Private Clients

Sean Preston: Welcome everybody to another episode of The Good Neighbor podcast. Today we have another neighbor on with us and that is Richard Bruton of Bruton Investment Group at National Bank Financial Wealth Management. What's going on?

Richard Bruton: Well, thank you, Sean, for the opportunity to introduce my team. You know, as you mentioned, Bruton Investment Group at National Bank Financial. I am Richard Bruton, I'm a senior investment and wealth management advisor. I started the investment wealth management advisory business 26 years ago after a successful career in financial management as Chief Financial Officer of a Canadian bank, a pension fund, and in manufacturing. So, my team at National helps private and business clients meet their lifetime goals and objectives for themselves, their families, their businesses. In other words, we help our clients through developing and putting into practice financial plans and tax-effective investment strategies to help them essentially save towards retirement, save to buy homes and other properties, save to educate their children, save to buy businesses of their own, and to meet other lifetime goals and objectives. We also help them with business succession planning and all the aspects associated with estate planning like businesses, wills, powers of attorney, tax-effective multigenerational transfer of family wealth, and essentially prepare themselves and their families to cope with financial crises that happen once in a while. And that's in a nutshell what we do.

Sean Preston: I was going to say, the financial industry is quite vast. I mean, we've had lots of conversations with financial advisers and people in wealth management. There's a lot that goes into it. And so, I'd like to try to crack down a little bit to give our listeners a little bit more of maybe some behind-the-scenes and maybe something more in-depth. Because everything that you just said, you know, if I'm listening to the show, I'm saying, "Okay, where do I start?" So, for somebody who's listening to the show, maybe let's answer that question. How would you go about it— I mean, everybody's got different needs, but I want to try to simplify as much as possible because that was a mouthful, I'm sure.

Richard Bruton: Well, we meet people and advance to a great extent obviously on an organized basis but at their pace to make sure that we get to know them. Many folks are quite concerned about whether the money is going to be sufficient to retire on. And others are much younger, obviously, with great dreams for the future. So, we meet with people individually, get to know them personally. We have to learn out, we have to trust who we are dealing with; they have to trust us as well. So, it's a relationship based on trust, a relationship that lasts many generations. In fact, we have had clients with us for four generations already. We go about the process through the interview, we determine what they want to achieve in life, see what they have available, how much they earn, how much they may inherit—all those things put together to determine how we can help them. We develop a financial plan and an investment policy strategy and then we help them implement that. We walk through it with them and meet with them on a regular basis. Most clients, we will have complete meetings at least three to four times a year in which we revise everything to make sure that they're keeping to their plan. And hopefully, we always get to the point in which their goals are reached, like the education of the kids or retirement or the sale of their business if they're looking for a business succession, or their wills are put in place. We make sure they will have wills, powers of attorney, and everything like that. And we very focused on helping them save taxes in the process because if things are not properly planned, a lot of money gets lost to the family through taxes, and it's quite unnecessary.

Sean Preston: Right, 100%. I learned a lot about some of that stuff, the tax-saving stuff, working with my financial adviser. It's stuff that not a lot of people are educated on, and there's a lot of money that you can save from simply adding a couple of processes, doing a couple of things here or there. It's pretty cool. Well, thank you for that. That definitely answered the question I was looking for, helping to identify the process and how that works. Do you have a kind of specialty? Obviously, there are lots of different things that you do. Is there a particular area that your kind of maybe enjoy a little bit more?

Richard Bruton: Well, I would suggest probably this is a role that I always wanted to come into. Ever since I was a kid, my father used to give me shares as gifts, and I used to go and collect my dividends, which were very little, but nevertheless, it made me feel there was something there. I wanted to know what it was all about—owning companies and all that type of thing—and seeing my shares grow and go up. I found it very exciting. Life takes you in different directions, and in many ways, I'm very grateful. I started my career as an auditor aiming to become a chartered accountant and then was an accountant of some major corporations. So, when the opportunity came to move into this industry, I came into an industry which I am passionate about, and it allows me to work with people. I think it boils down to what a specialty is. As professionals, we are specialized in what we do; we obviously have the training. But do we enjoy it? Yes, I love it. The part I enjoy the most is actually the relationship with the folks that I've worked with for, as I say, in some cases, four generations. They've referred friends and family members to us. That for me is probably the most valuable thing—when people respect and trust you enough that they are prepared to refer others. It's a recognition that I think is amazing, and it gives a lot of personal satisfaction when that happens.

