Thanks for taking a moment to learn something about me.
In the year 2000 I made the defining decision of my career. Things were going well at a well-known US-based investment dealer, but I was becoming frustrated with being told by management what proprietary products to sell to my clients. I resisted. Most of these manufactured products made money for the firm but not so much for my clients. I realized that any financial institution that both manufactures investment products and sells investment advice is in a conflict of interest.
So I left and started my own investment firm, yourCFO Advisory Group, and a life insurance and living benefits company called yourCFO Insurance Solutions. Not an easy task by any means. I wanted the name to reflect our focus on our clients and the expertise we provide. By this time I had realized just how connected estate planning is with life insurance and with investments in equities, bonds, and alternatives. Other independent-thinking advisors joined the yourCFO companies, a wonderful validation that I had taken the right independent path for both advisors and clients. Over the next 15 years we navigated through 9/11, the tech meltdown, and the great recession of 2008 and 2009. These are the rocky times when you really earn your keep with your clients, like most recently with the onset of Covid. The world can be a scary place at times, and like a good airline captain, we all need that calm voice when things get a little bumpy.
The road to that decision started in Burlington, where I grew up and where since childhood I have always been entrepreneurial: paper routes, cutting lawns, and shovelling snow back in the days we had snow. A graduate of Nelson, I made many lifelong friends and learned a great lesson, that I had to work hard and smart to make my way in the world. After upgrading my marks, I was onto Wilfrid Laurier for a Hons. BBA. Here I began to figure out what I did not want to do with my career. Business interested me, but not working in the corporate world, so I pointed myself to the world of accounting, thinking this would be a great way to learn how family businesses work, and I was right. After articling with Clarkson Gordon (now Ernst & Young) and obtaining my CA, I decided a life in public accounting was not in the cards. So, onto McMaster and an MBA, still trying to decide how to spend the next 50 years or so.
Through a family connection I found myself in the Wood Gundy training program. It was the second week of October 1987 when the stock market crash occurred. I thought I would give the financial world a shot despite the turmoil at the time. I figured I could build a client base and utilize my financial and tax knowledge to help families build a financial plan to grow and protect their wealth. Doing so over these many years, I have gained tremendous pleasure in helping people.
In 2014 my partner Jordan Matters joined me. You will have to meet Jordan to appreciate what a knowledgeable, talented, and outstanding person he is. Today we enjoy an independent environment where we conduct life insurance business through Leyland & Matters, using TruStone Financial as our Managing General Agency.
Throughout my career I have had the pleasure of serving our community by chairing the Leadership Group of the United Way, and while doing so I had the pleasure of having hockey legend Bobby Orr, a client, act as honourary co-chair. Everything you have heard about Mr. Orr is true. He is a true gentleman and one of the nicest people. I have also served on the Investment Committee of the Burlington Community Foundation.
And on a personal note, in 2013, alongside my children Andrew and Claire, we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. As the mountain guides say, pole pole in Swahili, which means slowly, slowly. Also the best way to protect and grow your wealth.
