Even before Ted Irvine and Jordy Douglas got into the financial advisory business in Winnipeg, they knew a thing or two about goals.

As professional hockey players in the National Hockey League, their job was to score goals and assist others. As financial planners, it’s not much different; now, their job is to assist others in reaching their financial and lifestyle goals.

Irvine and Douglas work through Burlington, Ont.-based Manulife Securities Inc. and have just begun branding themselves as Irvine Douglas Retirement Income Solutions. The pair have been working together as advi-sors since 1988, when Douglas, who had recently retired from a nine-year career in hockey, decided to listen to the employment advice of his own advisor — a guy named Ted Irvine.

Says Douglas: “Sometimes you have to rely on who you know and not what you know. [Irvine said], ‘Why don’t you give this a go?’ [And] we’ve been together ever since. He did such a good job with my money, I’m still working [with him] today.”

Irvine had gotten into the advisory business a decade earlier, thanks to a close connection of his own — Jean Ratelle, a former teammate on the New York Rangers and a student of the stock market who had made several good investments.

Then, a friend at Great-West Lifeco Inc. really piqued Irvine’s interest when Irvine was contemplating retiring from hockey. Irvine opted to make the jump to financial services even though he considered himself to be 13 years — the length of time he spent in the NHL — behind everybody else in the advisory business.

“I always felt I was so far behind people who had an education,” says Irvine. “It became like a stigma to me. But I had ‘people’ skills because of pro sports.”

Three years ago, Irvine and Douglas refocused their practice on clients who were in retirement or on the cusp of it. When the stock market started to crash in late 2008, Irvine says, the two advisors saw that retired people were hit particularly hard.

“Their portfolios were dropping,” Irvine says, “their incomes were less and they’re living longer. Some of our older clients were starting to run out of money.”

Douglas and Irvine try to guarantee as many different income sources as they can for their clients. In addition to clients’ defined-benefit plans, the Canada Pension Plan and old-age security, the advisors like to recommend guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit products.

Says Douglas: “We’ll get out of the volatility of the market and into vehicles [for which] there will be a fair rate of return with a minimum of volatility. We also look to income and dividend funds, and structure [client portfolios] accordingly.”

One challenge, Douglas notes, is convincing clients that they could live to a ripe old age. “Clients don’t believe they’re going to live a long time,” he says. “They don’t believe in longevity. They say, ‘I’m not going to live that long.’ Well, how do you know that? You can’t spend all your money by 80 if you’re going to live to 90.”@page_break@The GMWB products, which are similar to annuities but tied to a mutual fund, represent the best of both worlds for many inves-tors, Irvine says: “If there’s growth, you get the growth. If the market crashes, you’re still guaranteed a fixed income.”

Douglas, 53, played for three NHL teams from 1979 to 1985 — including his hometown Winnipeg Jets. He scored 76 goals and had 62 assists during his NHL career. He also played one year in the World Hockey Association and two in Europe.

Irvine, 66, broke in with the Boston Bruins in the 1963-64 season. He played with the Los Angeles Kings, the Rangers and the St. Louis Blues before retiring in 1977. He notched 154 goals and 177 assists over his career. Neither advisor goes out of his way to tell clients or prospects about his former hockey career. But in a city the size of Winnipeg, it doesn’t take long until people find out.

“Some of the newest clients don’t even know I played,” Douglas says. “I sometimes get inquiries on the second or third appointment. It’s not something we throw on the table. But we understand people don’t let you forget. That’s my history, and we’ll talk about it if that’s an opportunity. It’s not who we are [now], but it helped get us here today.”

Irvine jokes that it’s easier for his past to remain a mystery because people never saw him play unless they had a black-and-white television set.

Although many former players like to talk hockey when they first leave the game, for Irvine and Douglas, it’s all about the client.

Says Irvine: “One client said to me, ‘I don’t care who you are; you have to earn the right to my business’.”

Irvine keeps some hockey memorabilia in his office — sticks, sweaters and pucks. And for clients who want to talk hockey, he says, “We tell a lot of stories. We have a lot of fun with clients.”

The practice is primarily family-oriented, says Irvine: “Our market is the ‘mom and pop’ shop, the guy in the street working hard and going to retire.”

Having been in the advisory business for so many years, Irvine and Douglas get virtually all of their new business through referrals. Irvine says it typically takes a couple of meetings before they solidify a relationship with a new client.

Irvine and Douglas have honed their client-interviewing skills over the years. “We understand what we’re asking now,” Irvine says. “Before, we assumed what the answer was. Now, we’ve seen people with portfolio crashes, interest rate drops and how it affects people at early ages.”

Irvine also has some strong connections to another group of athletes: professional wrestlers. His son, whose “ring name” is Chris Jericho, has been one of World Wrestling Entertainment’s most successful stars over the past 15 years. And when Irvine Sr. is not in his office, he enjoys spending time at the home in nearby Gimli that he shares with his wife, Bonnie. Irvine also likes to travel to visit his kids — Chris is in Florida and Vanessa is a music teacher in Seattle.

As for Douglas, he enjoys spending time at his summer house in Grand Marais on the east side of Lake Winnipeg with his partner, Joni Hanson. Douglas is still involved in hockey: he likes to play with his friends in the winter and he’s a big fan of his son, Scott, who plays for Kelvin High School. Douglas Sr. also is president of the Winnipeg Jets alumni and on the board of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame. IE