One huge thing to celebrate this week @ Leading Advisor is we received CE Accreditation based on the new 2010 Advocis / CLU Institute CE Accreditation Guidelines for;

• Clear Your Roadblocks – 1 CE Credit
• Clear Your Roadblocks To The Client Engagement Process – Part I & II – 3 CE Credits

See you in September!

What Is Your Jump Date?

You could be standing on the edge of a helium balloon’s gondola ready to jump from over 100,000 feet.

You might not have jumped off exactly with both feet at the same time and gotten into a spin that exceeded 150 miles an hour that eventually separated your skull from your spine.

You might not have gotten into a spin but the defroster on the view screen that will melt your helmet’s protective view screen at sea level could malfunction and crack and you would find out that water boils at 98 degrees at 100,000 feet and that the saliva on your tongue is boiling

Your view screen might not have cracked but your suit might have torn because you broke the sound barrier and you and your lungs expanded to twelve times their size with the pressure change in space and you died in twelve seconds.

You are not Felix Baumgartner who is the incredible man that is planning to risk his life for science to develop a suit to enable space craft astronauts to jettison in the event of a malfunction like the one that killed the crew of the Challenger space shuttle.

What are you going to do this fall that is incredible?

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Advisor.ca Name That Visionary

What do Simon Reilly, Mark Carney, Jim Flaherty, Moshe Milevsky and Terry Zavitz have in common?

Voting for Advisor.ca ‘s Name That Visionary will commence on September 7th 2010 (just after Labour Day).

If you previously voted you’ll receive an email voting reminder on September 7th.

Round One is over. Your votes have been cast and tabulated. Advisor.ca’s expansive list of candidates is now down to just 20 entries displayed below. It is your turn to pick the Top Ten for the next phase of Advisor.ca’s poll to determine Canada’s greatest financial visionary. In the Second Round, you can only cast one vote so read the bios carefully, familiarize yourself with the candidates and make your pick.

Your votes will be tabulated and Advisor.ca’s first round of judging will determine the top ten finalists. A second round of judging will determine the order of the Top 10 nominees and an overall winner.

I had to write to say that I Loved the Power of 3 Article.

I believe you are onto something “good, great, gigantic” (couldn’t resist).

Thanks for your continued inspiration.

Tracy Valgardsson Enns, CFP, FDS, EPC
Athabasca Financial Ltd./Partners In Planning
Moose Jaw, SK

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Advisor.ca Name That Visionary

What do Simon Reilly, Mark Carney, Jim Flaherty, Moshe Milevsky and Terry Zavitz have in common?

Voting for Advisor.ca ‘s  Name That Visionary will commence on September 7th 2010 (just after Labour Day).

If you previously voted you’ll receive an email voting reminder on September 7th.

Round One is over. Your votes have been cast and tabulated. Advisor.ca’s expansive list of candidates is now down to just 20 entries displayed below. It is your turn to pick the Top Ten for the next phase of Advisor.ca’s poll to determine Canada’s greatest financial visionary. In the Second Round, you can only cast one vote so read the bios carefully, familiarize yourself with the candidates and make your pick.

Your votes will be tabulated and Advisor.ca’s first round of judging will determine the top ten finalists. A second round of judging will determine the order of the Top 10 nominees and an overall winner.

Voting for Advisor.ca ‘s  Name That Visionary will commence on September 7th 2010 (just after Labour Day).

If you previously voted you’ll receive an email voting reminder on September 7th.

Round One is over. Your votes have been cast and tabulated. Advisor.ca’s expansive list of candidates is now down to just 20 entries displayed below. It is your turn to pick the Top Ten for the next phase of Advisor.ca’s poll to determine Canada’s greatest financial visionary. In the Second Round, you can only cast one vote so read the bios carefully, familiarize yourself with the candidates and make your pick.

Your votes will be tabulated and Advisor.ca’s first round of judging will determine the top ten finalists. A second round of judging will determine the order of the Top 10 nominees and an overall winner.

Preet Banerjee

Preet Banerjee is a senior vice president with Pro-Financial Asset Management, a Fundamental Index mutual fund manufacturer. He graduated with a Specialist Bachelor’s Degree in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto in 2001. The author of RRSPs: The Definitive Guide to Registered Retirement Savings Plans, he is regularly quoted and sought after as an authority on personal finance. He has appeared on CTV News Channel, CBC’s Lang and O’Leary Exchange and other programs as a financial expert. He volunteers as a workshop facilitator for Personal Financial Management as part of the Leadership Development Program at the University of Toronto at Scarborough and has published over 700 articles on personal finance on his blog (WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com), which was ranked Canada’s #1 Investing Blog by The Globe and Mail in 2010. He recently won W Network’s Ultimate W Expert Challenge for helping Canadians manage their money.

