EDDIE BROWN: But I'm interested more in kind of the unique requests, or unique experience, that has been most memorable. I'm sure there's been plenty, but maybe one top of mind.
SHANNON KENNEDY: Yeah, so one story that I can think of is I am always representing BMO Family Office and our firm. So I was at a health camp in California, and met another woman who had just sold a fifth-generation business, she and her husband. And you get talking, and I told her what we do, and trying to help families and generational wealth. And she said, 'I need to work with you guys.'
So after a series of meetings with our team, and with your team, she became a client, and then asked if we would do something for her and her three daughters. They had set up a foundation, and she was trying to figure out how to educate them, number one, on prenups, number two, on the foundation, and then number three, on leadership, just leadership for women. So rather than do something completely bespoke and custom for her, we decided to open it up and be a little bit more broad, and brought in some other women, clients who had just sold a business, my daughter attended, we had a client who had authored a book that was focused on women and leadership, and just had this incredibly special experience, which now, of course, all of these 20 or so women want to repeat every quarter going forward.
But that's my most memorable of just meeting someone by… just by happenstance, serendipity, and now they're a client, not only a client, but a very good friend
EDDIE: That's such a great story, and to take that client request, and make it something more meaningful and impactful. You know, we speak a lot about next gen education, but women and wealth is such an important part of what we need to focus on as financial service leaders.
SHANNON: So we have another program coming up in September, where we're getting about 25 women together, and we're going to hike, and do some mindful eating, and do some education around, you know, what it means to be a good, prepared inheritor, and what does it mean to be an owner, not just, you know, a steward of wealth, but an owner of wealth, and how to move that forward. So trying to mix those two things in specific to women.
Connecting owners of wealth has been fun, challenging, because the confidentiality behind it. But connecting through some of my peers has been incredibly important, and even through what you all put together for the leaders in the industry. And bringing together multi-family offices and single family offices is a bit unique, and so you've got some special sauce there, I think, where, you know, we can all interact together and learn from each other, because it doesn't matter how much money someone has, they still want to know what someone else is doing, or how they're doing it at no matter the level. So that's been very special, and I appreciate that.