AMRIT LALLI, BCom, FMA®, CFP® Executive Financial Consultant, Investors Group Securities Inc.
AMRIT LALLI
Navigating The Road to Financial Success With Amrit Lalli, BCom, FMA, CF
In a world that encourages people to live in the moment and spend needlessly, what does it take to create better habits and a better future? Amrit Lalli of Lalli Wealth Management, a financial management practice based in Victoria, B.C., has spent almost two decades trying to figure this out.
Through his financial planning process that is based on listening to clients' needs and goals, he's helped hundreds of clients change how they use and view their money and provide them with better options for the future.
Lalli Wealth Management is a co-brand of IG Wealth Management that works exclusively with business owners and professionals to carry out a variety of financial planning services such as tax, retirement, estate, insurance, and investment planning.
My Business Magazine spoke with Amrit about why he was drawn to this field in the first place and how "deeply listening" has been the key to getting great outcomes for his clients.
Early Influences
Amrit was born and raised in Victoria, where he learned about business from an early age. His family opened the city's very first video rental store where Amrit grew up watching his father manage all aspects of it, from the finances to dealing with customers. Summers as a teenager were spent mostly working in the store too.
His involvement in sports, especially basketball and swimming, had a profound impact on his life as well and taught Amrit the importance of listening to what others have to say.
"I look to others to learn," he says. "Even now that I have more experience, I still look to others and see how I can improve."
He graduated from the University of Victoria in 1999 with a Bachelor of Commerce, knowing he wanted a career that involved numbers and interacting with people, but not yet knowing which way life would take him.
Rising Up The Ranks
About a year after graduation, Amrit found a position that combined both and would turn out to set the tone for the rest of his career. That position was as a Consultant for IG Wealth Management, beginning on March 13, 2000. Nineteen years later, he is still with that team, even as the company -- and his own practice -- have grown and changed.
Starting out as a Consultant, he worked his way up to become a Division Director, and then an Executive Financial Consultant.
Today, Amrit is surrounded by a team that includes an Associate Consultant and an Executive Assistant, the latter of whom has been working alongside him for the past 18 years. Bolstering this team is a team of experts that include Wealth Planning Specialists, Mortgage Planning Specialists, and Insurance & Estate Planning specialist.
More Than Just Investments
Amrit sees his mission as "guiding families to financial success." Some may be surprised, though, to learn that "financial success" doesn't just mean finding different ways to invest money. That's because Amrit and his team take many factors into account when working with clients.
“Because we try to understand what clients are trying to accomplish, we are able to put together a plan that we call the IG Living Plan, which is not solely focused on the investments. While investments are important, they are only a piece of the plan. Other key pieces to the plan include cash flow, estate planning or contingency plans for major life events."
One of the most important factors to Amrit is for clients to understand what they’re working towards and why. "When we have a 'why' for what we're doing, everything else follows along," he says. "If you don't have a solid 'why', then it's easy to get sidetracked. We're taking who people are today and giving them a road-map or a guide for the future," he says. "The way we do that is by deeply listening to their goals and what they want to accomplish. Then, we construct a plan to achieve those goals."
Not only does Amrit work with personal clients, his portfolio also extends over business owners as well. A key challenge with business owners is to extract future value from their business in order to live off of that value in the future. "Those are the tangible aspects of it," he notes, "but for me, it's not just telling the clients what to do. It's actually listening to what they want to accomplish and then assisting them in making wise choices." "They already know if they're doing something financially that's not sustainable," he says. "I try to guide them in a different direction and give them different choices to be able to make better decisions going forward."
Creating The Roadmap
Creating the right wealth management plan for a client comes in several stages.
The first stage is focused around "goal discovery." It's all about figuring out what a client wants really wants to accomplish and then how the Lalli team could help them get there.
The second stage is all about information gathering, which involves looking at assets and liabilities, estate plans, and any kinds of insurance they might have, among other aspects.
Next, Amrit and his associates create the individualized plan and review it carefully with the client to make sure it is a good fit for them, providing them with a variety of different options along the way so they can make the right decisions for themselves.
Once the client approves a plan, Amrit and his team works with them to implement the plan, amending it as circumstances change.
"We implement most of the plan with them," he says, adding that some of it may be incumbent upon them, such as in situations where a client already has some sort of plan in place, such as an estate plan. Even then, Lalli Wealth Management works alongside the clients' own lawyers or accountants to make sure that all aspects of the existing plans go as intended alongside the new financial plan.
After a plan is set into motion, it's then a matter of making changes along the way whenever necessary. "We make sure to check in with every life event that occurs," Amrit notes.
Regardless of a clients' age, whether young or old, most of the work they do ends up leading to retirement planning in one way or another. "Not that we're planning to retire at a certain time or place, but we want to be able to have that choice," he says. "It's planning for that time when [clients] can choose whether or not they want to work.
Life Outside the Office
Outside the office, Amrit's joys in life are his wife, Amy, and their two children. When not working, he can be found mountain biking, playing basketball, or golfing. He's also a board member of Kidsport, an athletic charity that provides grants for underprivileged children to participate in organized sports.
Looking To The Future
In the coming years, Amrit plans to continue working with "self-motivated people who want a better financial future" and keep helping them be successful. He also hopes to continue growing his team and add associate advisors which will enhance service levels for new and existing clients.
This is a general source of information only. It is not intended to provide personalized tax, legal or investment advice, and is not intended as a solicitation to purchase securities. Amrit Lalli, of Investors Group Securities Inc. is solely responsible for its content. For more information on this topic or any other financial matter, please contact Amrit.
Michelle Grossman has spent over a decade in field of news and media, covering everything from business to energy to pop culture and more. Her passion for writing comes from asking the big questions that get to the heart of every story.
AMRIT LALI, BCom, FMA®, CFP®
Executive Financial Consultant
Investors Group Securities Inc.
Lalli Wealth Management
101- 4400 Chatterton Way
Victoria, BC V8X 5J2
Office: 250 - 727 - 9191
Mobile: 250 - 888 - 4733
amrit.lalli@investorsgroup.com