Sean Preston: Yeah, 100%. Trust, especially in today's day and age, is critical for many businesses. The way everything is so busy, and you can go down any rabbit hole on the internet to find misleading information or misinformation, it's hard to determine what's accurate. Trust is a really big factor in what makes people decide to buy and what makes people decide to stay. It's nice to see that you've experienced a lot of that with your own clients. Are there any misnomers or misconceptions in your line of work?

Richard Bruton: Well, yes. When children are fortunate enough to have parents that start introducing these concepts to the kids from an early stage, kids grow up with that understanding that there's more out there than just going to the bank and putting your money in the bank. If you want to save for something, they start understanding the idea of ownership, of having a stake in things. Many kids are brought up with absolute ignorance of all of this. They grow up and then get to work in their own fields of business, and sadly, they get to a point in life at which they should be speaking to people like us. Probably once they hit their 20s and start saving seriously, they should really come and see us. Many feel that we're here just to look after very wealthy people, and it's not the case. We basically have entire families, and some family members have $50,000 with us, while others might have a million and much more. Generally speaking, we can take on clients from about $250,000 upward. Prior to that, people need to speak to their bank advisory team at the bank level because the level that we look after people at is more in-depth and sophisticated. We have to make sure that clients have a certain amount of money so we can really help them. Otherwise, the most tax-efficient and least costly solution for them is to actually just go to the bank or to a discount brokerage. I would suggest discount brokerages are dangerous because unless you really know what you're doing, you can lose a lot of money. So, it's better to take advice from people who specialize in the field.

Sean Preston: Right, right, 100%. I can totally relate to that. There's got to be a subset of funds there in order to get a reasonable return.

Richard Bruton: Yes, exactly. Reasonable amount of return. If not, you're not going to get over the hump or might not be able to get to your goals.

Sean Preston: But saving aggressively, like you mentioned, is definitely a practice. It's something they've been needing to teach in schools for a super long time. It's crazy to me that they still don't. It's one of the most important skills considering the world's run on money. You'd think they would have this dialed in, and they don't.

Richard Bruton: The general wealth management side of things, we don't only just advise people on investment; we advise on their holistic wealth management side. That's very important. For example, my parents bought a cottage like 60 years ago for $10,000. Now that cottage is worth $1 million, and they feel, "Oh, I'm so rich." No, that cottage is exactly the same cottage it was 60 years ago. You haven't become any wealthier; you still have the same cottage. People don't see themselves as becoming wealthy just because the cottage has gone up. But it's paper money; it's not the real thing. When people are taxed afterwards on the cottage because of it being a second property and the capital gains tax comes along, it wipes away almost half the value of the cottage, especially in a situation like that. If the person wants to replace that $1 million cottage by another $1 million cottage, no, they will not have the money to do it because they've had to pay such a lump sum of money in taxes. These are things that we try and educate people on to be very careful with. Here in Canada, the greatest aspiration people seem to have is to own a cottage. It's probably better to just go out there and rent it whenever you need it.

Sean Preston: Yeah, I've got some aspirations to buy a piece of land up north and put a camper on it, trailer, and do a five-year build plan. Have a spot to go up. Julie's parents have a camper as well; they go camping almost every weekend in the summertime. My parents just bought a little trailer as well. We have one.

Richard Bruton: I have one.

Sean Preston: Oh, okay, there you go. Nice.

Richard Bruton: So, yeah, my mobile cottage, right, to go everywhere.

Sean Preston: Yeah, 100%. It's nice to be able to go to different spots as well. The place we're looking at is not too far, about two, two and a half hours north of here. Be able to have all of our friends come; they can pitch a tent, bring a trailer, and eventually over the course of time slowly start to build what we want, how we want it, and kind of have our own little sliver of paradise type of thing.

