Late August has always had a certain feel to it for me, but this year is different. Maybe it’s because we took an extra-long vacation in July, or because the weather has been really good, or maybe because we brought the dogs to the cottage so the place feels more like home now.

Or maybe it’s because instead of only worrying about two kids, we are now responsible for five teens for a couple of weeks!

Our kids have been curling for the past 3 winters, and last year we joined a new club. This got them to a more competitive level, which came with new teammates who have become good friends. Our cottage is within a 45-minute drive of one of the country’s top junior curling camps, featuring a couple of former world champions.

I thought it would be a great idea for our kids to attend the camp and take advantage of the opportunity to learn form some of the best. It seems some of the parents of their new friends also wanted to take advantage of that opportunity, and since we have a place not far away, of course they were all welcome to stay here with us.

I guess the one thing that I had not been mentally prepared for was now being the temporary “father” to 5 teenagers, rather that just our 2. My wife has been handling the “Mom” role in exemplary fashion, to no one’s surprise.

We geared up for the arrival of the extra bodies by adding a camper where the three girls sleep, and the two boys are in the kids’ room. The kitchen, living and dining rooms are just big enough to handle the load. The fridge and pantry are well stocked, the WiFi works pretty well, and I can easily control access to it by shutting the unit down at night.

But the parenting is exhausting. They are not bad kids, they are actually very good kids, all of them. But they are all so different. And so each one of them needs to be handled in their own special way. Handling them one-on-one and as a group is completely different too.

But as mentally draining as it is, I love the experience because there is so much to learn, and along with that, so much to teach too.

I love to take the time to explain things to my kids, on whatever subject comes up on any given day. It could be something we see on TV, something one of us comes across on the internet, or something that happened at school that day. I often start with “Do you understand why such-and-such is that way?” or “Do you understand what so-and-so meant when they said that?”

With three extra people around the opportunities to explain things multiplies.

Probably the best part of the arrangement is that our kids are learning how other kids don’t have it quite so easy as they do in life. I like to think that they appreciate what we have and how their parents treat them. They are very lucky, and we are lucky to have them too.

I often preach about communication and how important it is to family relationships. I also like to think that I am a living, breathing example of what I preach. I hope my kids agree. Please don’t forget, it’s not just what you say, how you say it is usually more important.

After this, if they end up being better curlers, that will be a bonus.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.

Je suis né à Montréal en 1964. Mes parents, étants arrivés au Canada durnat les années 1950, ont appris la langue de la majorité du pays, l’anglais. Chez nous, en plus d’un dialecte de l’allemand, c’était en anglais qu’on se parlait.

En septembre 1970, j’ai commencé ma première année à l’école Ste-Odile, à Cartierville, en français. Mes grandes soeurs, elles, étaient à Transfiguration of our Lord, en anglais. J’ai pleuré tout l’été, sachant que je serai forcé à débuter mes études dans une langue que je ne connaissait pas.

Avec une quarantaine d’années de recul, je constate que c’était une bonne décision de la part de mes parents. Mon père était homme d’affaires, et il voyait que pour son fils, ça serait pas seulement un atout, mais une nécessité d’être bilingue au Québec. La crise d’octobre qui est survenu à peine un mois plus tard lui avait confirmé la pertinence de sa décision.

Revenons au présent. La réalité est que le fait d’être bilingue (ou même multilingue) est un plus. Je n’entrerai pas dans le discours de certains, qui craignent la disparition du français au Québec, je n’y crois pas. Je reconnais leur passion, mais je ne suis pas de ceux qui croient que c’est en mettant des restrictions sur les autre langues qu’on fait la promotion de la nôtre.

Aujourd’hui je suis marié avec une francophone aussi bilingue que moi, et nos deux enfants sont encore plus bilingues que nous. Nous bénéficions des cultures des deux côtés, et même encore un peu de celle de mes parents immigrants.

