Jason Pereira, a certified financial planner and partner at Woodgate Financial in Toronto.Ajani Charles/Supplied
In the Behind the Advice series, Globe Advisor asks advisors about their relationship with money from a young age, lessons learned over the years and how their experiences influence the advice they give clients. Behind the Advice is also a podcast: You can find episodes from all four seasons here. Stay tuned for Season Five coming in late September.
Jason Pereira, a certified financial planner and partner at Woodgate Financial Inc. in Toronto, talks about growing up with a serial entrepreneurial father, his foray into finance as a teen and why he believes being a ‘loudmouth’ makes his business and the industry better:
Describe your upbringing and how it shaped your relationship with money.
I’m the oldest of three kids raised in Toronto by Portuguese immigrant parents. My father is an entrepreneur who has had many ups and downs in business over the years. Watching him, I learned the value of hard work, the risks and rewards of business, and how your financial situation can change more than once.
What you’ll find with a lot of financial planners – and I argue some of the best ones that I’ve ever met – is that they have some form of financial trauma in their past and so much of what they try to do is avoid that same trauma from happening again. I fall into that category.
Experiencing those financial ups and downs growing up made me feel the need to understand money better and create security.
What did you want to be when you grew up and how did you get into financial services?
I honestly never knew. Even as a small child, I never said I wanted to be a firefighter or a police officer. I got into financial services because I was two years away from going to university and I didn’t want to blow a bunch of money on a degree I wasn’t going to use.
I went to my high school co-op department and they asked me about what interested me. One thing was the stock market. I got placed as a 17-year-old co-op student in downtown Toronto, working for one of the biggest brokers in the country.
I’ve been working in the industry ever since. I got into financial planning because I saw early on how much of an impact it can have on people’s lives.
What are some of the best moves you’ve made to build your business?
Not being afraid to speak out about what’s wrong with this industry and working to try to fix it.
Sometimes people criticize me for being a loudmouth, but when you see the transformational nature of this business and what it can and should be, how can you not be vocal about it?
Not settling for people’s opinions has helped me build an incredible network within the industry that enables me to move my practice and, in some ways, the industry forward.
Also, being a consummate student has helped a lot. Early in my career, I made a commitment to continuous learning. Back then, many people told me to spend less time studying and more time focusing on building my business. When I had three to four designations, some advisors would snicker at how much time I wasted. Once I had seven or eight, they stopped snickering and started listening.
Those studies not only made me a better advisor and entrepreneur, but also raised my profile and established me as a respected source among peers and other professionals, which led to referral business and other opportunities.
As advisors, we should learn and improve constantly and be willing to share what we’ve learned. Many of the biggest career advancement moments I’ve ever had came from being willing to put myself out there, take chances and speak to everybody who came my way, looking for opportunity in every interaction.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to enter your business?
Your first job is to get a job; get some experience and understand the good and the bad of this industry. Then, find your circle of peers who want to obsess about being the best they can be in this industry, not based on assets under management but on the value they provide to their clients.
In doing so, the AUM or whatever other metrics you’re looking for will eventually come. Also, commit to staying curious and to learning continuously. If you do, great things will come from it because many of your peers will stop at the bare minimum.
Which famous person or fictional character would make a great financial advisor, and why?
I can’t name just one, but a few professional athletes who, despite making absurd amounts of money, have decided to live within their means. They would also make good advisors because they understand the value of money and, even though they have a lot of it, choose not to spend it frivolously, unlike many of their peers. It takes discipline, which is what a good advisor does and helps their clients do too.
This interview has been edited and condensed.