About
Over a decade in finance. Independent by choice.
The experience of more than a decade inside the financial industry, and the independence to use it for one household at a time.
Everyone arrived with money. Almost no one arrived with a financial plan.
Owners came once retained earnings started building up in the corporation, and it was clear that needed a real financial plan, not just an account. Some had outgrown a self-directed broker like Wealthsimple or Questrade. Others were fed up paying a bank close to 2% a year for next to no service.
Retirees arrived with a different problem: an advisor who couldn’t model a tax-efficient retirement plan. They wanted someone who could, and who really cared about their goals and their family’s success.
No two of these situations were alike, yet the financial plan on offer was the same one everyone got, if there was a financial plan at all. Real planning is built around the person, not pulled off a shelf.
What struck me was how little peace of mind any of it had bought them. They’d built something substantial and still couldn’t answer the questions that actually kept them up. Whether it was safe to spend. Whether it would hold. When they could start working less, and what that would cost them.
Those are answerable questions. They just take planning rather than a product.
Business owners, the professionals building wealth alongside them, and retirees living on what they’ve built are where planning does the most work, and where getting it wrong is most expensive.
They’re also connected more often than people expect. The owner I help today is the retiree I’ll help in fifteen years, and the staff in a group plan are somewhere in between.
Before I advised clients, I spent years inside the financial industry: Questrade, five years at Thomson Reuters, and a private family office managing over a billion dollars. It taught me how serious money is actually run, and how far that is from what most people are sold.
As an advisor, I’ve never worked anywhere with sales targets to hit and house products to push. Independent means I choose what to recommend, and I answer to the person in front of me, not a head office. I’m based in Victoria, though most of my work is virtual, with clients across the provinces where I’m registered, in English and in French.
Guillaume Girard, CFA, CFP
Why Girard Wealth
What you can count on.
Client service
Direct access to me, not a call centre. Questions usually answered the same day, your financial plan reviewed on a schedule, and a real person through the decisions that matter.
Your interest first
A CFP professional is bound by FP Canada’s code to act in your interest. Every recommendation, and how I’m paid for it, is disclosed in writing before you decide.
Evidence-based
Decisions rest on long-run evidence about how markets work, not forecasts or hunches. The same principles guide the financial plan and the portfolio.
Independent
No head-office sales targets and no house products I’m pushed to sell. I recommend what fits your financial plan, and I answer to the person in front of me.
Credentials
Verify me.
All three links resolve to third-party registries.
Chartered Financial Analyst
Verified in the CFA Institute credential record.
Verify with CFA Institute →
What working together is like
In person or virtual, in English or French.
Services en français
Planification complète en français, y compris les documents et les séances de groupe.
Where I am
Most of my work is virtual, and clients appreciate it, even the ones here in Victoria. I still meet in person around Greater Victoria when it helps, with clients in BC, Ontario and Quebec. Registration varies by province and activity; see Disclosures.
Strategic partners
You get a team, not just an advisor.
Alongside the financial plan, I coordinate a team of independent specialists for tax, estate, coaching and giving, so your whole financial life is handled in one place, and nothing falls through the cracks.