Meet Del
Del Wilmot
PARTNER | FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Del is a Wealth & Insurance Advisor, whose clientele range from successful professionals, seniors to business owners who aspire to financial independence and a “work optional” lifestyle. He has developed and refined a process that puts the pieces of the financial puzzle together for his clients as their lives unfold and needs evolve.
Retirement planning, estate planning, risk management planning, debt and cash flow planning are all part of the process. Del facilitates a team approach to financial planning by working with his client’s other professional advisors, such as lawyers and accountants. Del also knows many of those local professionals and can provide a referral if a client needs an attorney or accountant.
If your current financial advisory relationship consists of products but no plan, Del offers a complimentary no-cost, no-obligation “Fit” meeting for interested potential clients. In his words, it is a “no-pressure meeting designed to see if there is a fit between what you are looking for in a financial advisor and what I do for my clients”. It is meant to act as a method to “get to know each other and determine if we’re on the same page.”
Del's Story
My hope is that this message might help others make some very important decisions. Today (Dec. 1, 2022) marks 50 years since my father died. He (Gary) was 30 years old. Left for work on Dec 1, 1972 and never came home again. On the way to work his car hit some black ice while southbound on Hwy 10 and spun out. A dump truck was coming northbound. You get the picture. In the blink of an eye as the old saying goes.
My mother (Joanne) ended that day as a 29 year old widow and stay-at-home mom to three kids ranging in age from 10 years(me), 7 years(my sister), and 18 months (my brother, born with spina bifida & paralyzed from the waist down). To say that my mom had a huge load to bear would be a massive understatement. That year we also lost my dad’s father (a couple weeks after my father died) and a great-grandfather. My mom’s father had already passed away a couple years prior of a heart attack at age 45. When I was 8 years old I was the youngest male in my family. A couple years later I was the oldest.
I’m not sure if my dad had life insurance. Based on how we struggled financially after he died I would guess that maybe there was a bit from his employer but not much else. There were no vacation trips after that, education funds, etc. Hell we didn’t even have a vehicle after that.
I’m also not sure if my dad had a will. I never thought to ask my mom as I was growing up. She died in Dec 1992 at the age of 49 from a heart attack, the same year I started as a financial advisor. My brother had died a few months earlier in April 1992. I do know that mom had a will. She’d had one prepared just after dad died so it was 20 years old and hadn’t been updated since.
Why am I sharing any of this? Simply to hopefully motivate anyone that has been putting off putting plans in place for their family. Wills, Powers of Attorney, life insurance, etc. If you don’t have any of these I urge you to do so now. Even after all the pandemic fear, more than half of Canadians still don’t have a will. If you do have Wills, Powers of Attorney, life insurance, etc., dig them out, blow the dust off them and review them to ensure they reflect your current situation and wishes. Contact your financial advisor to help you get started. A good one can quarterback the process.
I also hope that some of my colleagues in the industry will see this and realize that in many cases they are the ones who need to have those heavy but very important conversations with their clients. To proactively nudge clients and help them take the steps to protect their families when the storms of life hit. It is an opportunity to add value to a relationship by offering some support, education, advice. The trajectory of generations of families can be effected by what we do.
