The Stayropoulos family was hit by tragedy with the father’s unexpected passing in 1992. He died intestate, with the family farm in Beamsville, Ont., almost bankrupt. The family also had several properties that were highly leveraged.
“It was a pivotal event,” said Penny Stayropoulos, who was nine when her father died — one of three young children left behind. “I witnessed first-hand … my mother having to basically relearn and rebuild everything from scratch. It was a traditional European marriage; she wasn’t part of the day-to-day business or financial decision-making. So, it was a big learning curve for her.”
The experience motivated Stayropoulos to maintain a lifelong devotion to proper financial planning for herself — and as a career to help others avoid the difficulties she had faced.
“Over time, I became my mother’s pillar of support because of my own pursuits,” she said. “[Financial planning] was really a main driver for me.”
Stayropoulos, now 41, is founder and president of PB Total Wealth Advisory and Consulting Corp. in Barrie, Ont. She is also partner and portfolio manager with Toronto-based Treegrove Investment Management Inc.
Her early experience instilled the value of work.
“My mother sat my sisters and me down at a young age and said, ‘I can provide a roof over your head, but everything else is up to you,’” Stayropoulos said. “So, at a young age, we had part-time jobs to buy the extra pair of shoes we wanted for school, or jeans or shirts or anything like that.”
“I knew from the get-go that university probably wasn’t the path for me for those reasons, and I also didn’t want to graduate with a load of debt,” she said.
In high school, Stayropoulos worked with National Bank of Greece (Canada) as a co-op student, and became a full-time personal banking officer after graduating in 2001. She then enrolled part-time at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ont., and earned two diplomas: in enterprise business in 2003, and in business administration in 2005.
In 2006, Bank of Nova Scotia acquired NBG. Stayropoulos remained with Scotiabank as a senior personal banking officer and then as a financial advisor, and acquired professional designations. She’s now a chartered financial analyst, trust and estate practitioner, chartered investment manager, certified financial planner and financial management advisor.
Eventually, though, “I wanted to move away from the big bank focus of trying to sell your client everything under the sun, and having forced conversations on certain solutions when I felt that wasn’t the right time,” Stayropoulos said. “So, I made the transition to focus on portfolio management.”
From 2017 to 2021, she worked as a portfolio manager with Goodreid Investment Counsel Corp. and then Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management, both in Toronto. In late 2021, she moved to Manulife Private Wealth in Barrie to work as an investment counsellor.
“The switch to Manulife was really driven more by a personal circumstance of caregiving for my mother,” Stayropoulos said. Still, the move aligned with her entrepreneurial ambitions.
“Throughout my time with Goodreid and with Lorne Steinberg, I was developing my own personal branding and building out my own voice … and what kind of clients I wanted to attract,” she said. “That was the catalyst to say, ‘I can do this on my own. I can brand myself and not really have the need to sell a product to anyone. I’m selling my expertise and knowledge of the client and doing what’s right for them.’”
Stayropoulos launched PB Total Wealth Advisory in 2022, while also joining Treegrove. PB Total Wealth is an advice-only service “specifically for those who have planning gaps or are in a transition that requires a full review of their current financial journey.” She added that PB clients know their financial plan will not “result in a push for investing.”
Clients who are looking for investment planning can work with Stayropoulos through Treegrove. Her clients with that firm are primarily individuals, families and business owners — no minimum assets required. She works with about 10 households and aspires to 30. Average assets per household are typically between $750,000 and $1.5 million, with the highest being $2.2 million.
In terms of characteristics, her ideal clients are those who acknowledge they need to work with a professional, and who have “experienced some type of disservice” from their previous advisor.
Stayropoulos strives for personalization when building portfolios.
“Even though I have my core investment philosophy in terms of what our goals are for clients, I have the ability to make it custom to their needs,” she said. “For example, some clients prefer a higher exposure to global names over domestic from an equities perspective,” while others prefer strip bonds over conventional corporate bonds.
When analyzing securities, she focuses on value: “I’m looking for long-term mature companies that grow at a reasonable rate.”
Furthermore, she manages volatility as well as client expectations to achieve the goal of preserving wealth with some growth.
To build both of her businesses, Stayropoulos relies largely on referrals and word of mouth.
She must also stay on top of changes that affect clients’ wealth, such as the recent change to the capital gains inclusion rate, which rose to two-thirds from one-half in June.
For individuals, the inclusion rate of 50% still stands for the first $250,000 in gains, and clients should consider whether loss carryforwards can offset those gains, Stayropoulos said. The capital gains changes might also impact the timing and distribution of family estate freezes, she added.
Stayropoulos knows a thing or two about responding to disruption.
When changes arise, “it’s worth revisiting what strategies are in place, and how [they] can impact the overall outlook of the financial plan and day-to-day financial impact in terms of clients’ cash flow and what they’re anticipating for income,” Stayropoulos said. “And then how they’re drawing out that income.”
This article appears in the September issue of Investment Executive. Subscribe to the print edition, read the digital edition or read the articles online.