Mais encore plus que la culture, je remarque d’autres différences entre les Québecois et le reste de l’Amérique du Nord. Je parlerai d’un seul secteur, mais je suis certain qu’il existe des parallèles dans plusieurs autres.

Dans le domaine des entreprises familiales, dans les années 1980, notre compagnie s’est joint à CAFÉ, le Canadian Association for Family Enterprise. Cette organisme existe toujours partout au Canada, sauf au Québec.

Au québec depuis quelques années le CIFA (Centre International des Familles en Affaires) existe, mais autant que son but est d’aider les familles en affaires, son rôle ne réunit pas les familles comme membres, qui peuvent ensuite s’entraider, ce que CAFÉ a toujours bien fait.

Sur le côté éducation, je suis présentement inscrit au FEAP (Family Enterprise Advisor Program). Ce programme développé par l’University of British Columbia, est maintenant administré par IFEA (Institute of Family Enterprise Advisors). En plus du UBC, le FEAP sera bientôt offert en Alberta, en Ontario à Western et à Dalhousie à Halifax. Montréal? Pas encore.

Mais agrandissons l’échelle encore une fois. Au États-Unis le FFI (Family Firm Institute) existe depuis 1986. Cet organisme est dédié à tous les professionnels qui font affaires avec les entreprises familiales. Il existe un chapitre au Canada, en Ontario, sans surprise.

Le monde devient de plus en plus petit. Il y a plusieurs bons modèles ailleurs qui pourraient être copiés ici au Québec, mais nous n’avons pas nécessairement l’échelle pour garantir leur survie.
Par contre, pour ceux qui parlent anglais, ce monde est aussi ouvert à eux. J’en profite. J’espère que d’autres feront pareil. Le monde est petit, mais il est aussi grand.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.

In a blog post a couple of months back I mentioned that LinkedIn was becoming a really good resource for me. It continues to be a treasure trove of information and contacts.

I recently discovered a LinkedIn group called “Business Succession Planning Group”, so I joined and it did not take long for it to pay off. A group member from Minneapolis, Daniel Kurth of Human Performance LLC, made a post to the group that caught my eye.

I will use the key point of his message as the starting point to my blog this week. He introduces us to the “Three P’s of Transitioning Owners”.

Without further ado, they are: Paycheck, Purpose, and Place. Kurth’s thesis is that the exiting owner will only readily move on from the business once he has been able to replace those three P’s that the business has been providing.

Anyone who has ever worked in a business where the owner does not seem to be ready and willing to even entertain the thought of retirement can probably identify with at least one of these P’s being a major factor in the hesitation.

If the business has been successful for a number of years, the paycheck should be easy enough to replace. There is an entire industry of financial advisors and insurance product reps that will gladly help the future retiree ensure that monthly income to spend is replaced in a satisfactory way.

Let’s skip ahead to the last P, Place. Keeping and office, setting up a new office somewhere else, or simply getting into a new routine of meeting friends and colleagues somewhere on a regular basis, are all ways that people have gone about making sure that they “get out of the house” after retiring.

I really think that the toughest P to replace after selling or passing down a business, or even retiring from any job really, is Purpose.

I remember some friends of my parents who had 9-5 jobs who said they were looking forward to retiring, but once there, it almost drove them crazy. Somehow sleeping in, reading the paper, going for a walk, etc. can only cut it for so long.

For type “A’s” like most business owners and entrepreneurs, I wouldn’t give it more than a week or two before they would start going stir crazy. Folks who disliked their jobs look forward to retiring from the “grind” and they have trouble, imagine those who have a company they built to inspire them every day when they wake up.

Their business is often the driving purpose of everything, and has been for a long time. It cannot simply be switched off overnight. It can’t be expected to work that way. In theory, sure; in practice, no.

So for all those who want to help encourage someone to think about retiring some day, sooner rather than later, I suggest that you help them replace that P, the sense of Purpose that the business gives them.

Whether you are the succeeding generation waiting to take over, or the spouse who would rather spend more time together or take longer vacations, this is the place to concentrate your efforts.

