Most frequent questions

Too often, financial advisors sell products without knowing if they really meet your needs.  Sometimes this approach can yield good results, but other times not so good ones. Before we recommend any products to you, we make sure that we clearly understand your financial and personal goals.

Once we have a clear picture of your situation, we conduct an analysis to help us identify not only the opportunities, but also the risks that must be managed to ensure that your goals are met. With this information, we can craft a financial plan tailored to meet your needs.

Our strength lies in our teamwork. The three of us work together with the National Bank Financial - Wealth Management lawyers and tax and financial security specialists, as well as with an outside network of professionals. With their expert advice, we integrate the six modules of wealth management (personal finances, taxes, insurance, investment management, retirement planning and estate planning) to achieve an integrated and personalized plan.

If you were referred by someone who is familiar with our services, it means that this person feels strongly about our competence and believes that we can help you, either now or in the future, meet your objectives with full peace of mind.

The first meeting will be all about YOU. So, there is no need to bring any documents. This meeting will help us learn more about you and your family in order to properly identify the challenges and opportunities to achieving your objectives. At the same time, we will introduce you to our financial planning process and explain how we help our clients and their families.

We will then contact you to ensure that we have truly understood what is important to you and your family.

We will act on your behalf as we set up your financial plan. Several meetings may be required to ensure that we have all the information needed and that we have carefully explained the plan developed for you.

Once your financial plan is established, it will be time to implement and monitor it. This is when you decide whether or not to transfer your assets and choose Team Duhaime as your “Chief Executive Officer” to coordinate the work of the professionals required to successfully achieve and continuously monitor your financial plan.

Then, as your CEO, we will use two special tools to monitor your plan: the roadmap, which prioritizes and plans the themes to focus on over the next two years, and your objectives-based report, which provides quarterly monitoring of the performance of your investments based on set objectives.

That maybe the case. After our first meeting, we will send you a letter detailing your vision, your situation and what to work on based on our understanding of the matter. This process will help us gauge whether the right points have been already raised and correctly addressed. Lastly, if all the risks and opportunities related to your situation have already been covered, this will confirm that your current advisor has indeed done his/her job well.

The financial planning that we do with our clients includes such elements as: your personal and family affairs, coverage, taxes, retirement, and what happens in the event of your death.

The aim of our financial plans is to help our clients better understand the costly risks that could reduce their wealth. Identifying these financial risks can help create wealth and enjoyment of life and bring peace of mind. We do so through an educational component at our meetings and by implementing good personalized planning strategies. So, during this first step, like architects, we design a customized financial plan specifically tailored to you. 

Several advisors do a certain type of planning, but many people incorrectly assume that buying a financial product or writing a will constitutes financial planning. As an example, people who contribute to their RRSP say that they have planned for their retirement. However, when asked about what rate of return and amounts are needed to maintain their standard of living upon retirement, they simply cannot answer. Furthermore, they are still afraid of being short on resources when they retire. Another example: writing a will is not estate planning.

Financial planning links together the six main concepts listed in Question 1. This then requires considerable expertise and training in each area on the part of the planner, who must stay informed on every aspect. Many of those who sell products have insufficient training or knowledge to successfully complete an integrated multidisciplinary financial plan.

In addition, changes to estate laws, tax laws, projections hypotheses and your personal and family situation mean that your plan must be reviewed regularly. 

Our role is to help our clients achieve their vision and objectives with our four step process :

Client Vision and Objectives

Financial plan and investment

Roadmap (implementation phase)

Objectives-based Report (monitoring)

Yes. As a full-service brokerage firm, National Bank Financial - Wealth Management has access to all investment products, including alternative investments, such as private equity, real estate, infrastructure and others.

David and I are Fellows of the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI) as well as portfolio managers. This allows us to build personalized portfolios that meet your goals. We find it essential that your portfolio be in line with your financial plan while taking into account its required and expected return. 

Yes. Management fees for the implementation and monitoring that we apply based on the value of the investments we manage. Please note that the first meeting is free and that there is no obligation on your part.

Generally, clients are referred by people in our network or by our other clients. To find out whether we in fact do want to work together, we would like to meet with you informally for coffee or lunch. The second meeting should be held at our Ottawa offices, at 50 O’Connor Street, suite 1602 to discuss your challenges and objectives.

No, not at the first meeting, but he/she is always welcome. At this meeting, you will not have to make any decisions. If you do decide to work with us, we would prefer that your spouse attend future meetings.

If that’s the case, we will then ask for your permission to keep you updated on our activities with our monthly newsletter, which provides information on future educational seminars, among other things. This way, you are still in control. 

If you are over 60, you have lived two thirds of your life. Therefore, you face new realities, such as Old Age Security pension recovery, disbursements management, risks related to investments or lack of funds, rising health care costs, and risks related to your estate.

This is definitely not the time to stop planning. It is essential to know how these issues affect your overall plan. You may also have new objectives.

Transitioning from the accrual to the disbursement period requires a different type of planning. This is when investment management must take into account the preservation of assets and the tax implications of disbursement.

It is crucial to see how these factors affect your plan. It will be even more important for your plan to be continuously monitored because there is a very low margin of error. This is the period that is most critical to your financial health because you have less time to catch up.

Illness could require home care or external care at great expense that could reduce your assets.

People who live longer will, more than any other group, need additional financial resources to meet their objectives.

If you are between 30 and 55 years old, the following financial planning elements may apply: paying off debt, financing retirement, paying for your children’s education, personal and family protection in the event of death or illness, and tax planning.

Repeating the same habits while expecting to see different results doesn't work. Building a personalized financial plan increases the likelihood of meeting your goals and also minimizes your risks.

Because we want to explain the work methods that make us leaders in our field during an informal meeting where there is no obligation on your part nor any decision to make.

If, for the time being, our personalized planning-focused approach is not right for you, we hope that you will consider us in the future if the situation changes.

We want you to feel comfortable during our initial conversation and help you understand our approach. We would like to share with you the various strategies we have used successfully with our clients.

We would be pleased to introduce you to our team.