Your Wealth Management team

Michel Bétournay, Financial Planner, obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (major in accounting) from HEC Montréal in 1991, and earned the Financial Planner designation from the Quebec Institute of Financial Planners (IQPF) in 2002.

Michel joined RBC Financial Group in 1993, and has fourteen years’ experience as a Financial Planner, twelve of which were spent with the Compass Financial Planning team.

Michel’s role is to work with and support your advisor in preparing and presenting comprehensive Compass Financial Plans for clients.

Shawna is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), and holds a Master of Taxation (MTax) degree from the University of Waterloo as well as her Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from McGill University. She is also a Financial Planner (F. Pl.), duly registered under the Institut Québécois de Planification Financière (IQPF).

Prior to joining RBC, Shawna was a taxation manager at a Montreal based accountant firm, providing sophisticated tax and wealth management planning to high net worth individuals and corporate clients.

Shawna's area of expertise includes personal, corporate and estate tax planning, wealth preservation and financial planning. As a Financial Planning Specialist at RBC Family Office Services, Shawna works jointly with your advisor to prepare and present your comprehensive Compass Financial Plan.

Nader holds a Master’s degree in taxation (LL.M. Tax.) from HEC Montreal and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Moncton (NB). He is also a Financial Planner (F. Pl.), duly registered under the Institut Québécois de Planification Financière (IQPF).

Prior to joining RBC Wealth Management, Nader worked at a major accounting firms and other firms within the financial services industry, providing sophisticated tax and wealth management planning to high net worth individuals and corporate clients.

Nader’s areas of expertise include personal and corporate tax planning, taxation of life insurance, wealth preservation, and financial planning. As a Financial Planning Specialist at RBC Family Office Services, Nader works jointly with your advisor to prepare and present your comprehensive Compass Financial Plan.

Nathalie specializes in tax and estate planning for ultra-high-net-worth families.

As a Vice President, High Net Worth Planning Services, Nathalie, together with your primary RBC advisor, helps you explore succession, tax, retirement and estate planning issues you face as a high-net-worth client.

Nathalie has a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and a Master’s degree in Tax from the University of Sherbrooke. She has also completed a Master in Business Administration from Laval University and a Bachelor degree in international commerce from l’École Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) in Poitiers, France. She is a Certified Financial Planner and has completed the Securities Dealers Course from the Canadian Securities Institute.

Nathalie has more than 20 years of experience in tax, charity and estate planning consulting. Nathalie regularly gives lectures at the Association de planification fiscale et financière (APFF) annual conferences and technical seminars, as well as at other professional association events, and is an active writer of articles on topics related to tax, charity and estate planning.

Nathalie is an active member of the executive committee of Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (Quebec branch). She is also a member of the Association de planification fiscale et financière, the Institut Québécois de planification financière (IQPF) and the Canadian Tax Foundation (CTF).

Paule specializes in tax and estate planning for ultra-high-net-worth families.

Her guidance supports clients in their relationships with their external professional advisors, with whom she frequently interacts.

Paule has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) and a Master’s degree in Tax Law from the Montreal University. She has completed the Securities Dealers Course from the Canadian Securities Institute.

As a Chartered Professional Accountant, Paule has more than 30 years of experience in tax and estate planning consulting, in CA firms as well as in life insurance and securities dealer companies. Paule is a frequent lecturer at annual conferences and technical seminars of l’Association de planification fiscale et financière and other professional associations and an active writer of reference papers on tax and estate planning topics.

Paule is a member of the executive committee of STEP Montreal and is regularly involved in various committees of the Association de planification fiscale et successorale. Paule is a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec, the l’Association de planification fiscale et successorale, the Canadian Tax Foundation, the International Fiscal Association and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Prior to joining RBC, Nathalie specialized in corporate commercial law and estate and trust law during her eleven years in private practice.

She focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions and tax driven corporate transactions, advising small and medium size businesses in connection with day to day requirements, such as shareholder issues, restructuring, strategic alliances and standard agreements. In addition, Nathalie focused on estate and trust planning, tax planning and estate administration and liquidation, implementation of tax and estate plans, Wills, trusts, corporate reorganizations, business succession plans and wealth preservation.

In 2010, Nathalie joined RBC, assisting clients with their overall tax and estate planning, and in 2014, assumed her present position, specializing in assisting high-net-worth clients with their succession, tax, retirement and estate planning.

Nathalie obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree (political science) from Concordia University in 1992. She obtained her law degree from l’Université de Montréal Faculty of Law in 1995. She was called to the Barreau du Québec in 2000. Nathalie also completed her CICA in-depth tax courses, Parts I and II.

She is an active member of The Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (Quebec chapter) and the Canadian Bar Association (Quebec).

Prior to joining RBC Wealth Management, Joseph Di Niro began his career as a Notary in private practice at a notarial firm in Montreal. During this period, Joseph developed an expertise in Will and estate planning and also acquired specialized knowledge in estate settlements and non-contentious matters. To further his knowledge in the field of taxation, Joseph later joined a multinational accounting organization, where he specialized in tax planning for individual and corporate clients. Member of the Board of Notaries of the Province of Quebec (Chambre des Notaires du Québec) since 2010, Joseph obtained his Notarial Law Degree (D.D.N.) from Université de Montréal in 2009, after having obtained his Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) from the Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM) in 2007. Joseph is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Taxation from the University of Sherbrooke.

When everything matters: it is Noel who gets the call for the most critical situations and complex clients.

With over 25 years' experience in the financial services industry, Noel is different because of what he calls Science and Simplicity. As a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries he has extensive technical knowledge to share, yet advisors and clients alike remark how simply he articulates the most complex issues. These skills are what lead people to call Noel and his team when everything matters.

With the vision to be a world leader in providing life insurance solutions for affluent families and an intense enthusiasm for work, it is Noel's zest for life that sets him apart. He has a habit of grabbing the mic, a passion for extreme sports and a belief that the best can be even better.

As an Estate Planning Specialist, Daniel Duchesne gives advisors and their clients something they weren’t expecting. A different discussion about life insurance – one in which they are completely comfortable.

As Daniel puts it, “So many clients say: ‘Why has no one had this discussion with me before?’ The image they had of life insurance is transformed. They say, ‘Wow – I didn’t know insurance could do that.’”

Daniel has an innate ability to put those around him at ease – by simplifying complex matters. His goal is to have two happy clients, the advisor and their client.

Everything he and his team do is for one single reason – to help clients preserve and enhance personal and corporate wealth. They are always asking themselves: “If the client was our parent, would we recommend the same thing?”