Richard Bruton: Oh, yes, it's nice, especially if you have lakefront property or something like that. It just takes it to another level. Some horses, very nice things like that. These are dreams I think that all of us have, including myself. So far, I have my nice little camp, and we do travel quite a bit. That's how you get to know Canada and the United States—by taking nice holidays, maybe three weeks or so, and travel around. We love doing that, just kayaking, and cycling and just the most down-to-earth stuff.

Sean Preston: Well, I'll tell you, this is the first show Jeff and I have produced over 250 shows so far this year, and this is the first time we've gone this deep in a conversation where you've seemingly answered the question without me asking it right before I was about to ask the question. That was my next question: "Hey, what do you like to do for fun?" And we're already talking about it. I just had to say something; I was completely amazed that we just kept rolling into the precise questions as we were just doing the show.

Richard Bruton: Yeah, I like reading a lot. That's obviously something that comes with being in this business; you have to read a lot. But I like to read a lot. I like history, understanding history because I find it helps me with my business, with some degree of foresight and vision in how to deal with situations. I like the study of economics, which is very important for our business. You can almost read between the lines when it comes to dealing with what comes out in the news and sort of plan not only my life but the life of my clients around what's happening politically and economically in the country. Reading is very important. I enjoy it. I also enjoy casual reading. My wife and I love to go to the theater or a show. We love opera, you might think it's crazy. Everyone here at home paints as well; we all paint. Just a family of artists. We don't sell anything; those are hobbies we have. I compose classical music as well and have entered into a number of competitions since I was a little kid and won a few first prizes for my competitions and compositions. So, you know, that's life. That's what makes life special, and we're very grateful it's been possible.

Sean Preston: Man, well, I wanted to ask you about history. I enjoy a bunch of different time periods in history: the Roman era, Spartans, Vikings, all stuff I've been super fascinated by. I know a lot about World War II, and anytime there's a show or a piece of literature I can get my hands on, I'll sink my teeth into it. I just find those eras super interesting. It tells you a lot. It's nice to go off the past and know what happened in the past as we look towards the future. It can help in business, help with a lot of things. Do you have a couple of eras in history that you're more fascinated with?

Richard Bruton: I think you watch the same programs on YouTube and the History Channel as I do. There are great collections of historical videos on YouTube of all types, as well as great movies on Netflix about the Vikings, etc. I like history in general. I come from a European background, which is a mix of every nationality in Europe. I find it very interesting to see how the whole historical process since the time of the Greeks, the great civilizations, and even before that, the impact our world had on the rest of the world and vice versa. How the rest of the world had an impact on our world. It's very interesting, and it helps understand how cultures have related to each other over long periods of time. How people have tried to come closer in many respects. That's probably a formula for success going forward. It's very interesting. Yes, I do enjoy the study of history because of all of that. Unfortunately, things are not as quick as we'd like to see them happen, but history has its way of working itself. We have to look positively into the future.

Sean Preston: Yeah, totally. Especially with everything going on, try to keep that positivity as much as possible. If we could all just... it would be a better place.

Richard Bruton: There's a lot to look forward to, I would suggest. I mean, if you can imagine how things must have been one, one and a half centuries ago for people. Their concerns about the future must have been enormous. Then world wars happened one after the other, and major changes in countries that became independent. All those things brought so much uncertainty into families and people's lives. I would suggest that at this point in time, we don't have anything comparable in terms of concerns. We have so much to look forward to. The only thing is to learn how to navigate it. Not only navigate it in one's personal capacity, but we also have to think about the technological advancements that are happening. Obviously, artificial intelligence, where our countries are positioned, and hopefully be able to position our portfolios and our businesses to survive all these changes. We have to essentially be visionaries in many respects. People in business are very creative, and that inspires me because I like to see that in people. The only thing is, they can't just focus on what they're doing. What made them successful in the past may not make them successful going forward. They have to adapt to the changes, like we have to adapt as we go along. Adapt or die, unfortunately.

