THOMAS LUCCIONI, CIM®, RIS, Financial Consultant and Investment Advisor, IG Wealth Management, Montreal, QC
- CARMEN MORGAN
- Aug 26
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 28
THOMAS LUCCIONI
"In mountains, when you're blocked in freezing wind, you have to wait and wait and cannot do anything until it passes," he says. "Then it clears, and you continue. But you have to be patient. Don't look at others, look at you. Follow your path and be proactive. This is maybe the most important, truthful path I help my clients along.”
Thomas Luccioni watched as his vehicle slid toward the cars lined up behind him, next to a 500-meter precipice in the Alps. The road was closed due to an alpine snowstorm. In that moment, Thomas made a split-second decision to jump back into the vehicle to try and steer it away from danger, coming within inches of his own life.
"I was already seeing myself in the news," the Investment Advisor with IG Wealth Management says of that harrowing day near Sestriere, Italy. "But what could I do? Leave the car and take out all the cars behind me? Sometimes you have to turn toward the risk to manage it properly."
It's a philosophy that has guided Thomas from the treacherous slopes of Mont Blanc to the terrain of his career in wealth management in Montreal. For this French-born Financial Advisor who arrived in Quebec in the fall of 2008—just as the financial world was imploding—the parallels between mountaineering and portfolio management aren't metaphorical. They're survival tactics.
Before Thomas was helping clients calculate risk-adjusted returns, he was a camp leader. "At 22, I was managing groups of 75 teenagers," he says. "Even though you're tired and managing a team of children and young adults in the outdoors, I loved it. I loved the community.”
The transition from youth work to mountain guiding happened serendipitously during one of those Italian summer camps. Thomas met Luca, a mountain tour operator whose life seemed like a dream: skiing 400 kilometers of slopes in winter, leading climbing and hiking expeditions in summer, working with people on vacation, living outdoors in some of the world's most beautiful terrain.
"I said that's everything I'm looking for," Thomas recalls. Within a week, he was working in the Alps, organizing ski tours and mountain expeditions across Italy, Austria, and Switzerland, with Mont Blanc at the centre.
For three years, Thomas lived what he calls his "paradise vision"—working from 7 AM to midnight during peak season. It was exhilarating and exhausting, a lifestyle that demanded constant adaptation to weather, terrain, and human psychology.
"In the mountains, you're not in control of everything," Thomas explains. "You do not control the weather, and that's something you have to keep in mind because it can change like that. In the evening, we'd be eating with others, looking at the map, planning for tomorrow: here’s the next step, that's where we're going to go, we have to pass this mountain pass. But there's the weather? Sometimes there's snow during the night. Do we go? Do we change our itinerary? You have to adapt."
Thomas's closest brushes with death came not from client mishaps, but from the mountain's indifferent power and his own calculated risks. The sliding minivan incident taught him about making hard choices under pressure. The second near-death experience came during an off-piste skiing expedition where he was helping a struggling skier at the back of the group.
“I looked up and the group up ahead of us was waving their arms.” There was an avalanche coming towards him and the other skier. "It goes really slow, by the way. It's not like in the movies. But when it takes you, it goes down, down, down for kilometers. That's when I had to leave this poor girl and save my life. By chance, the avalanche stopped."
These experiences crystallized Thomas's understanding of risk management: sometimes you must make decisions that seem harsh. Sometimes you must turn toward danger to navigate through it safely. And sometimes survival depends on your ability to adapt quickly to rapidly changing conditions. "There are no problems, only solutions," Thomas says, quoting French writer André Gide. "But you need to be prepared for all kinds of situations."
The decision to leave the hospitality industry came when Thomas realized that mountain guiding, while fulfilling, wasn't compatible with building a family and achieving financial stability. The seasonal nature of the work—intense periods followed by downtime—made long-term planning difficult. When his girlfriend finished her studies and couldn't find work in their mountain region, they decided to immigrate to Quebec.
“For me, the plan was to go there, start a career in finance, and as long I was happy, I would stay. I really ate up the culture in Canada. I enjoyed it and wanted to stay.” However, timing couldn't have been worse—or better, depending on perspective. Thomas arrived in Canada just as Lehman Brothers collapsed and global markets entered free fall. Within three weeks of landing, he found himself at a career fair.
