WELLWOOD WEALTH PARTNERS OF RBC DOMINION SECURITIES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Branch Director
- Investment Advisor
It's no coincidence that Allison's desk is positioned at the front of our office. Of all the processes and tasks she manages for our team on a daily basis, it's greeting and catching up with clients that she enjoys the most.
Allison joined RBC after a successful first career in television, and she will be the first to tell you she never expected to find her dream job in finance. In 2006, she decided to move to Victoria, B.C. to be closer to family. That's where she first found an opportunity at RBC Dominion Securities. "I learned that finance is about helping people. I leave the numbers to math whizzes like Jen and Stephen, while I build relationships and think outside the box to solve clients' problems."
After a couple years out West with a small advisory team, Allison was ready to become a key member of Morin Wealth Partners here in Toronto. She is responsible for managing our onboarding process beginning-to-end. That means ensuring you remain comfortable, confident, and informed as you join our family of clients. Allison is also our go-to technology expert, helping our team adopt new tools to serve you better, and answering any questions you have about our online platform.
No mandate can encompass all Allison does for our team and clients, but, in a nutshell, you could say she is our devoted service expert and problem solver. "I don't like to hear "we can't" she is known to say. "In fact, no one on this team does. It's our job and our joy to find solutions to the toughest technical or financial problems."
Job Titles:
- CIM / Senior Associate Advisor
A passionate self-starter, Ann-Marie took her first job in the financial sector directly following high school, working at a local brokerage firm to fund her Bachelor of Arts degree at York University. "I fell into this industry," she explains. "But the more I learned about it, the more I loved it." After graduating, Ann-Marie joined another leading wealth management firm, where she spent 18 years as an associate, before transitioning to RBC Wealth Management and Matt's team in 2018.
Now, as a key part of Barasch - Wellwood Wealth Partners, Ann-Marie is responsible for all day-to-day administrative tasks, answering client inquiries and executing trades. Organized and detail-oriented, Ann-Marie prides herself on providing outstanding customer service, anticipating client needs before they arise. "I just want our clients to have the best experience possible," she says. "If they feel comfortable, then I'm happy." A lifelong learner, Ann-Marie holds her Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designation, and is fully licensed for insurance and securities.
When she's not at work, Ann-Marie loves spending time with her husband and their children, Trent and Lauren. In her spare time, you can find her reading or working out.
Christine has spent the last 30 years helping clients expertly navigate the decisions, emotions, stresses, and complexities of managing wealth. "It's about pairing empathy and expertise," she explains. "We go beyond what it takes to help the families we serve feel confident, proud, and inspired by their finances."
Using this approach, Christine has distinguished herself within RBC Dominion Securities for the quality of her team's investment management and service. "You never know where your day will take you," she is known to say. "Who will I get to hear from today? Which way will markets go? How is that going to impact the people whose wealth I protect?" Christine distills these variables into a concrete but flexible action plan for every client to deliver well-rounded solutions - aligning your financial world with your personal ambitions.
Christine strongly believes in the power of a world-class education. She graduated with honours from Queens University, where she studied economics, and has since established a scholarship fund to support young learners in need of financial aid.
Like many of our clients, family means everything to Christine. Her son lives and works in London, England - a distance made easier by Christine's love of travel. Here at home, she spends plenty of time with her daughter at their second home in Thornbury, skiing at Beaver Valley, golfing at Lora Bay, or paddle boarding on Georgian Bay.
Job Titles:
- CIM
- Senior Portfolio Manager and Wealth Advisor
Jeff is a graduate from the commerce program at the University of Western Ontario, and was a founding member of one of the University's investment management clubs. After graduating in 2002, Jeff joined a technology company, quickly rising through the ranks to become the company's top salesperson in the country. Having achieved the pinnacle of success in that role, Jeff sought out a new challenge in 2011, founding his own investment practice at RBC Dominion Securities. "I wanted to join a firm that was an industry leader and best in its class," Jeff recalls. "And obviously, that was RBC."
As senior portfolio manager and wealth advisor, Jeff has earned one of the top spots among advisors nationwide and now leads Barasch - Wellwood Wealth Partners alongside Matt, connecting with clients and helping manage all aspects of their financial lives. In everything he does, Jeff works diligently to do what is right for his clients, dispelling misinformation and educating wherever he can. He never takes shortcuts on his journey to providing unparalleled service - as he puts it, "our clients rely on us for so much more than just investments." Dedicated to continual education, Jeff holds more than 10 industry credentials, including the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designations.
Jeff also leads a busy and active life outside of work with his wife, Siobhann, and their three children: Julia, Kingsley, and Victoria. He is deeply involved in the Beaches community, volunteering as a coach and an active board member for both the Beaches Community Soccer League and Scarborough Young Bruins Hockey Association. True to his roots, he has also carried on the family tradition of owning, training, and breeding over a dozen Standardbred racehorses, located on his family's horse farm in Ancaster, Ontario.
Job Titles:
- Associate Wealth Advisor & Financial Planner
A graduate from the University of Guelph's School of International Development, Karen serves as the dedicated marketing associate for Barasch - Wellwood Wealth Partners, working tirelessly to optimize our client-facing communications across all platforms. Whether she's sharing our newsletters or managing our social media, Karen always goes above and beyond to highlight our specialized service offerings, relying on the can-do attitude and professional know-how she developed through her tenure at several private education organizations.
Karen loves the unique nature of her role, which allows her to maintain work-life balance outside of a typical nine-to-five position. She is constantly on the hunt for our team's next opportunity, doing whatever she can to get the Barasch - Wellwood name out into the local community and beyond.