But do not expect things to happen quickly. Start early and try to help them find hobbies, causes, worthwhile organisations, boards of directors, anything that can get them excited and where they can put their skills, energy and desire to good use.

There are surely other purposes that can slowly but surely become more and more important in their lives, and eventually allow them to exit the business because they have found a new sense of purpose. If they don’t get there, they might stay around forever.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.

Aujourd’hui j’ai décidé de faire quelque chose de nouveau avec mon blogue.  Après avoir écrit une trentaine de blogues en anglais,  je vous propose celui-ci en français.

Quand nous avons lancé notre entreprise il y a un peu plus d’un an, nous avions plusieurs décisions à prendre concernant nos communications marketing,  dont celle de la langue utilisée.

On ne se cachera pas le fait que Tom et moi sommes des “anglophones”, mais c’est un mot que je trouve assez négatif dans le contexte actuel au Québec.  Comme la plupart des professionnels qui oeuvrent au Québec, nous sommes tous deux assez bilingues.

Notre langue de communication entre nous est l’anglais, mais à tous les jours nous échangeons dans les deux langues, et je trouve cela normale.

Pour notre site web, étant donné que nous sommes plus à l’aise en anglais, nous l’avons conçu en anglais, et nous avons payé pour le faire traduire en français par des professionnels.  Si nous aurions décidé de le faire en français ou de le traduire nous-memes, le résultat aura été moins élégant.

Et quand est venu le temps de partir le blogue, je me suis lancer dedans en anglais pour commencer. Dès la journée que j’ai mis mon premier blogue sur le site web, je me suis demandé si la traduction de chaque blogue serait une bonne idée.

Les réflections à ce sujet n’étaient pas si simples que certains le croiraient. Voici quelques-uns:

Y-a-t-il un client potentiel pour nos services que déciderait de ne pas nous engager parce que j’écrit mes blogues uniquement en anglais?
Est-ce que je devrais prendre la peine de faire traduire chaque blogue en français?
Est-ce que je pourrais simplement passer le texte de chaque blogue dans un programme de traduction gratuit sur le web?
Est-ce que c’est “légale” au Québec de faire un blogue sur un site bilingue où la plupart des textes sont écrits en anglais seulement?

Nous avons opté pour la solution qui nous semblait la plus simple. Je continuerais d’écrire en anglais. Avec le temps, nous verrions si des changements seraient bénéfiques ou nécéssaires.

Nous voici déjà plusieurs mois plus tard, et la question me dérange encore. Je crois que j’y pense un peu trop, mais c’est dans ma nature de me soucier des ce genre de question.

Personnellement, je ne sais pas pourquoi il existe encore des commissions scolaires anglophone et francophones au Québec. Tous les enfants devraient apprendre les deux langues, et au Québec plus d’emphase devrait se mettre sur le français.

Je suis né en 1964, donc je commençais l’école durant le temps de a crise de la FLQ. Mes parents, immigrants allemands qui avaient appris l’anglais en arrivant à Montréal dans les années 1950, avaient décidé que leur fils devrait s’inscrire à l’école française (mes deux grandes soeurs ayants déjà commencé l’école dans le système anglais).

En septembre 1970 j’étais le seul enfant anglophone inscrit à l’École Ste-Odile à Cartierville. J’ai commencé la première année avec un vocabulaire de zéro mots.  C’était une des meilleures décisions qu’auraient pu prendre mes parents.

Tout cela pour dire que je suis capable d’écrire des blogues en français.

Et quand j’ai mentionné des blogues français à ma fille, qui est en 6ième année à l’école et qui reçoit de très bonnes notes sur son bulletin en français (comme dans toutes les matières, d’ailleurs), elle s’est tout de suite offerte pour faire une révision de mes textes avant que je les mette en ligne.

J’espère que je n’aurai pas trop de corrections à faire…

À la prochaine, probablement en anglais, mais éventuellement encore en français aussi.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.

