Designate Spotlight: Michael Van Lierop, FDFS™, RWM™

Knowledge Bureau congratulates Michael van Lierop and his whole team at NOW – New Outlook Wealth in Winnipeg for graduating with the RWM™ designation.  In this interview with Michael, who has also taken a leadership role at the Acuity Conference for Distinguished Advisors, November 23-26 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as a Platinum Sponsor,  we find out more about his innovative firm, his passions and how the RWM – Real Wealth Management – framework has been a game-changer.

Briefly tell us about your organization or career path.

I’ve been in the insurance and financial services industry now for going on 22 years. I’ve been an advisor, a sales manager, a recruitment manager, a branch manager, and an insurance and estate planning specialist. I’ve always been an independent thinker and someone who revels in challenging the status quo – not just for the sake of it, but to make things better. When I founded New Outlook Wealth (NOW) in 2020, it was with this drive to disrupt an industry that, to this day, remains sadly stuck in the past and unable or unwilling to adapt.

How has your association with Knowledge Bureau helped shape its future?

The Knowledge Bureau has given me, personally, and my team of advisors a professional designation that encapsulates the very vision of our wealth management model – put the advisor and the client at the very centre of it all. Then, surround them with experts and specialists. Liaise with the influencers and decision-makers. Stop trying to be a “Jack of all trades, and a master of none.” Be a strategic power broker inside a multi-generational ecosystem that maximizes wealth. The Real Wealth Manager (RWM) program gives a label to something many of our planners have been doing for years but were unable, until now, to articulate it.

Tell us about yourself – what are you passionate about?

Professionally, I am passionate about our business and doing everything we can to educate advisors who have been brainwashed into believing their true value is tied to their mutual fund or investment license. This is patently untrue, and speaks to the industry’s priorities: to sell product.

Financial planning and advice within the context of the RWM model is the only real value an advisor can give – the rest comes down to your ability to sell a product and earn a commission. That is not advice, that is sales – a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Personally, I am passionate about travel – road trips, sunshine destinations, historical adventures – and generally, exploring the world around me. I like to understand things, so I am inquisitive. I studied Politics in university and remain engaged with current affairs, as a bit of a news junkie. I’m also an unabashed Trekkie – the positive vision of the future of humanity is something that has always appealed to me. It’s not all doom and gloom. That said, a good post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller is hard to beat!

Why did you engage with Knowledge Bureau educational programming and how did this help you achieve your objectives?

I engaged because I saw the calibre of people who had already committed to the RWM program, and what that represented in terms of a peer group. It’s multi-disciplinary and by its very nature, nobody comes into it thinking they know everything, which is refreshing.

Most hard-core financial planners today have a huge superiority complex, which is usually unjustified, and alienates other views and opinions. The Knowledge Bureau, perhaps because of its roots in the tax side of finance, likes to draw on various disciplines to address fundamental goals for clients that transcend one field of expertise. Simply put, one person alone cannot achieve what the RWM program aims to achieve.

What was your biggest “aha” moment in your professional educational pursuits that influenced your career direction and/or your personal development?

The biggest “aha” moment was not long after deciding to leave the toxic, client-last culture of the large wealth managers and start my own firm. In formulating a business model, it became clear a distinguishing feature of this firm would be this important notion of the separation of financial advice from investment management. Formalizing this from a regulatory and operational perspective has allowed the firm to attract the right kind of advisors – those who know where their true value lies in the client relationship.

What would your clients say about the process you have taken them through as a result of your designation and ongoing professional development?

My clients are my advisors! As such, they were intimately exposed to the content of the program by being convinced it was a worthwhile endeavour, each completing the designation respectively. What would they say now? You’d have to ask them – but the bottom line is they now have a new framework to help articulate their value to clients with the “real wealth management” process, put a label on an approach that was relatively nameless before, and attach significance to the team-approach to strategic advisory services.

What wisdoms do you have for Advisors of the Future?

Be prepared for radical change. If you’re not comfortable with change now, you’d best think of retiring before the change buries you. For young advisors, I would say this: a credential or designation is just another set of letters after your name. They mean nearly nothing to clients. The value they have is in what you do with them – and that takes experience.

Actually working with clients, making sound recommendations, and getting them to implement – that’s sales! The art of persuasion – getting a client to do A instead of B. And do it in the spirit of learning not earning a commission.

Team up with a senior planner and learn, get mentored, and feel the ups and downs of the business. Above all? Come into the business with an ability and willingness to adapt and change. If not, you’ll join the other dinosaurs roaming the financial landscape and that’s not a future at all.

Provide tax-efficient wealth management services as a Real Wealth Manager™: Register by April 30 to save $200!

       Use code: AWEALTH