Brian Howe has been a financial advisor and manager at Assante Wealth Management for the past 26 years in Calgary.
Howe has been in the business since 1994 but before that, at the age of 18, he was in the United States Air Force and spent eight years in the military. In 1977 he worked as an instructor for Spirit Corporation in Systems Designs Programming. He ran the field crew and did all the mission repair as an electronic technician. He went on to become a systems manager at an oil and gas company.
Right now, he has his own branch office at Assante Wealth Management and has been a branch manager since 1977. Prior to that, he was a financial advisor. He helps people with their goals and does a lot of financial planning and investing as well as insurance planning.
When Howe first meets with a client, he tries to get to know the person, talk about their plans and goals, and determine exactly what they want.
“’Are we able to work together?’ that’s the most important thing,” he says.
Once he has the information he needs, Howe goes on to a second and possibly third meeting with the client to discuss the financial planning.
Once the financial planning is done, Howe gives the client his recommendations. This includes everything from investments to insurance, estate planning and income goals.
Ever since COVID-19, Howe has been able to do work virtually or through phone calls, and he keeps his clients updated via email, It’s been a big change but he believes that virtual communication is going to be more common in the future as technology advances. He prefers to do personal meetings because private information is being shared but so far it hasn’t been an issue.
When the pandemic started there was an economic slowdown, Howe explained that March 23 was was the low-end for markets.
“We sort of had a V-shaped recovery, which was unprecedented. It came back within two months and you were up to where you were,” Howe explains. He didn’t think the situation was going to recover for at least nine months, but it turned out that everything went back to normal quickly, “but still with what’s happening and stuff there will be continued volatility.”
