Bill Richardson's Classification
Phil introduced Bill by saying that Bill has already made a great contribution to the Club. He graduated from McMaster in 1990 with a B ED, and is currently working out of his own office with Investor's Group.
Bill thanked our friends from France for coming over for his presentation and started with some pictures including a classic from 1966 from which he earned the nickname, Mr. Big. He said his mother is from Richmond Hill and his dad from Toronto but they moved to Midland in 1969 for the life style and his father provided it by driving to Toronto for 25 years. He has two brothers and thanked his parents for always being there - sports events and all - even though, by photographic evidence, it was obvious they couldn't afford a Leaf's shirt. Poor Mr. Big in a Habs jersey.
Bill was active in sports through school though the best thing that ever happened to him was meeting Suzanne in gr. 10. She has a T shirt, again in the photo archives, that says will sell husband for wine so there's cause to wonder. They have a new dog and two great kids, 14 and 12, Emily and Ryan. Through Suzanne he met the Bourgeois family, a terrific group and then Dave Mink.
At University he played football and Suzanne Volleyball and after he started teaching but found the cash flow ended up negative so he moved into financial planning after 3 years and has been at that for 17 and he loves it. He and his team look at the entire financial planning picture, including tax planning, risk management, estate planning and etc. They follow an 8 step wealth management plan that is spelled out in the information he made available and he has a great team to help his customers.
He likes to travel and is able to go to conferences as well as travel with family. He loves the cottage and the family times spent there and even commutes down from the island to work over the summer. He thinks he is working towards a balance in health, fitness, work and leisure activities on the Bay and further afield. He helps coach teams his kids are involved in and though he recognizes he is competitive, he hopes his teams understand that sport is for fun.
He is happy to be part of Rotary and to help Rotary give back. He feels that he likes to rise to a challenge and that Rotary has already presented him with some, especially being co-chair of Party on the Dock, though he says he couldn't do it without the great foundation left by previous committees and the help of Hank. It's what he enjoys about Rotary, a lot of people working to a common goal. He has offered his cottage as the location for this summer's boat in so he looks forward to welcoming everybody soon.