How one advisor earned her place in the Order of Canada

At the end of December, Tina Tehranchian was named a member of the Order of Canada. Tehranchian, a senior wealth advisor at Assante Capital Management Ltd., accepts that this is an honour few financial advisors ever receive. The honour, which recognizes people who make “extraordinary contributions to the nation” is arrived at via a rigorous process of external nominations, reference interviews, and background research which can take up to five years. Humble in her acceptance of the honour, Tehranchian explains how her professional work and personal commitments dovetailed to earn her this honour.

Tehranchian is a philanthropist and volunteer as well as an advisor. Since arriving in Canada in 1990 she has built a business and a life defined by her commitment to worthy communities and causes. An immigrant woman, Tehranchian overcame significant challenges to arrive at her current place, but she constantly emphasizes the importance of giving. As an advisor she has worked to professionalize that commitment, offering philanthropic planning services that allow her clients to maximize their impacts. As she outlined how other advisors might one day earn a similar honour, it’s that interweaving of personal and professional commitments to make a positive impact that come through most clearly.

“One of my friends, when she heard about my appointment to the Order of Canada, said ‘that’s a testament to the fact that hard work and giving back pays off,’ because that’s what my life has been about,” Tehranchian says. “It’s been hard work, deeply caring for my clients and my community, and giving back. As long as an advisor is passionate about these things and devotes their life to these principles, I don’t see why they should not be appointed to the Order of Canada.”

Tehranchian’s personal volunteering CV is extensive. She’s chaired gala committees, sat on boards, and marshalled other advisors and financial professionals into work for important causes. She highlights the work she did with other advisors to support the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. She laughs noting that she brought together her own “group of seven” Assante advisors to support the gallery, but enthusiasm was so great that the group quickly ballooned to eleven. Thankfully one of the advisors was an art history major and let the team know that the Group of Seven actually had eleven members.

Leading teams in these philanthropic causes, Tehranchian has worked to support Princess Margaret Hospital, North York General Hospital, the University of Toronto, and the Mackenzie Health Foundation among a range of other causes. Beyond just her time and work, Tehranchian has also contributed her expertise as an advisor. In the Joy of Aging fundraising event for the domestic assault and sexual abuse program at Mackenzie Vaughan hospital, she along with her colleague, Janine Purves, worked as the co-founders and the co-chairs of the event, organized brief and engaging financial literacy presentations to attendees.

Tehranchian’s commitment to financial literacy education, specifically for women, was highlighted in her Order of Canada citation. “Women’s independence depends on achieving financial independence, and the more confident they feel about managing their money, the more in control of their lives they can be,” Tehranchian says. As an advisor with the CFP® designation, Tehranchian knows firsthand the importance of literacy and planning in good financial outcomes.

Some of what has set Tehranchian apart has been her ability to weave her skills and advantages as an advisor into her commitments to philanthropy and important causes. That is perhaps best exemplified by her work as a planned giving consultant. Since 2014 she has had this other business activity, where she consults on tax efficient giving for major charities. She shows donors the most effective ways to give charitable donations, maximizing tax efficiency and increasing the size of charitable gifts that Canadian causes receive. She notes one example of an individual, who was not a client of her advisory practice, who she helped build a giving plan for. By outlining exactly how he should be making his donations, Tehranchian was able to help him make a $1 million donation to St. Michael’s Hospital.

Tehranchian does not do this work to end up on honouree lists, nor does she do it to serve her advisory practice, she does it to help people and important causes that she believes in. As other advisors look to her example, she highlights the hard work and thankless commitment that was required of her as an immigrant woman advisor to reach this point. She believes that this commitment can serve as an example to other advisors of any background.

“Sometimes it's a thankless job. Sometimes have to put a huge amount of hours in and you wonder why you are doing that when you could be spending that time on your business. My family would sometimes ask me, ‘why are you doing this? Why are you spending all this time away from your family and away from your job doing these volunteer activities?’ I did not do it to get recognition or awards,” Tehranchian says. “As proud as I am about being appointed to the Order of Canada, that was never my intention when I was doing these things. It was just an outcome of decades of doing philanthropic and volunteer work. I think the best thing that any advisor can do, is give back to their community, because not only will you benefit your community and the causes that you care for, but eventually it will pay off in some way.”

_{“Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of Assante Capital Management Ltd. Assante Capital Management Ltd. is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization.”}