Sean Preston: Very well said. In life, we pick a path, we walk that path—it's the path of life. As we go through, life decides to get in the way. It'll throw challenges at us, hardships. Sometimes those fall in the forms of tragedies; others experience a little bit more of this, some a little bit less. But I have always been fascinated by human beings' ability to overcome these challenges. The mindset of seeing the glass half full, finding silver linings because we have to move forward. We don't have another option. Like you said, evolve, adapt, and try to pull those silver linings forward and keep a positive mindset. Have you ever experienced a life challenge or hardship that you overcame? Maybe it made you stronger, better, or maybe you pulled some silver linings from it.

Richard Bruton: Some major challenges. I essentially had to leave my parents' home when I was 15 years of age because of war, and I could hardly depend on my parents for support after that. That was a major challenge, but I got myself educated. I finished high school, went on to university, and studied at night. I didn't have the privilege to go to full-time university. I built myself a great career. In fact, I started in quite senior positions from the age of 22 precisely because my employers recognized that. The fact that I'd been working and studying along the way, they recognized the effort I was putting into it. Waking up at 2-3 in the morning—these are big challenges. Having little money to survive and still persevere with my studies. Immigration was also very challenging. Coming to Canada 31 years ago was a big change. I'd been the CFO of a major pension fund. I came to Canada, and yes, my education was recognized as having the equivalent of a master's degree. I got a job as an analyst in equity research, and those jobs required an MBA from Harvard or Western. I didn't have that, but my career was built on that. These are challenges one overcomes. If you want to choose people to bring into your business, you have to bring people that have had challenges to overcome in life. When they have challenges and have done their best to overcome them, you can see these are positive people. They are going to help themselves and help the business grow. Business challenges, yes. Major corporations I worked for presented major challenges. You walk into a job, you're young, and your staff is like in their 50s and 60s, and you are their boss. You have to be the boss right and you have to you have to really learn what they are doing and then impart with your knowledge to them and hopefully they will accept it and so you have to know to manage those situations those are big challenges make no mistake.

Sean Preston:  I can totally relate to that I became a young leader at uh 20 28 and you know by the height of it in my my 30s we had I had a staff of six account managers 42 event management staff and then a performance trainer to manage the 42 because I couldn't do it anymore that became a little bit too much uh learned a lot from that how to be a leader what not to say how to navigate um people they're their gossip what they think learn how to be a democratic leader um all kinds of different things and  then uh covid killed it nine years nothing to show and uh hit Financial Rock Bottom, mental rock bottom and having to start from scratch all over again so I can certainly uh I can certainly relate to uh to a few things that you're saying there that perspective

Richard Bruton: Yeah that's the thing when I came to Canada I really went to that rock bottom thing because when you young and I went for the first change when  I left a big challenge when I left my parents home you are young and you and you kind of feel that wow I'm building from this point on and it's great but when you have a peak in your career and suddenly you come to a new country and yes they give you the recognition but then they say okay but you're going to receive 10% of the pay that you were getting before that's crazy and you have family to support, you have children to support and uh and that's why many people who come to Canada who happen to be professionals like myself leave Canada.  They come here they stay here they see that Canada is difficult to break into and they go. They go down to the state or they go back to the countries they came from, or they go to simply other countries. And because I think we put up too many barriers when people come in especially well educated people and um and it does affect people's lives enormously as it did affect my life and the life of my family right but I was determined to stay on in Canada because I wanted the future for my children. Today my children are practically all of them in good position except for my little one, she's only 16. But so, there's a lot to go there right but she's doing very well as well. but

Sean Preson: Your 16y old does she does have some pretty strong interest and kind of where she maybe thinks she wants to go I ask because I have a 17-year-old.

Richard Bruton:  Yeah, she's she is she's she’s a all three kids were are fall into that category of being absolute Geniuses which I'm amazed I don't know where they got that from.

Sean Preson: Must be you.

