The industry is moving past investment management alone. While good money management and financial planning are now table stakes, additional services are key to justifying advisor value. Marshall Drozduk, Vice President and Investment Advisor at Drozduk Filion Wealth Management of Richardson Wealth in Calgary, has seen that trend and made a point of adding significant value to his clients through the integration of tax and estate planning.
00:00 Great planning is is rarely rushed. The biggest result wasn't financial. It was it was relief.
00:09 Hello and welcome to this special episode of WPTV. My name is David Kitai, senior editor at Wealth Professional.
00:15 Every year, WP releases our five-star wealth advisors list to highlight some of the best and the brightest that the Canadian wealth management industry has
00:23 to offer. Today we're lucky to be joined by one of those luminaries, Marshall Drosduke, vice president and investment adviser at Drosduke Phillian fin wealth management of Richardson wealth.
00:34 Marshall's practice in Calgary takes a collaborative familyrun approach to wealth planning, integrating tax and estate plans into the traditional work
00:41 done by investment advisors. Marshall, welcome to WPTV.
00:45 Yeah, thanks for having us. David, could you maybe tell us a little bit about your practice in your own words?
00:51 Who do you serve and and how do you serve them?
00:54 Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, we work with we work with families, professionals, uh, a few business owners and and many retirees and, you know, a
01:02 lot of those people are are really looking for for clarity and confidence around their their financial lives. It's not just, you know, better investment
01:10 returns per se. You know, our our approach is relationship driven and planning like you mentioned. And uh you know we help clients connect
01:18 investments, tax decisions, estate planning, cash flow into you know one clear strategy that truly evolves as
01:25 life changes. It's you know our role is to help clients make good decisions with confidence not react to uncertainty. Mhm.
01:33 So so that approach to planning, you know, isn't necessarily baked into the way all advisers operate. So So how did you come to add the tax and estate plans
01:42 into your your practice and your service to clients? Yeah, it's, you know, everything that we do is about listening to to what our clients have to say. Uh,
01:50 early on what we saw was the biggest risks to outcomes weren't necessarily markets. They were taxes, poor coordination, and a lot of unanswered
01:59 what if questions. So, you know, adding that tax and estate planning wasn't an expansion. It was more so a necessity of what needed to happen. It's, you know,
02:08 you can't give meaningful advice without understanding how decisions ripple through a family's entire picture. So, you know, good investment advice only
02:16 works when it's connected to to a holistic plan.
02:19 Mhm. And I want to talk about those ripples. How has that planning work affected your clients? What has it done for them?
02:27 Yeah, you know what? It's it's truly amazing to see the the clarity and peace of mind that comes from all of that. you
02:35 know, clients start to understand where where their income's going to come from, how much tax they're going to pay over time, what happens to their family if
02:42 circumstances change, and instead of reacting, they're they're making thoughtful and and informed decisions.
02:49 And that confidence shows up in in every stage of life from, you know, the retirement conversations to estate. And,
02:56 you know, when when a client truly understands their plan, they stop worrying about the unknown. Mhm.
03:05 It's always best to illustrate this with an example. So, so can you maybe tell me about one instance where that planning work that you do was able to help
03:13 clients overcome a potentially very challenging issue? Yeah, it's you know, we worked with a family nearing retirement uh who were truly unsure if
03:23 if they could afford to stop working without sacrificing lifestyle or or family support. And you know, by
03:30 bringing all of that together and coordinating pension decisions, withdrawal sequencing, tax strategies, you know, we were able to create something that was predictable for them.
03:39 The income reduced long-term tax exposure and truly gave them confidence to retire sooner than expected. And, you
03:48 know, the the biggest result wasn't financial, it was it was relief.
03:53 A lot of other adviserss are looking at adding in similar services. you know, there's been a wider push in the industry for for more tax and estate
04:01 planning work. What do you think that other advisers can tend to overlook when they start to do that tax and estate planning?
04:09 Yeah, it's, you know, I think many underestimate the importance of communication and ongoing maintenance.
04:17 It's, this work isn't about, you know, one-time answers. It's about translating complexity into clarity and revisiting the plan as life changes.
04:27 with with that follow through. Even welldesigned plans can can fall apart.
04:32 So, you know, planning only works if if you keep working with it. No adviser is an island and you know offering these
04:41 kinds of services requires the support of a dealer, a firm, you know, someone in the back office who can really enable your capacity to do this. So, so from
04:49 your experience, what do you think uh dealers and firms can do better to support this kind of widening service offer? Yeah, and our firm's been been
04:58 fantastic with this truly bringing on a specialized tool to help us, you know, really coordinate everything from a financial planning standpoint. So, you
05:06 know, I think firms need to encourage depth and collaboration, not just efficiencies. And, you know, that means education, specialized resources, and
05:16 giving advisers the time to do planning properly. You know, when when a firm supports thoughtful team-based planning,
05:23 clients see better outcomes. advisers build stronger relationships and you know the the big part that we find is great planning is is rarely rushed.
05:34 That is an excellent point. I'm interested you know we talk about this I guess in the context of planning for your client's whole lives. How does that
05:43 fit into your view of your whole practice? I guess this is a long way of saying how do you define success when you're offering this kind of service?
05:50 Yeah, you know, success is to to me is seeing clients make decisions with that clarity and confidence, especially
05:58 during periods of transition like retirement, uh, business changes or family events. Those are, you know, some of the biggest things that they're going
06:05 to make a choice on in their life. And professionally, success also means building relationships that last decades
06:13 grounded in, you know, trust and integrity, not market cycles. if you know if clients feel confident and
06:20 informed I I truly feel like we've done our job.
06:24 You've touched on so many issues that you know a lot of other advisers are grappling with today and and you're modeling uh ways of running a practice
06:33 that so many other adviserss I think want to emulate. What do you hope those advisers take from your example?
06:40 You know that putting clients first just it's just not the right thing. It's the most sustainable way to to truly build a
06:49 practice. You know, when you focus on that clarity and consistency and genuine care, um complexity all of a sudden
06:57 becomes manageable and trust grows naturally. You know, the the right work the right way uh for the right reasons.
07:07 That is I think Marshall a beautiful note to end on. Um thank you so much for taking the time and for sharing your insights with us today. Yeah, I really appreciate your time too. Thanks, David.
07:17 And thank you to all of our viewers for WPTV. I've been David Kitai. Have a great rest of your day.
