Samuel Lichtman

The big banks didn’t care about me until I had money.

The year I turned 18, I wanted to buy into a business idea - and a “financial advisor” told me it was a good idea to take a credit card to borrow $700 to buy into this business model.

Then, a year later, riddled with anxiety about $1k in credit card debt at 19 while working at Sportchek, I asked them if there was a product I could have that would cancel my credit card and pay less interest.

The “financial advisor” laughed. No joke. They told me there was nothing I could do, and I was stuck paying 19% interest on what was a ton of money for me at the time.

So, I did what most people do. I started a career in finance. No really. I did that. I got a job as a teller at a credit union with one goal. Learn the financial system so I would never be in this situation again, and so I could help others never be in this situation. In 2016, I joined one of Canada's largest publicly traded mutual fund companies and quickly grew a successful business.

However, I was restricted with the products I could use, and I didn’t believe that expensive mutual funds were the best investment options for my clients.

In 2020, I went independent to provide clients with better and more sophisticated investment options at a much lower cost, alongside financial advice and planning that has received national recognition and awards from Wealth Professional Magazine and features in nearly all the major Canadian media outlets.

Financial planning is so much more than product advice. All the big banks and institutions focus on their product. We created an opportunity for millennials to work with a firm run by millennials, focused on planning first and using products as part of the plan's implementation.

Here’s the reality. The big institutions don’t care about you unless there is a potential sales target you can help them hit.
That needs to change. That will change. We are on a mission more significant than ourselves.

It’s time to change the conversation.