Certified Financial Planner/Investment Advisor
Western Wealth Builders – Manulife Securities
Age: 33
Years in industry: 10
Certifications: CFP, CPA, CMA
Bosting multiple certifications, and a decade of experience, Devan Legare has already created an impressive legacy. Legare has now turned his attention to financial plans and optimizing tax strategies for his clients. “The ability to marry taxes and investments and still be able to explain information in a way people can understand defines a successful advisor to me,” he said. “I am extremely passionate about the success of my clients and their ability to achieve their goals and I know that it comes through in each of my interactions with my clients. I also really tend to focus people’s attention on why they are saving money and how the recommendations I make help them achieve their goals, rather than befuddling them with jargon and numbers.”
For Legare, he sees the biggest challenges for young advisors, and all advisors in general, as being recognized as a professional. “Lawyers, accountants, doctors all have a level of prestige about them in the general public. Unfortunately, as a generation, we have inherited titles like “stock broker” or “investment person” and our predecessors have trained people to seek out maximal returns and excitement over prudence and rationality. Our value-add has to come from a holistic practice of incorporating more than just returns for our clients, and in doing so, elevate our professional status to where it belongs.”
Dismaying those unjust preconceptions is something that Legare works on. He says that what he is most proud of is reaching millennials and helping them to begin investing. “I foresee that the millennial generation will end up being the ‘forgotten’ generation with all of the changes in the financial services industry, and I am working hard to engage with younger clients. The younger generations need practical advice on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of investing, not on the ‘what’ to invest in.”
