A Win-Win-Win Situation

For Ray Lessard, the Supporting Your Community program provided him with an unprecedented opportunity – a win-win-win situation. Creating a charitable fund for his family allowed him to support a program that made good business sense, involved his local community foundation and helped him meet some personal charitable goals at the same time.

“I have the rare opportunity to see this program from both sides,” says Lessard, who is a Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of Nesbitt Burns and a Board member of the Mississauga Community Foundation.

From a professional point of view, Lessard says Supporting Your Community is just one aspect of providing BMO Nesbitt Burns clients with a full-service offering.

“Philanthropy is a topic of rising importance and we need to be there for clients who are interested.”

“Supporting Your Community is just one more way that we can develop closer relationships with our clients,” says Lessard. “The more aspects of wealth management we can offer, the less likely our clients are to look to the competition for advice and expertise.”

Through his work with his local foundation, Lessard also knows first-hand about the benefits of dealing with community foundations. “It’s a one-stop way of organizing your family’s philanthropy that will last longer than you or I will. You also have the flexibility to choose the charity or charities of your choice – and there are definitely tax advantages.”

For instance, Lessard’s fund will support children’s causes, but his family has decided not to designate any particular charities at this point. “That way we can keep our options open and see what the needs are in our community every year.”

And although Lessard’s own fund is definitely a personal endeavour, he knows it will make it easier for him to raise the topic of philanthropy with his clients.

“I did this just for our family, but indirectly, now that I’ve had first-hand experience with the program – and the community foundation movement – I know it will be easier to talk about with my clients.”