Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I’m thinking of the chorus of that great song by David Bowie from many years ago:

“Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

(Turn and face the strange)”

Bowie nails it. Change can be strange: it brings the unknown, the uncertain, the stressful. But we face it every day and we go on, and in most cases I would say we thrive.

Changes at Caldwell Advisory

In this blog post, I want to talk to you about changes. What we have going on at Caldwell Wealth and Estate Advisory, what our plans are for 2019, what you can expect from us.

Right off, you are going to get the opportunity to hear from the Partners of Caldwell Wealth and Estate Advisory on a regular basis. We realized that you might want to know how we think, what decisions we have made and how we hope to guide you to meet your goals.

Investment Focus and Perspectives

In January, we decided to provide quarterly commentaries (‘Investment Focus‘) written by Dan Lambert, a financial planner here at Caldwell Wealth and Estate Advisory. This was a good time to kick this off as 2018 was not a great year in the markets and December was dismal. Read Dan’s commentary here.

Next was the very first posting in our new Partners’ Blog, called ‘Perspectives‘. Rick Tomalty (more about him in a minute), wrote a very timely piece on investor behaviour, called Investors Behaving Badly. And finally, Jason Stubinsky’s first contribution to our Partners’ Blog Perspectives will be coming to you in May.

We don’t want to fill your inbox, so if you don’t want these updates, don’t be afraid to unsubscribe. But given the information we’ll be sharing with you, you may not want to.

We have made some other changes since the New Year.

The Partners

The biggest one was in the roles of our Partners.

Our newest Partner, Jason Stubinsky, is now Vice President with direct responsibility for HR. Jason joined us about three years ago, became a Partner in January 2018 and in January 2019, took on his new role. He has already shown the tenacity and determination we need to have on board to get things done. To stay with the music analogy, I would say a good theme song for Jason would be “Feelin’ Groovy,” by Simon and Garfunkel. A fun song for a fun person to work with. We are exceedingly happy to have Jason on the Caldwell Advisory Team.

Rick Tomalty has been a partner since 2012 and has taken on ever-increasing responsibilities within the company. In 2018, he took over the role of Managing Partner and in January 2019, became the President of Caldwell Wealth and Estate Advisory. If I had to pick an appropriate song for Rick, it would be Bob Seger’s classic, “Like a Rock.” He’s done an amazing job as a steadying influence on the team. He sets the mood and leads by example. I am very happy to have Caldwell under Rick’s guidance.

What about me? Good question. I’m still here as CEO, and in that capacity, I will have a dual role — plotting the company’s future and working with my clients to help them with their future and their goals. Back in 2017, I also made a conscious decision to work with charities to help them with their philanthropic goals. This in turns lets me help my clients reduce taxes and put their money towards those causes and institutions that are important to them.

One final note on people. After almost 24 years of helping his clients and then helping their kids, Josef Riha has decided to enjoy a long retirement. His happy demeanour will be missed by both staff and clients.

There are more changes in the works, with people and otherwise, and we will let you know about them as they come up.

Being like Wayne Gretzky

In closing, we need to remember that change is never-ending. We can’t stop it, and maybe we shouldn’t even want to. But we can anticipate it. To jump from music to sports, we at Caldwell Wealth and Estate Advisory aspire to be like Wayne Gretzky. His rare strength was knowing where the puck was going to be and getting to the spot before the puck did. We want to find out where you want to be in five years and what services you are going to need. We want to know what your goals are and have you covered, whether those goals include early retirement, your children or grandchildren’s education or some personal item on your bucket list like walking Spain’s legendary Camino de Santiago. We don’t want you to fall into the trap of retirement by default. We want to help you understand the future consequences of your actions. And everything we do has consequences, some positive some negative. But you need to know.

So no financial advice this time, but not to worry — we have more coming. Like I said re-read Rick’s blog, look for Dan’s commentary and watch for the launch of Jason’s first blog with Caldwell Advisory in the next 30 days or so.

What’s on my bookshelf right now?

Here are a couple of books I’m reading right now:

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, I’ve just started this book, but I can say that some of his insights into how people can leap in their abilities are interesting and unique. Not sure I agree all the way, but it’s enough to give you pause for thought.

The other, and I’ve read this one a couple of times before, is Extreme Ownership. It’s by a couple of former United States Navy SEALs and is peppered with their experiences in the field and how to apply those to business and leadership. I have been reading books on leadership for what seems like forever. Every single one of them has a different view of leadership and what you should do to be a good leader, but I find this one interesting because this book shows the intensity of the SEALs and what they are willing to give up, and to do, to win.