Episode 385: A Case Study on Pension Benefits vs. Commuted Values

This is the Rational Reminder podcast, a weekly reality check on sensible investing and financial decision making from two Canadians. We're hosted by me, Benjamin Felix, chief investment officer, and Ben Wilson, head of m and a at PWL Capital. Welcome to episode three eighty five. We are welcoming some special guests to this podcast, Trevor Daigle and Brett Watt, who recently just joined PWL. It's our first acquisition in Atlantic Canada. They come from a team called EB Wealth based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. So super excited for that conversation to chat about what led to their decision to come and join PWL, any obstacles that came in the road throughout their process, but ultimately, what excited them and what they're looking forward to going forward. They're a great couple of guys. People will hear as they answer the questions that we ask, but they're just through and through good people. Super excited to have them here. Super excited for PWL to have a presence in Atlantic Canada. That's pretty exciting in the evolution of our firm. Their practice, EB Wealth, very similar to PWL, delivers holistic wealth management that integrates investment management strategies and comprehensive financial planning. Same investment philosophy, same approach to clients. It's cool to hear them explain their perception of PWL and and their experience with PWL so far and why they decided to join. So you guys will get to hear that in a minute. And then after hearing from Trevor and Brett, we have a honestly just fascinating conversation with Phil Briggs, one of PWL's portfolio managers and financial planners about a client case where the client had to decide whether to take the commuted value of their pension and invest or keep the pension benefit. And actually, I said they had to decide, but they had actually already decided when they reached out. They reached out to Phil and said, hey, listen, we're taking the commuted value of this pension. Tell us how you're going to invest it for us. That's not what Phil did. I won't spoil it, but we'll walk through Phil's analysis with Phil. Any comments there, Ben, before we go? Very cool case that shows the intentional approach that we take to planning and thoughtful, not just, oh, yeah. That makes sense. We'll execute what you want. It's a good testament to the work our planners do at PWL. So let's go to our conversation with Trevor and Brett, and then make sure you stick around for the meat of the episode after that with Phil Briggs. Welcome, Trevor and Brett, to the Rational Minder podcast, and welcome to the team at PWL. We're happy to have you on our team. Thanks for having us. We'll get right into it here. We got a few questions to kinda understand what led you to PWL and what led you to this decision to jump in and join the team. So first question, how did you decide to merge your …