Alexandra Horwood on finding the perfect balance

In less than 10 years, Alexandra Horwood rose from an assistant to the youngest director, wealth management & portfolio manager that Richardson GMP has ever seen. Having learnt the ropes from the ground up as an assistant in 2010, Horwood quickly fell in love with the business. With guidance from strong mentors, and a great deal of hard work and dedication, she formed Alexandra Horwood & Partners in 2015, her own wealth management team of five within Richardson GMP.

As the busy mother of a seven-month old and a two-year-old, Horwood currently works from home on Fridays and balances her career and home life by engaging support to manage many household tasks and care for her children while she builds her business.

“I don’t know why there was ever a stigma associated with childcare or outsourcing work. We should be encouraging women to get extra help, not making them feel inadequate because they can’t do it all,” said Horwood.

“It’s not good for your mental health or physical health if you’re burnt out and don’t have time to take care of yourself, your marriage, your kids or your business.”

Freeing up time by outsourcing chores and hiring dependable childcare has enabled Horwood to focus on serving the needs of her clients.

“I love to teach my clients and educate them, so this career is the perfect synergy between my three greatest skillsets – math, finance and education,” she said. Horwood graduated with honours from the University of Waterloo where she also worked as a statistics tutor, a skill that has been invaluable throughout her career.

Working for her family’s business gave Horwood even more of an incentive to prove herself, and she has certainly succeeded, as she is now one of the most profitable and fastest growing advisors in the firm and she was ranked by Wealth Professional as Canada’s number one female investment advisor in 2017 and 2019.

Horwood relishes the growing competition in the wealth management industry.

“There is a lot of competition out there and I think that is fantastic,” she said. “We should weed out services that are not providing value and are not putting their clients first. We need to engage clients, educate them and care for them, and do everything we can to make sure they get the results they want.”

Young women at the start of their careers should not be deterred by rejection or mistakes, according to Horwood.

“You should not see your mistakes as something to hold you back,” she said. “You should see them as an opportunity to learn and change your strategy to become stronger. Just keep on pushing and learning.”