Michael Mountford has built his business on a foundation of firm personal convictions; he has combined an intense work ethic with clear principles of business conduct and a common sense, practical approach to investing.

Mountford, 43, and his new business partner, Winnie Go, lead a six-person team at ScotiaMcLeod Inc. in downtown Toronto. The team has a combined client list of 600 households and $600 million in assets under management. But unlike some advisors, Mountford told the 2008 Top Advisor Summit in Toronto in June, he doesn’t target a specific niche market.

“I talk to people from all walks of life,” he says. “The key is you have to think like me a bit. And if you do, terrific.”

Although his clients range in age from 25 to 98, they have something in common, he says: their philosophy toward personal finance.

For example, Mountford likes clients who pay down their mortgages and avoid heavy debt. He prefers clients who look for good businesses in which to invest, and have a willingness to sit back and let the businesses perform. He also looks for practical people with common sense who are not looking for anything too “frilly,” but for good, quality investments and financial planning.

“I don’t do anything too fancy,” he says. “Some of my colleagues make the most unusual investment decisions — and that’s fine. But I find it difficult to keep track of them and monitor their performance. It can be complicated.

“I’m also licensed for options and insurance, and we do incorporate that into our business,” Mountford adds. “But products such as principal-protected notes, I just have no interest in doing any of that business.”

He’d rather own shares in high-quality companies such as Bank of Nova Scotia, ScotiaMcLeod’s parent, whose stocks have made money without a huge amount of risk.

“It’s more of a traditional investment practice,” Mountford says. “I just like to own investments and funds that I basically understand.”

Advisors are tempted to recommend unwise investments because people are greedy, he says: “They think they can do better. So few advisors beat the index, and that’s why they do these crazy things, because they think they’re going to outperform the index.”

But very few can. “If advisors had just invested their clients’ money in RBC Canadian Dividend Fund or Scotia Canadian Dividend Fund and a five-year GIC, those investments probably would have performed extraordinarily well without any substantial risk. And the advisor would understand his or her business much better,” Mountford says. “That’s the sort of practice that we run.”

Mountford prefers common stocks, bonds, dividend funds and exchange-traded funds. He recommends no-load funds with low management expense ratios and stays away from funds with deferred sales charges, which keep clients locked in.

In fact, he uses a fee-based business model with many of his clients; he estimates about 30% fall into this category through ScotiaMcLeod’s Partnership Plus program.

“You phone a client and you say: ‘I want to buy this or to sell this,’ and the client knows the transaction is going to cost money,” he says. “That puts you in a conflicted position to some extent.”

As there is no commission associated with a specific transaction in a fee-based model, the client is more likely to feel the recommendation was made with his or her best interests in mind, Mountford says: “You’ve positioned yourself extremely well in the client’s mind.”

Mountford’s devotion to ethics is matched only by his attention to detail in his business. He spends the end of his day getting ready for the next day, so that his mornings are spent doing work rather than preparing to do work.

He comes to work to work: he avoids office pools for sports leagues and tournaments or for the Oscars, and prefers grabbing a quiet sandwich to a social lunch. He works most Sundays from autumn to spring preparing for the upcoming week, and will call clients on Sunday if it is appropriate.

Mountford contends that clients are receptive to calls at unlikely times and hours. “Finding a time to call clients when they can focus on their investments,” he says, “has helped build strong relationships over the years.”

Either way, Mountford says, it’s those Sunday workdays that led to the latest development in his practice: the merger of his four-member group — wealth advi-sor Linda Mountford (his wife), investment associates Kim Kelly and Mo Vikrant, and himself — with the practice of senior wealth advisor Winnie Go and her associate, Annie Jay.

@page_break@Mountford was talking to Go about expanding his team in order to manage his $500-million book and was looking for an advisor who would complement the existing team. Go proposed a merger of their two teams, and the new partnership officially kicked in in June.

The amalgamation, which came after 18 years of working out of a Scotiabank branch on the main floor of the Scotiabank Tower at Scotia Plaza, is a big move for Mountford — to ScotiaMcLeod’s Personal Investment Management Group on the 35th floor.

“I started with zero,” says Mountford. Most of his clients were referrals from the bank and from clients. “My practice suited the bank because of the way we invested, whether it was through fixed-income or a common-sense approach to investing. Nothing fancy. Nothing that was complicated. Just basic asset allocation, if you want to call it that. And it just built from there — and it kept growing and growing and growing.”

Although some might label Mountford a “workaholic,” he does make time for his family and for worthy causes. As a member of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Mountford is an active fundraiser for the annual Easter Seals Regatta; he also enjoys skiing and coaching Little League soccer. He and Linda have two sons and live in Toronto. IE

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