“I found myself interviewing potential employers, rather than the other way around,” he says. “I was like, ‘show me your speech. Tell me why I should come work for you; with my energy and who I am, why should I give myself to your company, your vision, your leadership?”
Among all the corporate booths and flashy presentations, one stood out for its simplicity: a long desk with a single white flag bearing a company logo, a man in a nice suit, and some business cards. No elaborate setup, no hard sell.
"It's an entrepreneurship mindset that you need, and you meet people and you invest,” the company representative told him. “You meet people, you are here to help them, and you will need to work a lot in order to understand all the financial markets."
Thomas was hooked. He had found a profession that combined his love of human connection, his need for constant learning and adaptation, and his desire to help people navigate complex terrain. His introduction to wealth management came through what he calls "the school of cold calling"—nine-to-nine days, Monday through Friday, plus weekend licensing studies, calling strangers from lists provided by the company.
"It was 2008, the best time to begin in this industry, right?" Thomas says with characteristic irony. "People were yelling at you, saying 'it's because of you that all this is happening.'"
But the mountains had taught Thomas patience and resilience. "You have to wait and wait and cannot do anything until it passes," he says.
Gradually, Thomas built his knowledge base and client relationships. Each situation taught him something new, and patterns began to emerge. Business owners had different needs. Engineers had different needs. Employees of organizations had different needs.
"I love transferring knowledge," Thomas says. "I can adapt to the communication style needed by the person I have in front of me. If you want to go into details, I can do that. You want the big picture, conceptual, we can go conceptual.”
His wealth management approach is also deeply informed by his ability to spread maps with fellow climbers and plan the next day's route; Thomas creates those detailed financial maps for his clients.
"First the plan, then the portfolio—not the contrary," Thomas says. "I want to take a snapshot of the situation—what is the current situation and what is your dream?” The mountain guide's emphasis on safety margins translates directly to portfolio construction: “You have this short road, but it's going to be bumpy, risky, a lot of mountain passes. You might arrive earlier if everything goes well, but there's a chance you fall because there's this precipice. Then there's another route—it's going to take time, be wonderful, no risk, but maybe it's going to take you a bit longer.”
This approach reflects the mountain guide's fundamental responsibility: keeping clients safe while helping them achieve their goals. Thomas never forgets that behind every portfolio is a person with dreams, fears, and family responsibilities. “If the plan doesn't work and the client wants retirement at 55, there are options—work a year more, minimize expenses, transfer less capital to children, or work part-time in retirement. What are the options?"
Thomas's background gave him the ability to remain calm and adaptive under pressure while maintaining absolute focus on client safety and success. "In the mountains, when you're blocked in freezing wind, you have to wait and wait and cannot do anything until it passes," he says. "Then it clears, and you continue. But you have to be patient. Don't look at others, look at you. Follow your path and be proactive. This is maybe the most important, truthful path I help my clients along,” he says.
Now 17 years into his Canadian journey, Thomas is passing on his hard-won knowledge to a new generation of Advisors. Like the mountain guide who once showed him the ropes, Thomas is building a team and transferring his expertise to interns and junior advisors. "I love to transfer knowledge," he says, returning to his original dream of teaching.
His children—two daughters aged eight and ten who speak English, French, and Russian—represent another kind of legacy. Through them, Thomas is exploring his evolved understanding of personalized truth and adaptive parenting.
"It's really a philosophy," he says, using a glass as metaphor. "When you take a glass, you can say it's a glass. But if you look from this direction, it's a glass too. Or from that direction, again, it's the same object but different angles. It's just a question of how you position yourself, who you're talking to, where you are, and the conditions."
This philosophical flexibility, learned in the mountains and refined in the markets, may be Thomas's greatest gift to his clients and his children: the understanding that there are many paths to any summit, and success often depends not on finding the one "true" way, but on adapting wisely to conditions while never losing sight of the ultimate destination.
Carmen Morgan is a skilled business writer and storyteller, collaborating with business owners and executives to tell their stories and share perspectives on growth and success, as well as perseverance and adversity. Over two decades she has refined her interview, writing and editing skills to capture the nuggets and captivating details that engage readers and make a story memorable.
Thomas Luccioni, CIM®, RIS
Investment Advisor & Security Advisor
IG Wealth Management
300 rue Leo-Pariseau, Bureau 2000
Montreal, QC, H2x 4B3
514 - 228 - 8732