Service that goes beyond investments

00:00 Putting clients first isn't just the right thing, it's the most sustainable way to build a practice. [music]

00:09 Hello and welcome to this special episode of WPTV. My name is David Kitai, senior editor at Wealth Professional.

00:16 Every year, WP releases our five-star wealth advisors list to highlight some of the best and 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 Dduke, portfolio manager, senior wealth adviser at Drozduk Filion Wealth Management of Richardson Wealth.

00:33 Marshall's practice in Calgary takes a collaborative family run approach to wealth planning, integrating tax and estate plans into the traditional work

00:41 done by investment advisers. Marshall, welcome to WPTV. Thanks for having me, David.

00:47 Thanks for joining us. Uh let's start with just a bit of an overview. Tell us about your practice and in your own words who do you serve and how do you serve them?

00:57 Yeah, you know it's uh we work with families, you know, professionals, business owners and retirees, people who want, you know,

01:05 that clarity and confidence around their financial lives, not just necessarily better in investment returns. And you

01:12 know, our approach is purely relationship driven and planning. Um, we really want to help clients connect

01:20 the investment decisions they made, tax decisions, estate planning and cash flow into one clear strategy that

01:27 evolves as their life changes. And really our role there is to help clients make good decisions with confidence, not to react to uncertainties.

01:37 No, that's I mean a fascinating way to approach the business and tax and estate planning is a big part of how you

01:44 do that. How did you come to add tax and estate plans into your practice?

01:50 You know, and it's I always look at it this way. It's it really came from listening to our clients and what they

01:57 had to say. You know, early on I saw some of the biggest risks to their outcomes for planning, you know, weren't necessarily the markets. They were

02:06 taxes, poor coordination, and a lot of unanswered what if questions. So adding tax and estate planning wasn't really an

02:15 expansion. It was it was more so a necessity to what we had to do. You I didn't really feel that you could give meaningful advice without understanding

02:23 how you know decisions really ripple through a family's entire financial picture. So you know good advice only

02:32 works when it's connected to all of those other kind of tax and estate realities. in drawing those lines and making those connections between tax and

02:40 estate and these other financial realities. What has that done? How has that planning work and that more kind of to use the overused word holistic approach?

02:50 Uh how has that benefited your clients? What's that meant for them?

02:54 Yeah. And you know, I really love this question because I think that it's brought a lot of clarity and peace of

03:01 mind. you know, clients truly start to understand, you know, where their income's going to come from, how much tax they're going to pay over time and

03:10 and what happens to their family if circumstances change. You know, instead of reacting, they're making those thoughtful and more informed decisions.

03:20 And, you know, that confidence starts to show up in in every stage of life from, you know, the retirement conversations to estate planning. And I I always feel

03:29 that, you know, when clients truly understand their plan, they stop worrying about all those unknowns that are out there.

03:38 So, let's use an example to maybe demonstrate this point. Can you tell me about one instance where

03:45 that planning has been able to help clients overcome some potentially challenging issues? Yeah. And it's, you know, we were we were working with a new

03:54 family and I think a lot of times when they come in to see us, they don't have that confidence. They don't have that clarity. It's almost kind of

04:01 feeling a little bit lost as to what we can do. And you know, when they're nearing that, they're starting to wonder is can we afford to stop working without sacrificing lifestyle or family support?

04:13 But you know by taking that that nuance you mentioned the holistic planning and you know coordinating pension decisions

04:20 to withdrawal sequencing to different tax strategies you know we were able to create predictable income for them that

04:28 reduced that long-term tax exposure but also gave them the confidence to retire sooner than they expected which you know

04:36 for them I think the biggest result wasn't so much seeing that financially but it was relief the peace of mind

04:44 relief goal, the answering the am I going to be okay question that I think so many advisers will have told me

04:51 is just the core the core question to answer for clients 100%.

04:55 Um but you mentioned, you know, just in that anecdote how many different threads you have to pull to put this

05:02 together, right? And what tax and estate planning really means is a picture of the client's whole life. So when you

05:11 look at the way other advisers approach tax and estate planning in their services, what are some areas you find they tend to overlook uh especially when

05:19 they when they first get started and adding this into their service offerings?

05:22 Yeah, I think that there is a lot of levers to pull like you mentioned and I think that many underestimate the

05:30 importance of that communication and ongoing maintenance because it is a lot.

05:35 So this this work there isn't really about one-time answers. It's about translating that those complexities into

05:42 clarity and revisiting those plans on a regular basis as life changes. And

05:49 without that follow through, even the best designed plan can kind of fall apart. And so I always kind of think of

05:57 it as, you know, planning only works if it keeps working. And that's where you need to have that that continuous communication with your clients about it.

06:08 What you're describing sounds like a lot of work if I'm being honest. Uh and you know it's not just you who has to

06:15 deliver on that. There's a whole infrastructure that's required to support all that work that you're doing.

06:21 So from the firm level, how do you think firms can better support advisers like yourself who want to make sure they're providing these services as well as they

06:29 possibly can? Yeah, you know, I think firms focus a lot on efficiencies, but which is great, but I also think

06:38 they need to encourage that in-depth and collaboration type planning and you know that really means from looking at

06:46 things at the onset of from education having a CFP, you know, specialized resources with tax and estate teams that people can use, you know, and giving

06:55 advisers the time to do planning properly when firms really support that thoughtful team-based planning. I

07:03 think clients really see better outcomes and it helps the adviser to build, you know, stronger relationships with the

07:10 people they're working with. You know, a great plan is rarely rushed.

07:17 That's an excellent point and it raises sort of an interesting related question for me which is you know the traditional model of investment advice. It's

07:25 actually quite easy to define success because you are just about investment returns and you can track are you beating your benchmarks or are you not?

07:32 That's great. You're doing well or you aren't. This is a much more nuanced form of work. So in executing this, how do you define success?

07:42 Yeah, that great question and you know I think about that that a lot and I I think of it really in the terms of my

07:50 clients and I think success for me is seeing clients make those decisions with clarity and confidence especially in

07:59 times of transition like retirement or business changes or family events.

08:04 These are some of the biggest decisions that they'll make in their entire lives.

08:09 And when they can navigate that confidently, it's really truly important. And I think, you know, professionally success also means, you

08:17 know, building relationships that that last decades and are grounded in that trust and integrity, not just market

08:25 cycles. And, you know, if clients feel confident and informed, then I really feel like I've done my job.

08:33 You've set a lot of very interesting examples just in this conversation and signs of aspiration that I've heard a lot of advisers also working towards.

08:44 Your example and your success. What do you hope that other advisers take from all that you've achieved in in integrating this difficult part of

08:52 planning work into your practice? Yeah, you know, I I think with other advisers, it's, you know, and I say

09:00 this to my team all the time, it's, you know, putting clients first isn't just the right thing, it's the most sustainable way to build a practice.

09:10 And when you focus on clarity and consistency and that genuine care for the people that you're helping, the

09:18 complexities of it all become manageable and the trust starts to grow naturally.

09:23 And you know, I say this as well is if you do the right work and you do it the right way, do it for the right reasons.

09:32 And I think that truly builds that that relationship with the clients. So yeah, that's a quite a quite a profound

09:39 note to end on, Marshall, but uh a good one and one that I think should prompt some reflection from our viewers uh today. So, uh, with that, all I can

09:48 really say is thank you so much for sharing your story and sharing your insights and congrats again on joining the Five Star Wealth Advisors List.

09:55 Yeah, I really appreciate that. Thank you, David.

09:57 And thank you to all of our viewers for WPTV. I've been David Kitai. Have a great rest of your day.