Millen Wealth Advisors

While some people who open first home savings accounts are happy to deposit cash and reap the tax-return benefits, those without immediate plans to buy a home could benefit from a more aggressive strategy. “The biggest missed opportunity for people is a portfolio that’s not aligned with their time horizon,” says Guillaume Girard, CFA CMT, a financial advisor and investment coach with Millen Wealth Advisors in Victoria. Which investments are suitable for FHSAs? Here’s what advisors are taking into account.

My journey into wealth management… After almost five years at Thomson Reuters, I had just finished my CFA and was ready for a career change and jump into wealth management. After servicing institutional and retail portfolio managers in Canada and the United States running actively managed strategies, I had enough evidence to show me that index funds were vastly superior over the long-term to build wealth compared to stock picking, market timing, and track recording investing strategies. However, I learned that independent wealth management firms are highly segmented and quite challenging to navigate if you are starting as an advisor with no clients or assets and don't want to work for a bank. It's been quite the rollercoaster! Over ten months, I interviewed several teams and gathered some of the most hilarious stories within our industry. The highlight was when a "senior portfolio manager" told me he had never, ever, ever underperformed in the market. I said that's interesting; what's your benchmark? He said, well, I switch the benchmark between Canada and the United States to make my performance look better. Ok, I will continue my career search; thank you for your time! After a quick stint at a Family Office and an ICPM, which turned out to be two precious experiences because of what I learned about myself, my values, mission, and vision in life, it solidified the why behind my desire to build a practice in wealth management. I contacted one of Canada's most successful financial planners, Samuel Lichtman. After hearing about Sam and Munish Mehan CFP® C.L.U® B-Tech's vision and commitment to making a difference for a vastly underserved niche of the market, Millennials, I knew I had found incredible partners and niche to build a fun and thriving practice in wealth management. Our structure is unique because we are partners building a firm, not individuals building individual practices. At Millen Wealth, we are millennial business owners creating and implementing financial plans for millennial employees and business owners building wealth so they can live well, give generously and leave a legacy. We are 100% independent and objective and have the utmost integrity in our approach to wealth planning. I am incredibly grateful to partner with Sam, Munish, and the rest of the team at Millen Wealth Advisors to service an incredible clientele and inspire younger advisors to seek out the independent route to serve their clients better! Let's go! #financialplanning #wealthmanagement

Investing can be complex. Add in a corporation and tax issues; it creates even more complexity. Luckily, at Millen Wealth Advisors we enjoy solving complex problems! Join myself and Munish Mehan CFP® C.L.U® B-Tech at Millen Wealth go through corporate investing strategies and detailing when RRSPs make sense, and when investing in the company makes more sense. We will cover topics such as tax-efficient investments, income strategies to build RRSP room, ETFs, mutual funds, dividend investments, and more. March 14 at 7 pm! Link to register in comments!

Why I am building a business working for millennials: Because the banks didn’t care about me until I had money. The green bank sold me a credit card the year I turned 18 as I wanted to buy into a business idea - and was told by a “financial advisor” that it was a good idea to take a credit card to borrow $700 to buy into this business model. Then a year later riddled with anxiety about $1k in credit card debt at 19 while working at sportchek I asked them if there was a product I could have that would cancel my credit card and pay less interest. The “financial advisor” laughed. No joke. Told me there was nothing I could do and was stuck paying 19% interest on what was a ton of money for me at the time. So I did what most people do. I started a career in finance 😅. No really. I did that. I got a job as a teller at a credit union with one goal. Learn the financial system so I would never be in this situation again and so I could help others never be in this situation again. Here’s the reality. Banks don’t care about you unless there is a potential sales target you can help them hit. That doesn’t mean all bank advisors are bad, but their executives only care about increasing their profits to increase their shareholder value. You are the product. That needs to change. That will change. We are on a mission bigger than ourselves. Coming January I am bringing something big to the table. Reach out if you are a millennial that wants to be more then a product to your financial institution. www.mwadvisors.ca