Patrick Gilmour, CFP®Senior Wealth Advisor at Assante Financial Management Ltd. Kingston, ON.
PATRICK GILMOUR
“30 Years of Coaching Delivers Greater Life & Personal Satisfaction”
Whether it be sports, fitness, nutrition, business or life in general, many of us turn to coaches for training, motivation and encouragement. This is likely because coaching conversations help to focus attention on our goals (Moore, Jackson, & Tschannen-Moren, 2016). Wealth coaches like Patrick Gilmour, Senior Wealth Advisor at Assante Financial Management Ltd., encourage clients to take action towards goal achievement and self-reliance. The result: more peace of mind and life and personal satisfaction.
Patrick developed his coaching credentials in a variety of ways. By day, he coaches clients as a Wealth Advisor. His formal CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP®) designation, the financial industry’s gold standard for financial planning and his ongoing commitment to upgrade his professional skills, help him do so. Most nights Patrick also coaches sports – whether coaching players on his son’s teams or the local Special Olympic athletes.
“There are many similarities between coaching sports and coaching clients; both involve developing routines and strategies that facilitate improvement. I have been fortunate to have had and to learn from many great coaches over the years. The most impactful of these was my Dad, who coached many sports and is a wonderful role model,” Senior Wealth Advisor, Patrick Gilmour says with a warm smile.
Working hard is in the Wealth Advisor’s DNA. At the young age of eleven he had a paper route, in high school he worked as a house painter and while attending Queen's University he worked part-time at a bank and also ran a summer house painting business. “I remember how, during the summer on days that I worked at the bank, I would paint from 7-3, race home, shower, put on my suit and ride my bike to the bank for the 4-8 shift, often with paint on my hands.”
Coming from a single income family with four kids, Patrick knows the meaning of sacrifice and delayed gratification. His parents made the choice for his Mom to stay home and raise the children. Although this meant no designer clothes, the trade-off was stability and love, a decision for which he is grateful. His parents encouraged Patrick to attend University. “Since we lived blocks from Queen’s, and my parents provided the room and board, I was happy and proud to pay for tuition and expenses,” he adds.
At age 18, Patrick made his first investment in a mutual fund. This ignited a passion for the investment industry and was the inspiration behind why he chose to major in Economics. He quickly found his way into the financial advising business, “I have always loved everything about investing and coaching others to build their financial independence,” he beams.
He moved to CI Assante Wealth Management in 2007 because he recognized many clients had complex financial needs. Today, Patrick has over thirty years of experience under his belt. With the help of his in-house wealth planning team - accountants, estate planning lawyers, investment and insurance experts – Patrick provides a high level of integrated and advice. Working with his in-house team, in collaboration with clients’ other professionals, helps ensure that nothing gets overlooked. “Recently a senior CPA I worked with in town said ‘you and your team are the best kept secret. Everyone claims to provide this type of advice, but you actually do it’.”
Philosophy & Approach
At Assante, Patrick specializes in working with high net worth business owners and retired or retiring clients. He and his team coach business owners through all business cycles including growing the business, tax strategies, restructuring/preparing the business for sale or succession, providing tax-efficient income during retirement, and transferring assets to the next generation or charitable intentions, in the most tax-efficient manner.
Patrick spends time getting to know his clients – their goals, concerns and stumbling blocks. “Being a business owner myself I can identify with their needs and challenges. I also have the education and experience to create a Wealth Plan that addresses their concerns so that at the end of the day clients have peace of mind and the ability to enjoy what’s important to them,” he explains.
One client, a widow business owner, came to Patrick because she did not know how to deal with her deceased husband’s business assets. “With the loss of my husband prematurely, Patrick and his team, in collaboration with my existing lawyer and accountant, helped me tax efficiently sell the shares of our company, design a plan to show how much I could spend, set up a monthly amount going to my bank account to comfortably live the lifestyle I desired, and developed a plan of how to transfer what is left over to my children most efficiently – without the government taking most of it. Patrick also met with me and my children to explain the strategies that we were using both now and in my Will, so they were more informed…All of this has given both me and my family great peace of mind.”
Unfortunately, statistics show that it normally takes only one or two generations to erode even significant wealth. “I believe that at the heart of building, managing and protecting generational wealth is an open, honest discussion about first, why the client is building wealth and second, the morals and values that underpin it.” He hosts ‘Family meetings’ where parents can explain their lifestyle, business, and legacy intentions to their adult children in a safe environment. This helps to minimize family conflict down the road and establish multi-generational goals,” Patrick adds.
Throughout the planning process it is important that advice is integrated. “Most clients we start working with think they ‘have things covered’ because they are working with a good lawyer, accountant, and investment broker. Yet, we always seem to find strategies that they aren’t using well or at all. I remember meeting one prospective client who had a comprehensive estate plan completed by a very good CPA in town. However, four years later, their plan had still not been implemented – the Wills, investment and insurance structures had not been updated to incorporate the strategies. That is where we come in – ensuring everything is ‘integrated’ with the strategy and implemented accordingly.”
Does his approach work? His clients certainly think so. A link to a video montage of client testimonials follows:s: hhtp//www.assante.com/advisors/pgilmour/testimonials.html
Patrick couldn’t do this important work without the support of a strong team, including Denise Leonard. Denise joined Patrick's team in 2012 as an Administrative Assistant, and is responsible for overseeing day-to-day activities. Clients appreciate her friendly demeanour and exceptional attention to customer service.
Up Close & Personal
Patrick believes in giving back. He has taught financial planning to local college and high school students, as well as to many other groups and organizations, including the Kingston Frontenacs, the local OHL hockey team. He has also hosted countless succession planning workshops for farm business owners and was the keynote speaker at the provincial Dairy Days conference.
In addition to coaching local hockey, basketball and baseball teams, Patrick has also coached the Kingston Special Olympics golf team for several years. Seven years ago, Patrick and his wife, Jennifer, started the Motionball fundraising event in Kingston. The event supports the Special Olympics Canada Foundation and has successfully raised over $270,000. Both Patrick and Jennifer continue to participate in the event and serve on the Assante Team as well as the Kingston Motionball event committee.
Every year since Patrick joined Assante in 2007, he has received Assante’s esteemed Chairman’s Council award. This award recognizes the top advisors in the country based on continuing education including professional designations, business growth, and level of holistic wealth planning advice.
As part of his commitment to lifelong learning and coaching his clients, Patrick regularly hosts a variety of public financial and lifestyle events for business owners and retirees bringing in specialists as guest speakers. His most recent “Whiskey and Wisdom” event included business succession planning experts, local CPA’s and lawyers.
As a last word Patrick says, “Although I have 30 years of experience I am only 52 years old; there is a lot of working life still left in me – I love helping/coaching families in this field. Like many of us, COVID lockdowns have reminded me to refocus on what’s important as an individual, as a husband and father, and as a business owner and Wealth Advisor”.
Suzen Fromstein is the author of Suits and Ladders, Ten Proven Ways to Keep Your Job Safe - with a few jokes thrown in. Suits and Ladders was an Amazon Best Selling Book in the Career Guides Career Guides Category.
PATRICK GILMOUR, CFP, BA(ECON)
Senior Wealth Advisor
Chairman’s Council
264 King Street East
Kingston, ON K7L 3A9
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