2024 Faculty
Your 2024 Faculty
The Advocis Banff School has always been known for its amazing Faculty. Did you know that in the 68 year history of the Advocis Banff School that we've never paid any of these amazing folks?
They come out and speak of their own accord because they believe in the school, and they believe in supporting those Advisors who are willing to invest in themselves by attending.
This year's Faculty is another amazing lineup of experts. Get ready to learn and be inspired!
Rick Forchuk
Our 2024 Emcee
MBA, CFP, CLU, CH.F.C.
Distribution Consultant, Empire Life
Rick entered the financial services business in Edmonton as an advisor in 1971 after working in radio, television, and newspapers. He was an MDRT qualifier, and subsequently occupied such roles as sales manager, branch manager, National Director of Training, and Vice-President, Retail Distribution for Canada. His current role is as a Distribution Consultant for Empire Life after having spent several years as the VP, Distribution with that company. Rick is a regular contributor as a speaker to industry and non-industry events throughout Canada and the U.S. He lives in White Rock, BC, and still maintains a media presence with regular commentaries on radio in British Columbia. He has been married to Betty, a retired grief counselor and personal trainer, since 1967. They have two daughters and four grandchildren.
Dr. Bruce Empringham
Medical Underwriting Consultant
Dr Empringham graduated in Medicine from Queen's University and completed his family practice residency at McMaster University. After 4 years in North Bay Ontario, he took a job as assistant medical director at London Life in 1991. As the companies have grown, so has his role and until 2020 was responsible for life and living benefits medical underwriting and medical claims assessment. He remains active at Canada life in support of the chief underwriter team and on large case work.
Sara Gelgor
LLB, LLM, MBA, ICD.D, GCB.D, GPC.D, G.Dipl. SRS
Public Director, TFAAC Board
Sara is no stranger to Advocis. From 2003 to 2008 she held the staff position of Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and earned a strong reputation for her critical thinking and her ability to build strategic relationships, successfully leading a number of key initiatives, including Advocis’ intervention in a landmark Supreme Court of Canada constitutional law challenge.
She currently leads global human rights at RBC and is a member of RBC’s ESG strategy team. Her prior roles include leading regulatory compliance functions for banking, wealth management, and life and health insurance operations, and acting as global chief privacy officer at another large financial institution.
Sara is an experienced board director and has deep governance expertise, having served as a board member of 9 for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, including Toronto Hydro and the University of Toronto Governing Council Business Board. She successfully completed the Rotman Directors Education Program and holds the coveted ICD.D designation. Sara is a member of Governance Professionals Canada and is a faculty member of the GPC.D program, having collaborated in the design and launch of the designation program.
Sara obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto and attended Queen’s University for Law School. She is a lawyer, and also holds a master’s degree in international law from Cambridge University and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Jamie Golombek
Jamie Golombek is Managing Director, Tax & Estate Planning with CIBC in Toronto. As a member of the CIBC Private Wealth team, Jamie works closely with advisors from across CIBC to support their clients and deliver integrated financial planning and strong advisory solutions. Jamie is quoted frequently in the national media as an expert on taxation, writes a weekly column called “Tax Expert” in the National Post, has appeared as a guest on BNN, CTV News, and The National and has been a regular personal finance guest on The Marilyn Denis Show.
He received his B.Com. from McGill University, earned his CPA designation in Ontario and qualified as a U.S. CPA in Illinois. He has also obtained his Certified Financial Planning (CFP) and Chartered Life Underwriting (CLU) designations.
In 2023, Jamie was named a CPA Ontario Fellow. The FCPA is the highest distinction that can be bestowed upon a CPA who brings distinction to themselves and to their profession through leadership and achievement in their professional, community and/or personal lives.
Ian Green
Ian Green, Dip PFS, is the founder of a family-owned financial planning firm, Green Financial, in South West London. He was first licensed to advise in the UK in 1995 meaning 2024 marks his 29th anniversary as an independent financial planner.
