How we use our time as individuals is the greatest mark of our priorities and desires. Time is of course a finite resource, none of us know how much time we will get to enjoy in our life and in recent years, the importance of spending time in a purposeful way is influencing our lifestyle choices. Knowing that time is finite, the burden of multiple financial decisions and tasks can be a worry. So, what is one to do, how can we avoid spending our time on undesirable activities, and instead maximize the purposeful time we spend on the activities we genuinely enjoy and crave.

                How we choose to spend our time directly impacts our overall wellbeing. Unwanted administrative tasks present a significant opportunity cost for how that time could have been better spent to improve our feelings of fulfillment. When it comes to investing and finances, many people start to feel overwhelmed with the management of their money. Even if they already have an investment advisor they might feel they need to track their investments and monitor them closely. As retirement is approaching, typically in the last 5-10 years of their career this becomes especially pressing. Keep in mind this is also the point in their career when they are perhaps most important to their company, they have slightly more freedom at work but would obviously choose to spend that freedom enjoying a leisurely  lunch or an early morning tee time rather than hunting down answers to how they should manage their finances in retirement. Luckily that burden can be easily lifted with the right plan in place.

                When we boil down what we do for our clients, on a foundational level we are attempting to free our clients from the burdens of administrative work they encounter when it comes to their finances. We have spent literal decades building solid plans customized to each client’s financial requirement and goals.   In days gone by, a defined benefit pension plan meant that when a person retired from their career they fell backwards into a continuing income stream that their employer had been setting aside for them all along. Today, the picture is not so simple. It is up to the individual to keep track of their savings and make sure they have enough and crucially to make sure the investments are working for them in the way they hoped it would. For our clients, we take over all of that burden and lift the weight of anxiety regarding their finances.

                Peace of mind is what leads to an enjoyable retirement. If these administrative tasks and anxieties weigh one down in retirement, their enjoyment of the golden years is seriously diminished. We do a number of things to lift that weight for our clients. First, we help them to understand exactly how much investment income they can be producing. In many cases, the income they are producing is enough to replace their salary and as a result they can financially retire if they wish. Secondly, we take the financial burden on as our own. No longer do our clients need to do it themselves and log into their investments from the beach to make sure they really can afford another pina colada. It should also be noted that our practice has been built on a mountain of trust from our existing and past clients. That trust that we have earned over the years is what allows our clients to rest assured that we are stewarding their wealth for them in the best way possible. We build this trust through regular reviews and ongoing communication with our clients. We are mindful not to become an administrative task ourselves and instead provide regular digestible updates and “on demand service” as our clients need them.

                We take our role seriously and appreciate the trust our clients have instilled in us. It is not lost on our team that the responsibility that comes along with this trust is enormous. It is often in the highest stress transitions that our clients come to us, they might be preparing to retire and dealing with the anxieties associated, or they are selling a business and dealing with the highly burdensome process of valuing and selling their company or possibly shifting through a divorce or trying to ascertain the best way to gift wealth to the next generation. All these life points are pivotal and require regrouping and decision making Our goal is to provide our expertise and experience in these situations to provide a simpler decision path and ultimately lift the stress and financial burden from the client.

                Once they are in retirement, much like Aerosmith, they “don’t want to miss a thing”.  Their ask of us is we manage their investments for them and keep the “paycheques” rolling into their bank accounts. Once again, they trust us to follow through on our approach. We build their personal pension plan and provide them with ongoing income from their investment portfolio. This allows our clients   to spend their time and life fruitfully, enjoying their leisure, pursuing their hobbies, and spending time with the people most important to them. In the end, this is what it has all been about, taking the most finite resource: time, and making the most of it. We are proud to say that we do everything we can for our clients such that they can enjoy the full extent of their time for themselves.

                To learn more about the way we think about time and its value to our clients, give us a call at 403-260-0568.