A resident of Toronto, Karen has been happily married to Matt for over 20 years. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her children, Naomi and Malcolm, and her two golden retrievers, Revis and Gary.
Job Titles:
- Branch Operations Manager
Curious and detail-oriented, Madad is an important part of Barasch - Wellwood Wealth Partners. As an associate, he supports our team through daily reporting and market research; portfolio modelling; resource compilation for taxes, estates, and financial planning; trade execution; and money management. Madad is committed to providing a high level of service to our clients, and constantly goes above and beyond to ensure their needs are met. "It's important to me to make sure our clients are satisfied," he says. "As their first point of contact, I do whatever I can to help."
Madad holds a Master of Finance degree from Osmania University in India, where he lived and worked for decades before immigrating to Canada in 2011. He has spent over 10 years with RBC, first as an account manager at the retail branch level, and later as an associate. Passionate about continual learning, Madad has completed the Wealth Management Essentials (WME) Course from the Canadian Securities Institute, among others.
Have you ever wondered who tells your advisor how to invest your money? For more than 15 years, Matt was that person.
Matt spent the first decade and a half of his career with the RBC Dominion Securities Portfolio Advisory Group (PAG), where his sophisticated market analysis and knack for communicating the most complex concepts in comprehensible terms helped him stand out among his peers. In 2010, he was promoted to leader of the PAG team, overseeing a group of a dozen analysts as they built equity portfolios for advisors and their clients.
Six years later, Matt took his unique know-how to RBC Capital Markets as Chief Canadian Equity Strategist, where he advised institutional investors from some of the largest pension funds and mutual fund companies in North America. In addition to his aforementioned accomplishments, Matt has chaired the RBC Dominion Securities Investment Strategy Committee and managed the prestigious RBC Canadian Focus List, the oldest stock portfolio of its kind in Canada. Matt has also appeared frequently on BNN Bloomberg and was often quoted in various financial publications, including Fortune Magazine, the Financial Times, and the Globe and Mail.
Matt brought his expert knowledge to private clients in 2018, launching his own practice at RBC Dominion Securities. Today, as senior portfolio manager at Barasch - Wellwood Wealth Partners, Matt spends his days working shoulder to shoulder with Jeff, relying on his innate sense of the financial world to offer clients an industry-leading experience. Still an avid researcher, Matt begins every day by conducting an in-depth analysis of the markets, working hard to translate his findings into meaningful investment results. He constantly shares his proprietary insights with our clients via our blog and team newsletter.
A CFA charterholder since 2004, Matt holds an MBA from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Buffalo.
As a two-time survivor of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Matt understands firsthand the importance of family and community in difficult times. Since 2020, he has sat on the board of directors for Wellspring, which provides free support to cancer patients and their families. Matt and his wife of over 20 years, Karen, have two precocious children, Naomi and Malcolm, and two devoted golden retrievers - Revis and Gary. Together, Matt and Karen enjoy golfing, cooking, and the works of William Shakespeare (although they prefer them in the original Klingon).
Job Titles:
- Associate Portfolio Manager
Michael is our economic expert. He joined Morin Wealth Partners in 1996 after founding an investment management practice of his own, and has been with us ever since.
"Mike has an innate connection to the markets," Christine notes proudly, and often. "He reads past the black and white printed word to make real sense of things." And, once he's done that, Michael builds sophisticated, highly personalized investment portfolios and wealth strategies that help bring you closer to your life's ambitions.
Michael considers education time well-spent. His favourite part of the job is sitting down with clients and helping them make sense of their wealth in a new way. It's rewarding, but on top of that, it's one way to express his sense of commitment. He believes that managing wealth is no small honour. It's a serious responsibility, and it calls for taking time with each client.
Michael also invests in his own professional education, completing coursework and earning designations such as Associate Portfolio Manager, Chartered Investment Manager, and Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute. "When you've worked in this industry for more than two decades, you see how things evolve and how important it is to stay informed. There's always something to learn."
A competitive cyclist in his youth, Michael likes to get outdoors and stay active through golf at the Mississauga Golf & Country Club. He was raised in England, and loves to visit his family in London whenever he gets the chance.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Investment Advisor
In 2006, Stephen set off for University with a true number-lover's dilemma: pursue accounting, or finance? In truth, the question had to do with more than math. Stephen was also in search of a career that would allow him to work with people, and apply his skills toward helping them succeed. A few classes, co-ops, and coffee chats later, finance proved the clear choice.
Stephen's first taste of full-time work was as part of a specialized, 24-hour investment team at RBC - monitoring the world's largest markets and implementing complex investment strategies for sophisticated clients. The experience shaped how he approaches the markets to this day: with an analytical eye and a global perspective.
After four years at the trading desk, Stephen encountered an opportunity to cover a maternity leave on our team. "It made a lot of sense for me. I could work more closely with clients, which I loved, and learn a new side to the industry on one of the most successful teams at RBC. Not to mention, no more night shifts." Stephen was such a perfect fit in our professional family that, thankfully for us, he agreed to stay on full-time before his contract ended.
Today, Stephen considers his role a perfect blend of meticulous analysis and rewarding relationship-building. When markets are open, he is often found monitoring activity and actioning the many investment transactions required to grow and protect our clients' wealth. Otherwise, he is spending time with clients, educating them on their financial journey, and working towards the goals they hold for their family.
Stephen is happiest in the company of others, especially enjoying time with his wife, Chelsey, and two young daughters, Chloe and Naomi. Outside of work, you can find him experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, playing golf and watching Formula 1. He stays close to his community by volunteering at his family's church and as part of The Charis Foundation as a Board Member and Investment Committee Member.