Keith Brown  

Keith Brown works with co-owner Rene Pereux in setting Daystar’s strategy and vision, while determining corporate direction with the senior management team. He also has a successful estate planning practice of his own:  he is president and principal founder of Financial Confidence Advisors Inc.  Since entering the financial planning industry in 1981, Keith has been a five-time recipient of Prudential Insurance Company of America’s Leading Manager in Canada Award and was named Sun Life Financial’s Top Manager in Canada in 1999.  Keith has achieved Court of Table, an honour drawn from members of the International Million Dollar Round Table organization for exceptional professional knowledge, client service and ethical conduct. He also carries the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), and his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designations.

Mark Carney

Mark Carney was appointed governor of the Bank of Canada in February 2008, for a term of seven years. As governor, he is chairman of the board of directors of the bank and a member of the bank’s board of directors for International Settlements. Mark received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988. He received a master’s degree in economics in 1993, and a doctorate in economics in 1995, both from Oxford University. Prior to joining the public service, Mark had a 13-year career with Goldman Sachs in its London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto offices. He was appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in August 2003. In November 2004, he left to become senior associate deputy minister of finance – a position he held until his current role.

Daniel Eskin

Daniel Eskin is the co-founder of Young and Invested. He has completed his BBA degree at University of Toronto, specializing in management and accounting. He is currently working with one of the Big 4 accounting firms in the audit capacity.

David Feather

David Feather was appointed president and managing director of Russell Investments Canada Ltd. in March 2010.  He oversees all of Russell’s Canadian business, including the company’s retail, institutional and consulting operations and is also a part of the firm’s global leadership group. David brings extensive leadership and expertise to the position, joining Russell from Mackenzie Financial Services Inc., where he was the company’s president. His career also includes positions at Ernst & Young and at the Bank of Montreal. He holds an MBA from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, and is a director at various charitable organizations, including the Mental Health Partnerships of Canada.

Jim Flaherty

Jim Flaherty is a second term Member of Parliament for Whitby-Oshawa (Ontario), first elected in 2006. Since then, he has served as Canada’s Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for the Greater Toronto Area. He is a governor of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. As minister of finance, he is also an ex-officio member of all cabinet committees. Previously, from 1995 to 2005, Jim served as the Member of Provincial Parliament for Whitby – Ajax. In Ontario, he served as deputy premier, minister of finance, attorney general and minister of labour. He graduated from Princeton University cum laude and Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the Bar in Ontario with honours and practised law for more than twenty years before being elected to public office.

Robert Frances

Robert Frances founded PEAK Financial Services Inc. in 1990. In 1992, PEAK Investment Services Inc. was created to provide the back-office and administrative assistance that financial planners required. By 1998, planners were requesting a one-stop shop for their insurance, segregated fund and mutual fund activities and PEAK Insurance Services Inc. was established. In 1999, PEAK acquired an interest in Geoffrion, Leclerc, Marcoux et Associés Inc., a mutual fund and insurance dealer located in Quebec City. In 2000, PEAK Securities Inc. was incorporated and registered with the Investment Dealer Association. PEAK Securities is a full service dealer, which in 2002 acquired the insurance services of Greater Montreal Financial Services, a Master General Agent located in Westmount, QC. In 2007, PEAK Investment Services Inc. completed the transfer of assets from AXA Financial Services Inc. It now has 600 independent planners serving 100,000 Canadians. PEAK been recognized by Profit Magazine as one of Canada’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Canada for six consecutive years.

Jamie Golombek

Jamie Golombek is managing director, Tax & Estate Planning, with CIBC in Toronto where, as a member of the CIBC Retail Markets team, he works closely with advisors from CIBC Private Wealth Management, Wood Gundy, Imperial Service and other partners to support their high net worth clients. He joined the firm in 2008 after 12 years with Invesco Trimark, where he was involved in both internal and external consulting on all areas of taxation and estate planning. Jamie is quoted frequently in the national media as an expert on taxation, writing columns for  the National Post, Advocis’ FORUM magazine, and Advisor’s Edge Report. He holds a  B.Comm. from McGill University, earned his CA designation in Ontario and qualified as a U.S. CPA in Illinois. In September 2006, Jamie was awarded the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario’s Award of Distinction. 