Richard Bruton: I doubt it but the um but they at that level at school you know. They basically are very top so everything is 90% plus and they are in special classes that cater for them right and which is good because the atmosphere in those classes tends to be much more focused on studying and the kids that basically really want to go somewhere no she is uh and they've all enjoyed mathematics and science I mean these are subjects which are essential if you want a good career going forward. In many fields right and um and that's very important so my wife is a mathematician so obviously their brains came from that but my daughter she wants to go into architecture and but she loves art I mean she she's always painting stuff and doing all kinds of stuff she gets a cork and she does something with it she gets a cup and she paints it so everything is around this house if you can't walk into a room it's like an art gallery that looks kind of intimidating right and I have to tell you have to put all of these things into a box and into the basement because you can't move inside this room and every time I go there there's more stuff that's so funny

Sean Preston: I have to ask you that ancient typewriter behind you is there a story behind that?

Richard Bruton:  Well, the story is that when I was a kid um one of the things I wanted to do was keep in touch with family and friends because I left home right. So I got myself a little typewriter and I just uh and I used to write to everybody because people were complaining it couldn't read my handwriting so well right and so I got myself a typewriter and um my father used to also own a business that was into supply of office equipment so since I was a kid I was go sit in the office and play with typewriters and calculators I the mechanical sound of it all was absolutely fascinating and I admire the immense engineering that goes into making something like that right if you dismantle one of those machines these machines it's highly complex and the manufacture something like that is very difficult some people had some incredible skills to do that and uh I knew a fellow that was actually a typewriter mechanic and also the mechanic of all those compomers that were also mechanical right prior to computers. And he used to disassemble this whole thing clean every single part with a ton the parts spread across the big table and then you would reassemble everything and it will work beautifully right this W life is so easy now by comparison yeah it's fascinating how the M works are like that a top writer like that I would suggest in those times was probably more expensive than a laptop today yeah amazing so I picked up that typewriter at U maybe some antique show or something you can always pick them up take a walk through an antique Antiquities shop and uh you will find a lot of interesting stuff.

Sean Preston: yeah, it's always fascinating going through there the girls love doing that. My two girls um I enjoy it as well too it's kind of like walking into a time machine it's pretty cool to see all that stuff.

Richard Bruton: I'm afraid of going into an antique shop with my wife and daughter because they just don't stop.

Sean Preston: Yeah, mine are the same so.

Richard Bruton: As I'm afraid of walking into a nursery right because I think our garden is super overcrowded I just managed the lawn and that's enough of a job right but to handle to handle but the garden looks amazing it looks amazing right like walking through the garden because I've never seen such beautiful flowers in my life you know I think it's they really do a great job my wife is just totally passionate about the garden right

Sean Preston: That's a passion that I share my mom's been a green thumb for a long time my two younger sisters are big into plants and all that kind of stuff so I grew up around that and as I started maturing to my 30s and then Covid hit um I found myself hand plucking dandelions on my front lawn it's kind of where I started. Then that turned into my mom saying hey you got all this time you should power wash your fence so then I did that and then it was like okay well what's the next project now it's like everybody was doing projects at that time and I built two garden boxes now I have five I grow almost everything.  I've got not enough room I have to now redesign I only have a little tiny backyard I'm on a corner lot. I'm a big bush and I'm going to build raised garden beds a very long one in a big L shape so I'll probably double the amount of space and hopefully that'll allow me to take the six or seven pots that I have on my deck along with everything else that's in the gardens and uh and be able to give it a better a big job.

Richard Bruton:  Yeah, that's a big job.

Sean Preston: yeah it is but uh you know when you it's a lot of work but when you taste the food and you like we I have two also standup boxes I bought from Costco one of them is just all different kinds of leaf lettuce and then one is a kale box so I got about six or seven kale plants that are growing in there. We make our smoothies in the morning and put them in, and we've been really eating a lot of it lately, so I had to tell Julie we need to buy something from the grocery store this week because if we keep going we're just going to eat it. All the difference between what you get at the store, it's harder it's not right yeah I never felt kale so soft you just you normally think when you buy kale at the grocery it's hard right it's prickly almost the stuff that comes out of out of my garden it's super soft and it's super fresh and I you know wouldn't want to have it any other way.