This week I had the “pleasure” of undergoing my first colonoscopy. Thankfully, it was really no big deal, and even more importantly, nothing was found and I don’t have to have the procedure again for five years. The biggest benefit is the peace of mind that I now have, assured that there is nothing to worry about.

This is just one small example of taking care of your affairs so that you minimize the number of things that you need to be concerned about.

Whenever I get a renewal notice for an insurance premium, I usually feel a sense of relief when I make the payment, knowing that I am good for another year of not having to think about it, and knowing that I am covered in case something bad happens.

As a parent, you never really stop worrying about your children, but as they get older and learn to be more self-reliant, there is great satisfaction in seeing them overcome what used to be obstacles.

Just knowing that they now know how to swim, ride a bike safely, can go to the bathroom by themselves in a public place or walk to the corner store and get something for you, are all stages that they go through, and each provides their parents with a little bit more peace of mind in knowing that they can be trusted with their independence.

On the other end of the life spectrum, elderly parents often need to be cared for, and surely finding a place with caring staff, good facilities and enjoyable activities serves to provide peace of mind when that time comes.

In between the times in our lives when we have other people worrying about things for us, there is the part where we are responsible for looking after ourselves. What can we do to make sure that we maximize our peace of mind during those years?

I have already touched on a few of the areas. The colonoscopy is a small part of the making sure that you are being properly followed by medical professionals who will hopefully be able to spot anything early enough to be treated. Insurance is something that falls into another category; if you don’t have a go-to person for your insurance needs, you probably should have one.

Of course I would be remiss if I did not talk about the importance of making a will, and keeping it up-to-date. The whole subject of how much you tell your family about what is in the will is too big a subject to be properly treated here, and it will be the subject of a future blog post.

For now though, you should know that I am usually in favour of more communication and not less, so as to minimize the potential for misunderstandings.

Making sure that more people fully understand your wishes can go a very long way to making sure that things will be taken care of the way you want them to be.

Making your family aware of your wishes is the first important step. The second is making sure that at least one or two other, non-family people are aware is the second step. Having a notary and/or a trusted advisor on board can provide you with more peace of mind than anything else.

The problem is that these are not subjects that most people enjoy talking about. But if you think about the added peace of mind that you will feel once you have taken care of everything, maybe that will help you get moving.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.

Recently I noticed a billboard on the highway near my house that got me thinking about how people decide what they want to be when they grow up. It featured a toddler who was playing nurse with her injured teddy bear, and was seemingly aimed at encouraging youngsters to consider the nursing profession.

The tag line of the ad mentioned something about “you’ve always known that you were good at caring for others”, and so now you should follow your instincts and make this your career.

I know that some people are lucky enough to know very early on in life what career they wish to pursue, and then go about methodically taking all the steps required to get there. Good for them, but I suspect that they are a small minority.  I have trouble thinking of even a handful of people that I know who fit into that category.

As parents we try to help our children make the right choices and get involved in different activities to try to spark an interest in various career or vocational pursuits. You never really know what you are good at until you try, right?

Everyone is always told to “find what you are good at” and “do what you love and the money will follow”.  Some will take a long time to figure it out for themselves, and others will wander aimlessly from job to job.

Those who grow up in a family business often have some expectations put upon them at a young age. It could be a family restaurant or store where pre-teens are expected to help out after school and on weekends, and more power to those families who can manage to strike the right balance and keep everyone happy.

As the only son of an entrepreneur in the steel fabrication industry, it was drilled into me from a very young age that I was to follow my father’s footsteps and eventually take over the family business.  Do I regret doing it? No, not at all.  Looking back, would I have preferred to have some kind of choice? Um, yes, please.
On the popular TV show 30 Rock, there was an episode where someone mentions immigrants to Jack, to which he replies, ”Oh, I love immigrants. They come here, work hard, send their kids to school to become doctors and lawyers. And then their kids go windsurfing and take improv classes.”