Cary List

Cary List is the president and CEO of Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC). He became a chartered accountant in 1986, earning CFP certification in 1997. Before joining FPSC, he was director of the Centre for Business at George Brown College in Toronto. Under his leadership, FPSC has led the way in the development of standards for financial planning, with the launch of the CFP Practice Standards (2004) and the CFP Professional Competency Profile (2005). Cary also led the development and adoption of the new CFP certification program introduced in 2010. He is now working on the development of national standards for financial planning in Canada with the Quebec Institute of Financial Planning. Cary was also instrumental in the development of the international competency profile now used by 126,000 CFP professionals around the world. He has also continued to affirm FPSC’s reputation as an international leader in certification through its ISO 17024 accreditation — one of only five organizations in Canada to receive this prestigious honour.

Moshe Milevsky

Moshe Milevsky is a tenured finance professor at York University in Toronto, the executive director of The IFID Centre, and President and CEO of the QWeMA Group. He has consulted for many global insurance companies, banks, mutual fund companies, state pension plans and regulators in both North and South America. And he has published seven books, peer-reviewed papers, and numerous magazine and newspaper articles on the topics of insurance, investments, pensions, retirement and annuities. He received two National Magazine (Canada) awards in 2003 and a Graham and Dodd scroll award from the CFA Institute in 2006 article. Elected a Fellow of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences in 2002, in 2008 he was also honoured by the Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA) with a lifetime achievement award for applied research. Investment Advisor magazine (U.S.) named him to its IA25 list of most influential people in the financial advisory business in May 2009 and Investment News magazine selected him as one of the investment News 20 of 2010. He is currently working on his next book.

Karin Mizgala and Sheila Walkington  

Karin Mizgala and Sheila Walkington are the creative force behind Women’s Financial Learning Centre, an organization which seeks to give “women the financial power to build the lives they aspire to live” through workshops, coaching and resources. Sheila Walkington, BAA, CFP is a certified financial planner, as well as a financial coach dedicated to strengthening women’s relationships with money. In 2004, CBC interviewed her as one of the first money coaches in Canada. Karin Mizgala, BA Psych, MBA, CFP, is a financial coach and certified financial planner with over 20 years of experience in the industry. Karin is a contributing editor with Financial Post Magazine.

Jim Otar

Jim Otar, CFP, CMT, BASc, MEng, is a financial planner, a professional engineer, a chartist, a financial writer and founder of retirementoptimizer.com. After spending several years in engineering and investing for his own account, he started his financial planning career in 1995. He is the author of several books, the most recent being Unveiling the Retirement Myth – Advanced Retirement Planning based on Market History. Before that, he wrote High Expectations & False Dreams in 2001, where he first pointed out the devastating effects of the sequence of returns, market cycles, the luck factor and the time value of fluctuations. His first book, Commission Free Investing was published in 1996 about Canadian dividend reinvestment plans. He has also contributed content for the advanced distribution planning courses for the Canadian Securities Institute.

Simon Reilly

Simon Reilly is the founder of Leading Advisor Inc. He is an expert business coach, speaker and writer, as well as a values and behaviour analyst with over 20 years of experience. He has worked with highly-respected financial advisors that include Frank Allen of The Frank Allen Financial Group Inc., Bob Corrigan of Corrigan Financial Services, Nelson Deslippe of Integral Financial Services, and Diane Dupuis of Dupuis Langen Financial Management. Simon received personal and business coaching training from Robbins Research International from 1990-1993 and Coach U from 1995-1999 and values and behavioural analysis training from Target Training International in 1997. Heis  the author of Curing The Unmet Needs Disease – How to Prosper in Business by Meeting Your Unmet Needs and writes a daily blog; http://www.leadingadvisor.com/blog/. Over the last four years, he has spoken to 15,000 financial advisors across Canada, has written for Advisor.ca, been profiled in The Insurance Journal, and has been published in The Advocis FORUM Magazine.

David Rosenberg

David Rosenberg is Gluskin Sheff & Associates’ chief economist and strategist with a focus on providing a top-down perspective to the firm’s investment process and Asset Mix Committee. Prior to joining Gluskin Sheff in 2009, David was chief North American economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in New York. Before that, he was a senior economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns and Bank of Nova Scotia. David has ranked first in economics in the Brendan Wood International Survey for Canada for the past seven years, was on the U.S. Institutional Investor All American All Star Team for the last four years, and was ranked second overall in the 2008 survey. He also ranked 4th out of 104 economists in the 2009 Thompson-Extel survey of global portfolio managers. He holds a BA and an MA in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Jeff Rubin

After twenty years as chief economist and managing director of CIBC World Markets, Jeff Rubin resigned and released the book, Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. The book came after years of Jeff accurately predicting rising oil prices and the negative impact they would have on the world economy – themes unpopular with investment banks.  His message:  weaning our economy off oil means making fundamental changes in the way we live.

