EXPERT ADVICE - FINANCIAL
Advice First, Product Second for Sound Financial Planning with Credit Unions
WORDS BY Margaret Prouse PHOTO: Evan Ceretti
C redit Unions offer full-service retirement planning, and group health and dental plans at locations across Prince Edward Island, available through Credential Financial Strategies Inc. Not limited to Credit Union members, the services are available to any member of the public. Advisors will meet with clients either at their office at the Credit Union, at the client’s home, or at the client’s place of business. financial advice, including insurance and estate planning, group
and identify the client’s needs and wants. At subsequent appointments, they work together to address those needs. Focusing on selling a financial product before learning what the client needs is like putting the cart before the horse. “If you don’t know what a person is looking for, wanting, or needing, how do you match a product to that need? It is advice first, product second,” says George Weatherbie, representative at the Charlottetown office, “and we don’t sell you anything you don’t want or need.” The term “wealth management,” frequently used in the financial business, can be intimidating to people who don’t think they
have much wealth to manage. Krista Ahern, representative from the Summerside office, says there is no need to be intimidated. You don’t have to have a lot of money to meet with a financial advisor at the Credit Union. “Everybody’s wealth is important,” she says, “and wealth management covers both ends of the scale, helping people to build wealth as well as maintain the wealth they have already built.” Financial advice is a personalized process, and a plan that works for one person may not work for another. Ahern explains it this way: “Not everybody needs the same amount of money to be happy and live
The first meeting provides an opportunity for advisor and client to get acquainted,
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www.pei-living.ca WINTER 2020
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