Stillwater director uses the hard lessons she learned from her business sale to help others
Ruby Lougheed Yawney, Stillwater Capital’s Director of Business Development, is using the hard lessons she’s learned from selling her business to pay it forward and help her new clients.
“I have no ill will toward Manulife. It did what was in its best interest and Ruby failed to set it right,” Yawney told WP while reflecting on the deal she struck with Manulife to buy her business, Lougheed Financial Planning, in 2019. At the time, she was thankful for the move as she’d just lost three key staff for health reasons. But she’s since realized she didn’t do her due diligence, so was underpaid.
“I thought I was a CA and I’d gone through a few mergers and acquisitions in my past, so I didn’t even think about hiring an independent M&A (mergers and acquisition) advisor to look at this transaction,” she said. “I had a lawyer, but he didn’t really know about pricing, either. He wasn’t an M&A lawyer. He didn’t say call an M&A specialist. I could have gotten more.”
Yawney rues the fact she didn’t save that money because it could have supported the causes she’s passionate about – such as human trafficking, supporting orphans in the Philippines, and supporting those struggling with addiction. Operating from a religious faith base, she believes everyone has a gift to share and is responsible for helping others.
“My faith is what drives me to lead by example,” she said, noting she was raised Baptist. “If you’re the best you can be, you can help others be the best they can be.
“I’m taking the bad experience and trying to help others not to have the same bad experience in business because I know how hard I worked and how much risk I had to take.”
She’s also discovered she was charging less than half of what other financial advisors were for her average book fee. She was always more concerned about doing what was right for her clients than maximizing her income, and there were times, while she was building her practice, that her employees made more than she did.
“Now, I want to be the change I want to see in the industry, and financial planning, and M&A,” she said, noting she joined Stillwater a year ago because it focused on sound principles.
“I want to work with business owners and financial advisors, and lead by example,” she said, adding that about 80% of business owners are getting unsolicited offers from private equity firms. They’re vulnerable because many owners are nearing retirement age and have been struggling to compete with CERB to retain good employers or they have closed or considered closing.
“I was an entrepreneur. I was in the industry as a controller. I was a financial advisor for 25 years and I was a good one. I rose to the top within my field. And because of that I’m uniquely in a good position to reach out to other financial advisors and say, ‘hey, you’ve got to protect. It’s your duty of care. It’s a stewardship responsibility.”
That ability to turn hardship into an advantage is one of Yawney’s strengths. She grew up as one of 13 children with a dad who was a subsistence farmer, but eventually worked on a government-run prison farm. He never made more than $26,000 a year, but the family still travelled. Her mom taught her how to be frugal and budget, comparison shop, and buy low – without emotional interference. Yawney has passed on those basics to her clients so they can both retain the cash they need and invest, but also stay the course so they don’t corrode their framework in the market.
“Most financial advisors are counter-indicators,” she said, noting she practices what she preaches. “They do the opposite of what you’re supposed to do.”
As she reflected on the experience she’s had and where it’s led her,” Yawney concluded, “your most painful experiences are where you can add the most value because you don’t want someone else to go through that pain if you can help it.
“Please sell your business the right way. It’s your biggest asset. Maximize what you can get for your business.”