Eric Sprott

Eric Sprott founded Sprott Securities Ltd. (now Cormark Securities Inc.), an institutional brokerage firm focused on small-to-mid capitalization companies, in 1981. In 2000, Eric made the decision to spin off the investment management division of Sprott Securities Inc. (now Cormark Securities Inc.), to form a separate entity now known as Sprott Asset Management LP (SAM). Sprott Securities Inc. was sold to its employees in 2002, leaving Eric and the directors and officers of SAM with no remaining interest in the firm.  In 2008, Sprott Inc. successfully completed its initial public offering by way of a secondary offering of common shares. Certain shareholders of Sprott Inc. sold 20,000,000 common shares at an offering price of $10.00 per share for aggregate proceeds of $200 million. Sprott Inc.’s common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol SII.

Murray Taylor

Murray Taylor is co-president and chief executive officer of IGM Financial Inc. and the president and chief executive officer of Investors Group. He joined Investors Group in May 2001 after spending 25 years as a business leader with sister companies Great-West Life and London Life, within the Power Financial group of companies. Murray served on the board of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada from 2004 to 2009. He is a founding member of the Imagine Leadership Challenge, a charter member of Volunteer Canada’s Corporate Council on Volunteering, a member of the President’s Advisory Council for the University of Manitoba and is on the board and acts as vice-chair of the Business Council of Manitoba. He is also a founding member of the Manitoba advisory group for the Building Futures financial literacy project focused on K-12 curriculum development.

Vince Valenti

Vince Valenti, MBA, is the president of Independent Planning Group Inc. and  has extensive senior management experience in the Canadian financial services industry. He is the president of both Independent Planning Group Inc. (IPG) and Brigata Capital Management Inc., the exclusive distributor of the Brigata mutual funds. Vince founded IPG, now a Level 4 mutual fund dealer with the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada, in 1990. In 2006, he was recognized and honoured by the Greater Nepean Chamber of Commerce as the Businessman of the Year.

J.A. (Jim) Virtue

Jim Virtue is the president and CEO of PPI Solutions Inc., a national holding company which operates eight Managing General Agencies. After becoming a CA in 1984, Jim held various positions, including senior vice-president, Finance and regional vice-president of Distribution until 1995, at which time he became an independent life insurance advisor.  In 2000, he purchased his first MGA in Calgary and since that time, PPI Solutions Inc. (formerly The Financial Management Group of Companies Inc.) has emerged as Canada’s pre-eminent MGA. During the 10-year period that Jim has been in the MGA business, the firm’s revenue has increased tenfold.

Terry Zavitz

Terry Zavitz is president of Zavitz Insurance Inc. With 27 years of experience in the insurance industry, she is involved with Advocis, where she is currently the chair of the national board of directors. She is a member of CALU and is on the Advisory Committee for Munich Re.  She was chair of the foundation of the LHSC, a quaternary care hospital in London, ON and also sat on the hospital’s board. She has volunteered her time with London Community Foundation, Orchestra London, London Ski Club and Fanshawe Chorus London. She holds a  BA of Musical Arts from the University of Western Ontario. In 2003, she was honoured with the Women of Distinction designation for Business and Trades through the London YMCA.  She was also the recipient of Great West Life’s 2009 Hopwood award, honouring her dedication to her clients and her community.

Robert Sapolsky is a Stanford biologist and is leading the research on a vaccine for stress.

I’m offering some of my own reflections about an article on Sapolsky’s work from the August edition of Wired Magazine entitled Under Pressure: The Search for a Stress Vaccine by Jonah Lehrer.

Lehrer’s article offers Sapolsky’s interesting explanation on the difference between pressure and stress.

Pressure is when an administrator has the responsibility to work with 2,000 people and their contracts.

Stress is when a typist is typing a never ending flow of incoming documents.

The difference between pressure and stress is the administrator has the ability to control the flow of the work, control when they work and has the ability to control the demands of their work. The typist has a total absence of control of their work typing an endless soul destroying pile of documents.

This lack of vision and control contributes to stress and up to four times the mortality rate of a person that has vision and control over their destiny.

When one is feeling repeated stress, the brain’s stress “ amygdale – fight or flight” mechanism swells and repeated stress causes one to feel a constant state of anxiety to the point that the brain can’t differentiate between stress that is real and unreal like violent TV shows as an example.

One must wake up the mind, the super conscious because the fear based mind can’t determine the difference between pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, love and fear.