We recently watched the only season of the TV show Freaks and Geeks (highly recommended if you have teens or pre-teens). The high schoolers are sitting around talking about career aspirations, and Ken says, “I’m going to inherit my father’s business, sell it, and move to Hawaii and go surfing”.

So where am I going with all this? Simply put, families with substantial wealth, usually from a family business or with professional parents, have different issues to consider when raising their children.

From assuming we know what they should become, to keeping them motivated; from finding something meaningful to pursue to treating each child fairly; from letting them in on the family’s wealth to making sure they hang around the right crowd, from cultivating the right attitude to those less fortunate to treating them as participants in the family and its plans, there are many subject to consider.

And I did not even mention learning how to handle money, credit, budgets, etc.

How long it takes to figure out what you want to be, or how old you are when you figure it out, are really not that important in the end.

If you can help your children find something meaningful, that makes them happy and hopefully makes the world a better place in some small way, I think that you can consider that a job well done. On that score, I know that my parents did a fine job.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.

I consider myself a bit of a political junkie, so the current election in Quebec is a lot of fun for me to watch.  The TV debates take on huge importance since many casual observers choose whom to vote for based solely on this very limited exposure to what the candidates have to say. The debates are a key opportunity for voters to get to feel like they “know” the person for whom they will eventually cast their ballot.

Of course watching someone on TV for an hour or so is not really the best way to get to know someone, but in this case, it is often sufficient, insofar as it often confirms feelings that we already have based on other information that we have read or discussed with family and friends.

On a more personal note, we do have some relationships in our lives where getting to know the people that we deal with is much more important, especially when it comes to dealing with issues involving our loved ones and our finances, and the long term aspects of these key areas of our lives.

As parents it is normal to want to meet our children’s friends, teachers, coaches, etc. When it comes to our money, we like to think that we know the people who are managing things for us, but in many cases the bond is actually quite superficial.

Sure, when you open an account for any kind of investment, you spend a lot of time filling out forms with all sorts of information about yourself, including your net worth, your risk tolerances, and other tidbits that put you in some sort of risk profile. These forms have all become mandatory over the past decades because some investors were badly treated by “professionals” somewhere along the line.

So governments imposed KYC rules, (“Know Your Client”) which are supposed to stop brokers from loading up a widow’s account with speculative positions that could end up sending her to the local food banks and thrift shops once these investments go sour.

The relationships we have with those who manage the things that are most important to us work both ways, of course. We like to think that the people who are working for us are trustworthy and that we know them well. But they should also know as much as possible about us if they are to do a proper job for us. Depending on circumstances though, this is not always easy or possible.

When entrusting someone with important tasks and assets, it is always nice to feel like you understand the character of the people that you are dealing with. When you deal with someone who was recommended to you by someone you trust, that can be helpful, compared to just finding someone from the phone book.

So all this brings me to these blog posts that I have been writing here for the past few months. I try to write them using simple terms and language, so that even my preteen kids can understand them. And for the most part they do. I know, because I ask them to read them and then tell me if my thoughts are clearly expressed and if they understand what I have written.

They often ask me “who reads these blogs?” My honest answer is, “I don’t know”.
I then add that I am much less concerned with wide distribution of my messages than the ability to provide a deep understanding of what kind of person I am.

Tom and I are offering our services to what is admittedly a narrow segment of society: families with significant assets who are dealing with how they want those assets to serve the members of their families for the long term. Nobody is going to hire us before they have a very good feeling about who we are, how we think, what is important to us, how we work, and how we communicate.

As I have told my kids and anyone else about this blog, I want anyone to be able to come to our website and spend 20 minutes or 3 hours and just read these blog posts that we are writing.  I like to think that after anyone spends a bit of time reading these, they will have a pretty good idea who they are dealing with.

We trust that most people will get the impression that we are “two real square guys”, as my father would have put it. Yes, kids, that was meant to be a compliment in the “old days”.  Back to politics for a second, your grandfather also suggested to people NOT to go into politics, because then “even your friends with think you are an A**hole”.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.