Wealth Management Keynote Speaker
Your clients don't need another market update at your next client event. They need help with a conversation they've been avoiding. Tom Deans speaks at events for wealth management firms, where families hear why silence around money is so costly and what successful families do instead. For many advisors, that evening is just the start.
How a Client Event Can Lead to Family Meetings
Advisor.ca reported in 2024 that Tom's client events often lead to family meeting engagements. Here's how the process works.
- Host the event. Invite clients to an evening built around family and money. At a 2025 event in Vancouver, Verus Financial gave attendees a copy of The Happy Inheritor.
- Open the conversation. Tom explains why families avoid this subject and what that silence can cost them.
- Follow up with interested families. Your advisors have a natural next step with any client who wants to keep talking.
- Hold the family meeting. Tom facilitates while the advisor takes minutes. Topics can include gifts, philanthropy, wills, powers of attorney, and health care directives.
- Act on what was decided. The advisor connects the family with lawyers, accountants, and other experts.
Why Use an Outside Facilitator?
Tom says most advisors struggle to run these meetings themselves. It's hard to be a family's advisor while also managing a tense conversation about money. With a facilitator in the room, everyone hears the same message at the same time, and the advisor can focus on the plan.
These meetings don't have to feel formal. Tom told clients of Smith Falconer Financial Group that a family meeting doesn't need a boardroom, or even a table. He also told Advisor.ca that the families he facilitates for typically have a net worth of $10 million or more.
What Your Clients Will Hear
- Why silence is the main threat to family wealth
- Why fair isn't always equal, since a $5 million business and $5 million in cash can leave very different results after tax
- Why explaining a will in advance can spare children shame and blame
- How early gifts can help a family, and why secrecy around them causes problems
- Why planning should cover loss of capacity, not only death
- How one open question, “What would you do with an inheritance?”, can start an honest discussion
What It Means for Your Firm
Cerulli Associates estimated that more than 70% of heirs are likely to fire or change their financial advisor after inheriting. Tom's own estimate is that 80% of inherited wealth moves away if families aren't engaged. A client event gives you a reason to meet the family before that decision is made.
Firms That Have Hosted Tom
- Verus Financial, for a client event at The Vancouver Club in 2025
- BlueRock Wealth Management, which invited clients to hear him speak in November 2024
- Smith Falconer Financial Group at CIBC Wood Gundy, for a client conversation in 2024
Available Formats
- Client appreciation evenings built around family, money, and the next generation
- Facilitated family meetings for individual client families
- Virtual Family Meetings for one person or up to ten family members, plus their advisors
- Workshops for advisor teams who want to get more comfortable with these conversations
Read and Hear More From Tom
- Smart Wealth with Thane Stenner, on family meetings, heirs, and talking about money
- Canadian Family Offices, on why silence destroys family wealth
- Advisor.ca, on how advisors partner with family meeting facilitators
Watch Tom Speak
A good speaker gives clients a reason to talk about topics they usually avoid. Tom focuses on wills, heirs, and family communication, which gives your advisors a natural way to follow up with each family.
It is a structured conversation led by a facilitator, with family members and their advisors present. Meetings can cover wills, gifts, philanthropy, powers of attorney, and health care directives.
Yes. Tom's Virtual Family Meeting is a one-hour interactive session for one person or up to ten family members, plus their tax, legal, and wealth advisors. A recording is provided.
Tom doesn't charge a traditional speaking fee. Firms buy copies of his books for guests, which also gives clients something to keep after the event. Send your date and guest count through the form on this page.