Lehrer offers ways to reduce stress and I have added a number of my own;

• Aerobic Exercise
• Avoiding conflict
• Confront Your Fears
• Forgiveness
• Friends
• Giving Thanks
• Journaling
• Meditation
• Sex
• Silence
• Sleep
• Stretching / Yoga
• Reduced Alcohol

All of these strategies help to reduce stress which adds to getting rest.

Remember, rest does not come from sleeping but from waking.

The weekend of August 21^st, 2010 gave me a very real experience on how to apply Sapolsky’s work.

I returned to my hometown of Chilliwack to attend a Celebration Of Life for an old friend that had passed away.

I left Chilliwack 32 years ago leaving under the influence of too many spirits, the cloud of smoke from Mary Jane along with my own demons. I was depressed and miserable and the only way to survive was to leave.

I’m happy that I attended the Celebration Of Life and appreciated the time and energy that my old friends invested to make the passing of our friend a celebration of the unique skills and talents that our passed friend brought into the world. I’m also happy that I got to meet many old friends that go back to my early teens and they really showed their appreciation about seeing me and I did in kind after all of these years.

Yet, with all of this appreciation, I left Chilliwack all those years ago and I really did not want to go back and I could not put my finger on the feelings to exactly why.

My return visit helped me to understand that I was lost all those years ago, I had no vision or purpose in life and I felt that I needed to leave town just to survive.

I was stressed!

This stress propelled me to change.

Over the years I’ve learned to forgive myself for my lack of understanding of myself.

I’m celebrating my life and vision along with the opportunity to help others find meaning.

The ability to find meaning through vision, mission, objectives, strategies and actions counteracts stress.

There will be no dreams and vision in their absence so learn to dream big and have a big vision.

Once you decide what you want, life will scale your dream back to the parameters of your reality … so keep dreaming big.

The true joy in life is recognizing that your purpose in life is a mighty one.

Your stress is just a feeling that nothing can be done because of a lack of vision and a lack of action.

The lack of action is killing you with the stress of inaction.

This last two weeks in August are a time for me for Rest ž Reflection ž Reorganizing ž Renewal ž Re-Visioning and Re-Branding.

It’s a Free Day ( day off ) for Laura and I at Leading Advisor and weather depending we are going to do one or more of the following on the long weekend on our;

Summer 2010 List To Complete

• Beach Day
• Bocce Game
• Cycle Gabriola Island
• Cycle Newcastle Island
• Cycle Rathtrevor
• Dinner With Neighbours
• Hike
• ID Hiking Trails
• Kayak Craig Bay
• Kayak Newcastle Island
• Visit Cumberland
• Visit Saltspring Island
• Visit Qualicum
• Tidal Beach Walk

Here is a pic from Saltspring Island from the summer of 2008; “Turn up the chanting, I can still hear myself think”.

These lists are great for when Labour Day rolls around when one has the tendency to ask “where did the summer go?”

Completed Summer 2010 List

• Beach Day
• Cycle Rathtrevor
• Dinner @ Locals
• Dinner @ Neighbours
• Dinner @ The Mahle House
• Filberg Festival
• Fire Pit
• Fish Market
• Hike Englishman River
• Lake Tahoe
• Lunch @ Real Foods
• Niagara Falls
• Qualicum Market
• Visit Helen In Victoria
• Visit Marshall & Patty
• Visit The Usual Suspects
• Visit Nursery for Flowers & Hanging Baskets

“The energy, the content, the constant and frequent reminder to clean the mind and check the ego mind.  I learned ‘How to ask for a referral.’ I was inspired for 3 hours with the presentation content and Simon’s ability to speak.”
Mehul Gandhi

“I found the clearing to be very valuable. I didn’t expect the great commitment from management and Simon to ‘Clear my Roadblocks.”
Kabir Takhar

“The presentation made me realize that I have roadblocks that I need to deal with. I liked how Simon made me feel like I was the only person in the room. I didn’t expect to learn so much about myself in such a short time.”
Carey Gustafson

“It was motivating and helped to identify the roadblocks and how to overcome them. I have a feeling of hopefulness.”
Jill Macdonald

“The presentation was clear and realistic. Getting my thoughts to recognize what’s been on my mind.”
Juvil Paigon

“Good integration of coaching and roadmap together.”
Nashir Vasanji

“Cleared my mind and turned negative into a positive. I didn’t expect to learn about organization and planning.”
Shiv Kapoor

“The exercises helped me to better understand myself. I can clear my mind and address my worries.”
Colleen Ng

“The steps to clearing were really helpful. Understanding the unmet needs can be very helpful.”
Ada Bello