concept of how to do this in a fair way to respect both girls when they had different goals.
When you have a business and you’re trying to bring it over to the family, you've got family dynamics involved in a business decision and that really a struggle.
When we first started out we were with Denise at the branch level. Denise helped us as much as she possibly could.
[Denise Parkes, CFP, PFP. Financial Planner. Royal Mutual Funds Inc.]
In order to retire when you're self-employed you either close the business, you sell the business, you give it to a family member. It's very difficult.
[Norm] And that's when she brought Bruce and Sandra on board.
[Bruce R. Wannamaker, CFA, CIM. Vice-President and Investment Counsellor. RBC Phillips, Hager and North Investment Counsel Inc. RBC Wealth Management]
[Sandra J. Stewart, CFA. Investment Counsellor RBC Phillips, Hager and North Investment Counsel Inc. RBC Wealth Management]
[Sandra] It's more than just their finances. It's their family histories, and their family dynamics, and their values, and their hopes and dreams, and it's much more important than numbers on a page.
[Bruce] The investments are always a corner stone of what we do and we continue to do that with them. But one of the things Donna said to us off the start was she wanted to have peace at the dinner table at Christmas every year, and so that's one thing we've never lost sight of.
[Donna] Everything has happened around this table.
[Photograph of Norm, Donna, and RBC employees standing in front of a dining room table]
We got all these brains around our table, sitting here trying to work on our problem, our situation focused on us.
[Norm] They come up with answers or they will find the answers.
There's just no way we could have accomplished this without the wealth management team. I mean we'd never be this far.
[Ryan Knipfel, CA, CFP. Financial Planning Specialist. RBC Wealth Management]
[Ryan] Often with business owners we’ll talk a little different options, sale of operating companies, sale of holding companies, what the income tax implications of the two different options could be, things like estate freezes.
[Donna] Ryan did a very in-depth analysis of our financial position, and then they brought Murray in.
[Murray A. Shapiro, LL.B., TEP. Vice-President, High Net Worth Planning Services. RBC Wealth Management]
[Murray] Our role high net-worth planning is to help assess the needs, help get the vision sorted, a plan that looks like we can achieve the vision, and then to bring in the players either internally or externally to make that all happen.
[Donna] We definitely hit some speed bumps, but they have taken us by the hand and gone through every step with us.
[Murray] We're going to probably have to be looking at a third-party sale and there's only so far, I can take that but now there’s James.
[James Wong, CA, CBV. Vice-President, High Net Worth Planning Services. RBC Wealth Management]
[James] My role was to help them understand. First of all, your business is valuable. It's extremely saleable and that you do have options. So, I went through the whole process of not just helping them understand the value of the company, but certainly what is the process if they were to sell the company to a third party, what that process looks like.
[Norm] I just cannot say enough about this team and what they've done for me, what they've done for Donna.
[Donna] They make sure that at the end of the day we're getting what we want. We’re taking care of our family and we get to retire peacefully with the kids and that's that's all we want.
That's all we wanted.
[Female Narrator] RBC Wealth Management is Canada's leading wealth manager. Our approach brings the best of RBC to you. Our resources, solutions, and full access to our team of experts through one single contact, your wealth manager.
[Financial Planning – High Net Worth Planning – Business Planning – Investment Management]
Simply put there's wealth in our approach.
[RBC Wealth Management – There’s Wealth in Our Approach]
This video is provided by RBC Wealth Management for informational purposes only. The comments contained in this video are general in nature, and do not constitute legal, investment, trust, estate, accounting or tax advice. RBC Dominion Securities Inc.*, Royal Trust Corporation of Canada, The Royal Trust Company, RBC PH&N Investment Counsel Inc., RBC Wealth Management Financial Services Inc. are affiliated corporate entities and member companies of RBC Wealth Management, a business segment of Royal Bank of Canada. *Member – Canadian Investor Protection Fund. Please visit www.rbc.com/legal/ for further information on the entities that are member companies of RBC Wealth Management. ®/TM Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under license. © 2021 Royal Bank of Canada. All rights reserved.
