Meeting Your Clients’ Bigger Financial Needs Together
Best Practices Podcast
Special Guest, Karen Gowdy, Senior Estate and Insurance Advisor. Karen, with a remarkable 35-year career in the Financial Services & Insurance Industry, provides comprehensive advice for personal and corporate estate and insurance. Areas of expertise include estate creation and preservation techniques and corporate financial security planning, all with an emphasis on taxes and liquidity. Her work is especially key to delivering exceptional client experiences to all advisors and clients across Eastern Ontario. Beyond her advisory roles, Karen’s mantra is family first.
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Categorize and Analyze
Best Practices Podcast
In this episode, we're talking about the importance of client segmentation and tiered service in financial advisory teams emphasizing the need for ongoing analysis and categorization of clients to enhance service delivery and business growth. Tools to go with this episode are located
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Hiring a New Team Member
Best Practices Podcast
In today’s episode, we’re diving into a crucial topic for any growing business: Hiring a New Team Member, exploring smart strategies to build stronger, more effective teams. Before you jump into posting that job opening, it’s essential to pause and reflect. Have you truly explored all options to meet your workload with your current team? Sometimes, reassigning roles, streamlining processes through automation, or reshaping client relationships can increase capacity without the need for new hires. If not, then it’s time to look carefully at what skills your team is missing and design a...
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Bringing New Opportunities to Your Client
Best Practices Podcast
Today, we’re diving into a topic many find challenging yet incredibly rewarding — how to expand your role beyond offering great financial products and services, and become a trusted consultant who addresses your clients’ broader wealth management needs, including estate planning. We know it’s not always easy to talk about what happens after life — taxes, inheritance, and protecting assets for heirs. But by helping your clients plan thoughtfully for the future, you create deeper, longer-term relationships and open doors to substantial new business opportunities for yourself. In this...
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Communicating Change
Best Practices Podcast
In a world where markets shift overnight, technologies evolve daily, and ways of working transform constantly, your clients’ financial lives are in flux — sometimes exciting, sometimes uncertain. Their need for clear, timely, and personalized communication has never been greater. But it’s not just about what you say — it’s how you say it, and *where*. Tools for
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Exploring the intersection of life, family, and financial planning
Best Practices Podcast
Thomas brings not only a strong background in finance and investment strategy—holding licenses to trade in both Canada and the U.S., and currently pursuing his CIM designation—but also a passion for guiding clients through every stage of life with clarity and care. And today, Thomas joins us in a brand-new role—parenthood. He and his wife recently welcomed their daughter, Evelyn, into the world. In this episode, we’ll talk about what it means to balance growing a family with planning for the future, and how thoughtful financial strategies can help parents feel confident as they...
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Proactive Client Contact
Best Practices Podcast
In this episode, we’ll explore how developing and maintaining a disciplined call plan transforms your relationship management — helping you improve time management, reduce reactive work, deepen client trust, and ultimately, increase your share of wallet and referrals. You’ll also hear actionable steps to segment your clients, prioritize contacts by service level, prepare for meaningful conversations, and keep your entire team aligned on outreach goals.
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Your Next Chapter with Susan Latremoille
Best Practices Podcast
Today, we have the privilege of hosting Susan Latremoille, an expert dedicated to helping financial planning professionals and business owners navigate the deeply personal side of transition. Whether it’s exiting a company, stepping out of a leadership role to retire, or planning what comes next after a fulfilling career, Susan brings a unique focus on the human dynamics that often get overlooked—such as identity, purpose, lifestyle planning, and readiness for change. With a remarkable 38-year career as a financial advisor at top firms like Merrill Lynch, RBC, and Richardson Wealth, Susan...
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Managing Your Small Accounts
Best Practices Podcast
Today, we’ll explore why small accounts can be a hidden challenge in your practice and why managing them effectively is crucial for your business’s health. We’ll talk about identifying which small accounts are truly strategic—linked to bigger relationships or important referral sources—and which ones might be better served elsewhere. You’ll hear practical steps on how to audit these accounts honestly, strategies to reduce their numbers wisely over time, and ways to maintain goodwill with clients when you decide it’s time to say goodbye. We’ll also cover how focusing your...
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Having a GPS for your Business
Best Practices Podcast
We will explore the power of having a clear plan for your business — your very own GPS to guide you toward success. Imagine driving on a journey without a map or directions. Even if you somehow reach your destination, how much smoother, faster, and more confident would the trip be with a GPS? In this chapter reading, we dive into why a thoughtfully crafted business plan — one created with input from your entire team—can transform how you operate. We’ll share practical steps to build your plan, tips on involving your team, and how to use tools like calendars and spreadsheets to...
info_outlineIn this episode, Joanne Ferguson discusses the essential best practices for financial services teams, emphasizing the importance of focus, clear roles, and effective processes.
Sandra Margolese reads the preface and Chapter 1 'Designing Your Team' from Best Practices: A Handbook for Advisors and Their Teams.