Through multiple full cycles of global growth and recession and almost constant regulatory change, whatever the economic conditions and whether commission or fees, selling products or delivering services, he’s helped more than 2,000 people and families over almost 10,000 meetings, to:
- Create and stick to a lifetime financial plan
- retire with dignity and comfort
- leave a meaningful legacy
And at the same time, seen his business income and profit rise every year, while still making sure he has time for himself, his family and causes close to his heart.
His leadership in the profession includes regular speaking engagements around the world, serving as MDRT President in the pandemic year of 2021, chairing MDRT’s Top of the Table Board and authoring a book published in multiple languages and 5 different alphabets. He has previously held positions as trustee on the Personal Finance Society Charitable Foundation and on the board of directors of the Life Insurance Association.
When not being a financial planner, he can be found being a Dad to Mia and Max, a husband to Melissa, in the gym, on his bike or walking in the park.
Kelly Gustafson
Kelly Gustafson is a trailblazer and a solution wizard in the Canadian financial services industry. She uses her 25 years of experience to fiercely champion independent financial advisors and their business needs. She gets to the heart of advisor pain points and advocates for digital innovation and operational efficiency that supports compliance and provides exceptional client experiences – the things that help you do better business. She is a go-getter who never gives up on achieving your goals and solving your challenges, and always looks forward to doing great things alongside great advisors.
Kelly loves working with people who are committed to making a difference in their own lives and in their communities. When she is not busy helping her clients, she enjoys the simple pleasures of life on her farm in Saskatchewan, where she grows fresh veggies, rips around the fields in her side-by-side, and spends time with her family, friends, and many animals.
Grant Hicks
CIM
Grant Hicks, CIM, is a practice management expert and is President of Advisor Practice Management a consulting firm for the financial industry. He is a judge on the Wealth Professional awards for the last 4 years, and has a unique view of the financial industry. Grant has over 33 years of experience in practice management for financial advisors including 20 years as a financial advisor managing over 120 Million. His “Guerrilla Marketing For Financial Advisors” books are part of the “Guerrilla Marketing” series, which has sold over 21 million copies worldwide. He has spoken for major financial institutions in Canada, United States and Asia. He coaches and consults to elite financial advisors and teams on practice management processes for ideal families. Grants combined financial advisor clients manage over 5 billion AUM , and earn over $50 million dollars combined! He helps financial professionals increase their capacity and their revenue through his" Financial Advisor Ideal Capacity Program" . Grant played professional hockey in Europe before starting in the financial industry.
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr is a Hall of Fame speaker who travels the world researching, writing, and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures, inspiring leaders, and organizations that leverage their humor resources to drive outrageous results!
Michael’s Inspiring Workplaces blog has been listed as one of the Top-30 workplace blogs in the world.
He is also the author of nine books, including, “The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank,” “The Jerk-Free Workplace” and the soon-to-be-released, “Small Moments, Big Outcomes: How Leaders Create Cultures That Drive Extraordinary Results.”
Michael lives in spectacular Canmore, Alberta, so yes, for those of you old enough to remember, he is another Mike from Canmore!
Richard Moxley
Richard is 6’1, tall, blond, very pale and loves long romantic walks on the beach. He is also passionate about removing the mysteries of the credit score. His mission is to help Canadians know how to play the Credit Game to WIN and have some fun along the way. Some of his accreditations are:
- Best-selling author and has a new book out called, The Credit Game
- Featured on The Morning Show, Globe and Mail, CBC market report, Sirius XM Radio, and National News
- Financial Literacy Leader of the year 2015/2016
- Runs a full-time business removing errors and fraud from credit reports
Richard Moxley is married, has five children, and lives in Calgary, AB.
John Natale
John is the Head of the Tax, Retirement & Estate Planning Services, Wealth team at Manulife. He and his team of professionals provide case level support on tax, retirement and estate planning matters to advisors across the country.
John joined Manulife in 2001 having previously worked as a tax specialist with a national accounting firm and practiced law with a private law firm. He has experience with estate and retirement planning strategies, trusts and a wide variety of general tax matters including personal and corporate taxation, and investment related topics generally.
He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars and has appeared as a guest expert on industry podcasts and BNNTV. John has published numerous articles on tax and estate planning and is the co-editor of “Canadian Taxation of Life Insurance”.
