Dr. Rumeet Billan says having a financial advisor she can trust and talk over ideas is 'invaluable' and gives her confidence about her finances.Supplied
When entrepreneur Dr. Rumeet Billan met wealth advisor Lisa Applegath at a social engagement, the two hit it off right away, bonding over their passion for helping women gain ground in business and their finances. Dr. Billan didn’t know it then, but she had just found a trusted friend who would become her long-term professional financial advisor in the coming years.
The initial questions posed to Dr. Billan by Ms. Applegath, a senior wealth advisor and portfolio manager with CIBC Wood Gundy and Private Wealth, were not what her new client expected.
Veteran financial advisor Lisa Applegath says your financial journey is your life journey and she helps her women clients have those meaningful conversations.Supplied
“It wasn’t all about the numbers,” Dr. Billan recalls. “When I was speaking with Lisa, she and her team actually approached my finances much differently than I thought they would because they were more interested in what I valued and what was important to me.”
The two women have had a successful business relationship for more than four years, weathering the many ups and downs faced by most people throughout their lifetime, including selling a business, acquiring another business, and buying a new house, all while managing the home front.
Both say the main factor that binds their relationship is the trust they both feel when they sit down to have a conversation. It comes from a foundation that was built as of their first meeting in Ms. Applegath’s downtown Toronto office years ago.
“When we started talking, it was never about a financial journey, it was about a life journey,” says Dr. Billan. “Lisa asked me: ‘Do you have a will? Are your powers of attorney in place? As an entrepreneur, do you have critical illness insurance and disability insurance? How do you manage your cashflow, taking taxes into consideration?’ She tackled all these things that you just don’t think about, but they’re connected to your financial plan – and I didn’t have these items checked off my list, but I do now.”
Ms. Applegath even found Dr. Billan a lawyer to help craft her will.
As a financial advisor for more than three decades, Ms. Applegath says that in her experience, and that of her colleagues, looking at money as more than just dollars and cents is often what separates men and women when it comes to investing.
“Women see money as a means to effect positive change, meaning how can I positively impact my family, how can I positively impact a community, how can I positively impact society?” Ms. Applegath explains, adding that this is what she has experienced with many of her women clients and families. “This is why it’s so important to have those meaningful conversations right at the beginning.”
With Dr. Billan, as with all of her clients, Ms. Applegath creates not just a financial plan, but an overall vision for how and where their money should go to help them reach their life goals, focusing on what’s important to them.
As part of this holistic approach, Ms. Applegath uses a tool she developed with her team called the “Life Wheel,” which is split into 12 spokes, and touches upon 12 different aspects of a person’s financial journey, including aspirational and financial legacy goals.
The first quarter of the Wheel include critical elements that affect everyone by understanding what you need to do to meet your lifestyle goals now and in the future. “It is the foundation of your financial security and is what we work on first to ensure that our clients can sleep at night should something go wrong in their lives. Once we have built the foundation we can move on to the fun stuff,” says Ms. Applegath.
“For Rumeet, obviously, it’s her family first and foremost and that’s where the security and the wills and the power of attorney and everything comes in. Then it was her vision of creating a network of support for many women, which she has achieved now with her recent acquisition of Women of Influence+.”
Women of Influence+ is an online platform that equips women with connections, support, training and tools to carve new pathways and excel within their careers on their own terms. This is what Dr. Billan aspired to accomplish with her money – and Ms. Applegath’s advice and guidance helped her achieve that.
“Lisa and her team have become a huge sounding board,” says Dr. Billan, who has spent almost 20 years as an entrepreneur, and adds that having a team to go to when she needs to make big decisions is invaluable. “I know Lisa is going to give me sound advice that’s best for me and my situation because she has taken the time to get to know me and my life, whatever it may look like at the time.”
Tailoring her approach to each client is a strategy Ms. Applegath has always followed, which allows her to customize their financial plans, adding that this kind of approach is especially necessary for women.
“Often, women have all of these responsibilities inside and outside of the home, including being a part of the sandwich generation whereby they are the caregivers for their children and their parents – with pressures to manage from all sides. We can help with those times,” Ms. Applegath says. “Life is dynamic, and we help manage your life.”
For Dr. Billan, she says having a financial advisor who she can trust is “invaluable” and helps her feel more confident in the security of her finances knowing that if something happens, “I know I’m taken care of. It’s priceless.”
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with CIBC. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.