Richard Bruton: Yeah, my wife also keeps a bit of a vegetable garden, and we have some fruit trees like apple teas trees and cherry trees she makes a lot of jams and that type of thing so she keeps herself busy with a lot of things.

 Sean Preston: Yeah my mom's into all of that stuff um you know pickling stuff all that old school stuff she learned from her mom you know back on the farm they used to do that with everything grow it and then you pickle it so we got to enjoy doing a lot of that we go every two years we go up into the Simco County forest and we uh we Harvest wild leaks and then we pick all those and those are good for charcuterie board they're good in a Caesar they're good on their own uh little things like this uh definitely a skill that Julie enjoys that as well so we're going to keep that tradition going.

Richard Bruton: Both my wife and myself we come from farming families right and uh and all four grandparents right it's not it's not just one of them so it and that's for multiple Generations so it's um I think that in itself not being a family that's just raised in the cities there's a certain way of life that seems to be and approach the life and maybe an appreciation for nature that is probably coming across and people like yourself in which you know you obviously enjoy the countryside and um and you can see what you're doing as a hobby because that you the green fingers are there naturally right I just like mowing the lawn and watching everything grow I'm not very good at stuff right.

Sean Preston: Yeah, I didn't have the time.

Richard Bruton: But in terms of sports and stuff like that um one of the things I've done for many years um is was lawn bowling and curling as well so Lawn Bowling in the summer and curling in the winter and that's that trophy there at the back I think it's on that side right um it comes from as under lawn bowling side.

Sean Preston: Big into anything competitive whether that's on a rink or on a front lawn on a field on a court. It doesn't matter whether it's a car game, a board game, a lawn game Lawn Bowling super fun uh any anytime anybody wants to say hey do you want to go out and pickle ball whatever the case is I have a hard time saying no to that so.

Richard Bruton: You're doing pickle ball pickle ball, and I play tennis mostly because my all my family plays tennis right. So, it's the only way I can really spend time with him, but I got them into curling and run bowling too so yeah it's you. If you enjoy Sports, I think it just um not only brings the family together more, but it also keeps you healthier right and that's exactly what you're trying to do is keep the keep the blood circulating keep yourself oxygenated

Sean Preson: Totally uh what is one thing that you wish our listeners knew about your business?

Richard Bruton: Well that we are good listeners, and we look forward to helping them and they can, and they must know that they can trust us to look after their put them first because it's all about people right it's putting them first.

Sean Preston: And you've certainly been doing it for a long time well that was a phenomenal conversation I'm sure there are definitely some people who are interested and maybe wanting to learn a little bit more maybe reaching out to you on a personal level. For those who are interested what would be one of the best ways that they can go ahead and reach you?

Richard Bruton: well the best thing is just call me straight at 416 869 898 and that's it and uh set up a time to meet with me and I'll either meet with them at their homes or places of business or they can come and meet with me at the office  and any we have offices everywhere right so whether they want to meet with me in Toronto or in Barry or Innisville or Sunbury I have clients all over right so I'm used meeting with people  in their places or business or wherever we have offices.

Sean Preston: As well and if they wanted to search and prise online as well what would be a spot for them to go?  

Richard Bruton: They can go to well and we're on LinkedIn, on Facebook we're also on Twitter probably the best place to go is our website which is www brutoninvestmentgroup.ca sometimes if there's a bit of a problem getting into the .ca one maybe try the brutoninvestmentgroup.com and just to get a general knowledge well a general read up on that. I think we have to improve on websites nowadays because I think no one likes to go into a website and have to read too much right yeah so we're trying to modernize that a little bit within the within the constraints of working for a big organization like National Bank Financial and  we might want to get little videos put in there and everything which can that might answer the questions people may have. Quick questions probably make it much more interactive if possible.

Sean Preston: Yeah, you and I were both at the go that ghost marketing and checking that place out that was really cool thank you amazing conversion. Thank you very much for coming on and telling your story really appreciate you having on the show.

Richard Bruton: Thank you Sean most appreciated you're doing a great job for the neighborhood and the community and hopefully one day you'll be greatly rewarded for it.

Sean Preston: Awesome stuff thanks again Richard.