He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of British Columbia. John was called to the Ontario Bar in 1998. He has obtained his CSC certificate and completed the CICA In-Depth Tax Course. John has an Elder Planning Counselor (EPC) and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation and is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and the Canadian Tax Foundation.
Lori Power
Lori Power is the founder of MP Benefits Inc., a published author, a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), a Certified Facilitation Leader, holds the Queen’s University certificate for “Workplace Mental Health Leadership”, and is the 2022 winner of the EBN Excellence in Benefits Award.
She is a member of Advocis, CALU, CGIB, and Financial Therapy Association.
She has been featured on the Corporate Connections Speaker’s series, Global News, CBC, the HR Reporter, Smokin’ Bulls podcast, the Advisor Advantage, Benefits Genius, BCC Drive Time, Every Other Wednesday, hosted a weekly SHifT zoomcast, which has been re-deployed a SHifT Succession Planning podcast.
Lori has been engaged in the Disney Institute for Business Learning since 2019 and achieved accreditation in Leadership | Quality Service | Employee Engagement, as well as “Leadership Excellence” and “Coaching for Peak Performance” certifications.
Her true-crime book, “They'll Never Know” highlights the psychological relationship between people and insurance.
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Molly Reynolds
Molly leads the privacy practice group at Torys. Her practice focuses on digital innovation, cyber-security, data protection and ethics, and privacy litigation. She regularly advises clients on privacy law compliance in their businesses and in the context of commercial transactions, as well as on data security best practices, breach response, regulatory investigations, and privacy class action defence. She represents clients in administrative proceedings under access to information, anti-spam, and privacy legislation, as well as in the context of civil litigation. Her dual call allows her to provide advice on personal information handling and marketing regimes that reflect and comply with Canadian and American privacy legislation.
April Stadnek
Executive Director, Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan
April began her career in Regulation 25 years ago when she joined the Enforcement Branch of the Securities Commission, now a part of the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority, where she held positions as an Investigator and Acting Deputy Director of Enforcement. In 2007, April spent a year working at the Head Office of a Mutual Fund Dealer/MGA. The roles she undertook for the Dealer/MGA allowed April to round out her knowledge base. This year in the field, provided April with valuable insight into the day-to-day operations of investment and insurance advisors.
In December 2008, April joined the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan as an Investigator. She was promoted to the position of Director of Compliance, then appointed as Director of Strategic Initiatives and Director, Compliance and Enforcement respectively within the organization. She is currently leading the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan in her capacity as the Executive Director of the Councils.
In 2018, April began the work of preparing insurance intermediaries and stakeholders for the implementation of a more modern Insurance Act, as well as overseeing emerging initiatives from the Council’s Strategic Plan.
April is an active contributor at the national level through committee work on behalf of the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organization (CISRO) and the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR). April is involved on a few joint CISRO/CCIR working groups, she is currently the Co-chair of the Fair Treatment of Customers Working Group and a member of joint CISRO/CCIR working groups on Fair Treatment of Customers – Incentive Management, and Segregated Funds. April also participates on CISRO’s working groups on Information Sharing, the CISRO Strategic Plan and the General Insurance Licensing Qualifications Review Committee (GILQR). She has been part of past working groups on the development of the Canadian Insurance Regulatory Discipline Actions Database (CIRDA), and Common Licensing Standards. April was also an appointed member of the Senate of the University of Regina.
April has always lived on the Prairies, she was born in Manitoba and raised in Saskatchewan.
Jason Watt
Jason Watt is a consultant in the financial services education sector. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at Business Career College. Before that he served in the Canadian Armed Forces. He has taught at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre and the Canadian Forces Peace Support Training Centre. Jason has also served overseas on four operations with the Canadian Armed Forces. He is the principal author of the course texts in the BCC financial planning curriculum.
Jason is active in his community and serves on the boards of the South Alberta Light Horse Regimental Association, McLeod Community League, and two committees of the Financial Planning Association of Canada. He provides volunteer financial coaching services to program participants at the Centre to End all Sexual Exploitation and the Norwood Child and Family Resource Centre. He is working to bring a pro bono financial planning model to Canada. He sits on the Financial Advisor/Financial Planner Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario.
