What the doctors ordered

The two advisors have specific roles: Rubino focuses on portfolio management, while Lavigueur helps the team’s roughly 350 clients with financial planning and tax advice. The team also includes an assistant, and the partners hope to add an associate advisor in the near future.

Rubino is an 18-year veteran of the financial services sector who has been an advisor with Desjardins for the past five years. He started in the business while attending university, working part-time as a teller for Lévis, Que.-based Desjardins Group. He says he was attracted to the investment industry by the excitement portrayed in movies such as Wall Street and decided to pursue a career in finance. And while the Hollywood version of the investment industry may be somewhat exaggerated, Rubino has found the real-world experience compelling.

“The movie looked so fantastic and exciting,” Rubino says of Wall Street. “And it’s true. [The industry] is exciting, because each morning you don’t know what’s going to happen in the markets.”

After graduating from École des hautes études commerciales (the business school affiliated with l’Université de Montréal) with a bachelor’s degree in finance, Rubino worked in the discount brokerage channel of Montreal-based National Bank of Canada Eventually, Rubino moved to Professionals’ Financial Mutual Funds Inc., also based in Montreal, which specializes in serving health-care professionals.

During Rubino’s five years with the latter firm, he learned about the financial needs of this niche.

Although there are a handful of firms that specialize in health-care professionals, such as Professionals’ Financial and Ottawa-based MD Financial Management Inc., Rubino knew of no individual practices within bank-owned brokerages that specialized in that niche.

Rubino thought that opening a practice within a large institution such as Desjardins would allow him to serve that specialized market while offering the advantages that go along with working under the banner of a big bank: strong brand recognition and the opportunity for clients to conduct their banking and investment business under one roof.

So, Rubino decided to return to Desjardins, this time as an advisor, hoping to build a roster of clients in the health-care professions. But getting an appointment with a doctor with the aim of offering financial services is a lot more difficult than setting up a medical checkup, says Rubino: “The main challenge is to have an appointment with them.”

Medical professionals are difficult to meet with because they are busy establishing their own practices and, given their high salaries, are approached frequently by financial professionals.

To get past the waiting room, Rubino and his team have to prove that they understand the specific needs and financial challenges of health-care professionals. One of the major characteristics of this group of clients is that they are business owners who might not necessarily have an interest in running a business or in financial issues.

“They’ve been taught to be health professionals,” Rubino says, “not business owners.”

For example, Rubino says, entrepreneurs usually understand general financial matters such as taxes and investment returns, and typically can be persuaded to make sound decisions based on the numbers. Doctors and other health-care professionals, however, often lack that understanding. So, when Rubino and his team approach new prospects, the team needs to spend more time explaining various concepts and building a level of confidence.

“With a ‘real’ business owner, it’s easier to convince them,” says Rubino. “With the health professional, it’s more of an emotional decision.”

Rubino’s and Lavigueur’s client acquisition strategy is to start meeting with prospects as early in the prospects’ careers as possible – even before they have set up shop.

The advisors often arrange to host lunch-and-learn sessions for medical students at universities, and make presentations at hospitals aimed at medical residents.

University students are not usually the coveted clients of financial advisors, given their low income, potential debt burden and the likelihood these students are not thinking about saving for retirement.

Yet, Rubino finds there are plenty of financial planning matters to discuss with students in health care-related programs from the time those students are in university until they become full-fledged medical professionals.

For example, medical students, like other students, are focused on their debt and on figuring out how they can buy their first home. However, as time goes on and these students become residents and, eventually, doctors, Rubino and his team discuss the ins and outs of incorporating and how that decision might affect the students’ financial plans.

“There’s a lot of things to take care of,” Rubino says. “Their questions are changing while their reality is changing.”

Another important consideration for these students is insurance. “[These individuals] have all kinds of needs regarding insurance – disability, life insurance, critical illness – so we take care of all those needs while they are studying,” says Rubino.

Students in health-care fields need insurance coverage early because they are making substantial investments of money and time with the expectation that they will earn high income throughout their careers. Rubino cites the example of a newly graduated pharmacist who learns that he or she has severe allergies to the medications he or she is expected to dispense. In such cases, disability insurance would help that individual to recoup at least a portion of the future income he or she has been forced to give up. “We try to explain to [potential clients] that the goal of the strategy is to protect the income they will earn as a dentist, doctor or pharmacist over 30 or 35 years.”

Although Rubino’s practice is specialized, there is some diversity in the needs of these health-care professionals, which can create challenges for Rubino and his team. For example, the rules governing incorporation and tax planning for pharmacists, doctors and dentists may differ significantly, Rubino says.

As much as he enjoys working with health-care professionals and students, Rubino, who has an eight-year-old daughter, finds time to travel. He also is a lifelong soccer player who jokes that he had little choice when it came to choosing a sport. “My family is Italian, so I have to play soccer. It’s not a should; it’s a must.”

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