Dr. Robert and Yvonne Glaskin-Clay
Dr. Robert and Yvonne Glaskin-Clay live in a popular beach town on Lake Huron that quiets down when summer crowds go away. When the Glaskin-Clays were looking for sound financial advice in the 1990s, local resources were limited. "The financial advisors in this area were more focused on mutual funds or products sold by their parent company," says Dr. Robert Glaskin-Clay. "We held various GICs ourselves then, but we were looking for more diversification than could be handled by a single firm. As well, we were too busy raising an active family to do all the research ourselves - nor did we have the tools."
As they searched for help, Jan Pryde came up to Grand Bend from London to put on a financial planning seminar. "We went to her presentation and thought we had found someone we could work with and trust," he says. "So we had her come over for a one-on-one visit to discuss our individual needs." That was 25 years ago.
Now retired, the Glaskin-Clays say they have always been kept up-to-date and informed on their investment portfolio. They meet with Jan at least quarterly to review their investment strategy. "I look at the bottom line more and worry less about the details," says Bob. Yvonne added, "If I have a question, I can call Jan or her team and ask. Jan attends a number of seminars with senior economic advisors and portfolio managers and is learning all the time - then she advises us. I trust that Jan is not going to let us down. In my opinion, that is huge."
Yvonne says the trick to investing in volatile markets is to work as a team. "For example, I used to check the Canadian exchange rate daily when the kids were at graduate school in the U.S. and could lose sleep over things I could not control," she says. "Now we just watch the daily market trends on the local news and trust our investment strategy will weather the storms. Our Advisor has put us in a good position. It's all about working with and trusting your financial advisor, who in our case is Jan."
Bob says over time they diversified their portfolio to minimize risk and losses. "Sometimes companies and markets do weird things. Jan's overall investment strategy for us has been highly successful and adapts with changes to our needs over time. You have to accept that sometimes individual decisions do not work as well as anticipated and keep your eye on the big picture," he says. "We've done very well with Jan and never have had any reason to doubt our decision made some 25 years ago."