Robinson & Associates:
No Worries
By
Jeff Green
Wayne Robinson
With the world’s financial markets in free
fall, this would not seem to be a very good time to be in the
financial planning business.
But Wayne Robinson is not particularly worried.
“We’ve been sitting here for how long, two
hours,” he said near the end of an interview at his office in
Sharbot Lake a couple of weeks ago, two days after the Toronto Stock
exchange lost almost 10% in value in a single day. “and the phone
has not been ringing? None of our investors are worried. We’ve
delivered profit every year we’ve been in business, for everyone of
our investors. And this year is no exception. And the investors know
this, so they are not worried about their money.”
Wayne Robinson and Associates are financial
planning consultants, and they also manage two investment funds,
which have a total value of $50 million.
While these funds did not generate 20% annual
returns during boom market years, they were never intended to be get
rich quick funds, but rather stable funds that generate income by
investing in regional building projects. The projected returns for
2008, 7% for one fund and 8% for the other, look pretty good when
compared against mutual funds that have been suffering large losses
in value.
The trick is that almost all of the money in
the funds is invested in residential and commercial mortgages in
Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
One of the funds, which is called “The
Frontenac Mortgage Investment Corporation” has grown out of a group
of three people who pooled their RRSP money in 1983 to invest in
“something other than stocks and bonds” Wayne Robinson recalls.
In 1983, Wayne Robinson was running a propane
distribution company, which he sold in late 1984.
Within a year he had started a financial
planning business, which he has been running ever since.
In the late 80’s, Wayne’s wife Alison
founded Lake District Realty, which in recent years has focused
almost entirely on waterfront property, and the two have set about
building the two companies ever since. In recent years they have been
joined by son Matthew and David, forming a family based business that
is poised for growth, even as others are concerned about an economic
slowdown.
“We expect, over the next ten years, to have
$250 million in our funds, and be employing 40 people,” he said.
Currently, there are 26 people working for the
various companies that are based at the Simonett building, near the
Robinson home, all of them from the local area.
“And most of them own houses”, Robinson
said.
Wayne Robinson was born on a farm near
Tichborne, and attended the Bradshaw School. He was the original
Chief Executive Officer of North Frontenac Community Services, where
he worked for eight years.
To have made his way in the world while
remaining located so close to his roots, is not something he planned
when he was younger, but it tells him that it is possible to make a
success in the Sharbot Lake region in spite of the flow of people to
the cities.
“A hundred years ago Canada was 80% rural and
20% urban. Now it is the opposite. That does not necessarily bode
well for us out here. But, it is possible to live an urban lifestyle
in the country nowadays, with the technology there is and the
mobility there is. A place like Sharbot Lake can survive. There is
enough here. Our company and others show that. But there must be some
forward looking people around, including forward looking
politicians,” he said.
