Service that goes beyond investments
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.
