Jane dunker has always been drawn to water. “At the age of two, I would jump off the end of the dock at my uncle’s cottage into 20 feet of water, completely unable to swim,” says the 59-year-old advisor with Investors Group Inc. in Mississauga, Ont. “I was a terror; someone always had to be in the water to watch me.”

What her family eventually did was put her in a life jacket and tie her by a rope to the dock so she could pull herself in. Dunker did learn to swim, of course, and has been diving into the great blue all of her life. At Mount Allison University, from which she graduated with a degree in economics, Dunker was a member of the varsity swim team and in her senior year was named the school’s Female Athlete of the Year. Today, she hits the pool at least twice a week, despite her busy schedule.

Three years ago, Dunker again took up competitive swimming and competed in the Ontario Senior Games that year. Last year, at the biennial Canadian Senior Games, she won three gold medals and a silver in swimming in the division for people aged 55 to 60.

“These are great people to be with,” Dunker says of her fellow competitors. “They’re fun, they’re active. They’re out there living and enjoying themselves.”

Ten years ago, Dunker, who was born in Ottawa and raised in Halifax, decided to dive into a career change. After spending 22 years with Sears Canada in various positions, including store manager, in various locations in Ontario and New Brunswick, she completed the Canadian securities course and in September 1995 joined Investors.

From her home office in Mississauga, where she lives with her husband, Cameron Dunker, a project manager with food-processing company Meyn Canada, and her 11-year-old black Labrador retriever, Lucy, Dunker began the slow process of building her business.

To launch the advisory business, “I marketed any way I could just to get clients,” she says. “I’d see anybody who wanted to meet with me. Then, after two years, I found the clients I really liked working with were people of my age or older.”

Dunker, a certified financial planner, began to tailor her training to the age group, earning a certificate in estate planning and completing the elder planning counsellor course.

Today, about 65% of Dunker’s book of business, which consists of slightly less than 300 clients or client families, is made up of people older than 50. Much of the remainder are relatives or friends of the 50-plus core. Assets under management are $25 million-$30 million. Almost all of her clients live in the Toronto area, but some have retired and moved to smaller Ontario towns.

“I should have gotten into the financial business a long time ago,” Dunker says of her decision to become an advisor. “It really is where my strengths are.”

She estimates that 80% of her meetings are held in her clients’ homes, while the rest are either at her home or one of Investors’ Toronto-area corporate offices. Often she meets her clients in the evenings or on weekends.

“I like the flexible hours,” Dunker says. “I’m quite disciplined in planning my time. These days, people are so busy that evenings are the only time to sit down and have a meaningful discussion with them.” The fact she doesn’t have children helps keep her hours flexible, she acknowledges. She gives financial seminars twice a year to a Mississauga seniors’ group, a key way for her to market her business. These days, however, 95% of her new clients come from referrals.

The personal aspect of the business is one Dunker emphasizes and enjoys. She often gives clients gifts when they’re going through a life event or as a way of saying thanks.

“I have little piggy banks I give a client who has a child,” she says. “I have another group of clients, most of them are widows in their 70s, and sometimes I’ll take them flowers or we’ll go out for lunch.

“I follow my client’s lead. For some, [the relationship] is just professional — it’s business; there’s not a personal side to it — while others really want to have a more in-depth personal relationship. We’ve had clients over for dinner and up to the cottage.
It depends on them.”