Justine Delisle – Rising star in Montreal’s financial services industry

From Saguenay, Lac St-Jean to the boardrooms of Montreal, Justine Delisle has earned the confidence of a sophisticated clientele who value her advice and counsel

Justine Delisle has come a long way from her home in the Saguenay region of Quebec. In addition to excelling in her studies at the Haute Etudes Commercial (HEC) and subsequently earning her CPA designation (Certified Public Accountant), Justine also learned to speak and write English while working at Richter, where she is now a full partner at a relatively young age.

“I developed an interest in business at an early age. My parents were oriented towards business, and I followed their interests.  As soon as I completed my CEGEP, I applied to the HEC in Montreal and enrolled Business Development.”

Montreal-based Richter provides a suite of financial advice to many of Montreal’s most successful family businesses, their owners and the family offices. When founded in 1926 the company was essentially an accounting firm, but over the past century it has evolved to take a much larger role in their client company’s affairs. The company’s detail-oriented services requires a pool of talented professionals with intimate knowledge of tax law, business acumen and importantly, sophisticated communication skills.

Justine Delisle has achieved remarkable success by offering superlative counsel to many of Montreal’s Ultra High Net Worth families and their businesses

Justine Delisle exemplifies these core qualities, and after a relatively short time with the company, Justine was promoted to manage the Ultra High Net Worth Family Office department.  Equipped with a university degree from the Université de Montréal’s prestigious business school, Haute Etudes Commerciales (HEC) and a CPA designation, Justine Delisle has established herself by offering a sophisticated range of services for the Family Offices of Ultra High Net Worth Families.

In a recent conversation with The Montrealer, Justine stated; “I developed an interest in business at an early age. My parents were oriented towards business, and I followed their interests.  As soon as I completed my CEGEP, I applied to the HEC in Montreal and enrolled Business Development. After graduating, I immediately applied for the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) program and did very well.”

“I always challenged the status quo, and that mindset fits very well here at Richter where we have so many clients who are very successful entrepreneurs.  In many cases, they became successful by being unique in their businesses. They too challenged the status quo,”

“At Richter, we have many clients from the Jewish and Italian communities, and I learned a lot from them while working in the Family Office Department from 2008 to 2014.”

“I listen to the market carefully and pay attention to what it’s telling us – not what we want to hear; but what is actually happening. This is a key component to the advice we provide for our clients.”

“An important aspect of our service is advising our clients on how to manage the transition of a family business from the one generation to the next, often from the founder to the adult children. In this stage, we play an important coaching function – both for the founder and for the family members who have agreed to take on the responsibility of running the business. In this capacity, I have to make sure that I have established a deep trust with our client and the family.”

“We also recognize the social importance of our clients’ businesses. Their companies employ people who rely on the business for their livelihood; whether it’s a few hundred or a few thousand employees.”

To assist families in the transition process, Justine and her colleagues have developed a Financial Literacy Program for each family member.

Preparing the next generation goes beyond knowing financial basics, it also implies instilling in them confidence in the transition process. Justine explained the different elements of Richter’s Financial Literacy Program. In an interview with Les Affaires Magazine Justine noted that taking over the family business can be overwhelming because “not everyone studies business administration. The responsibility of taking over a family business can be very heavy, which is why it’s important to be well supported.”

With the guidance of a coach, who is a CPA, each family member goes through the 10 modules of Richter’s Financial Literacy Program, ranging from financial basics, to cyber security and philanthropy. The Program also includes complementary activities to facilitate intergenerational discussions.

“Knowing that there are different personalities and sometimes different objectives in the inheriting family members, we developed a full program, tools and a framework designed to keep harmony in the family.”

“Knowing that there are different personalities and sometimes different objectives in the inheriting family members, we developed a full program, tools and a framework designed to keep harmony in the family. We call it ‘governance’, but we all know it’s all about how the family members get along with each other. It’s good until it’s not good.”

“We apply the same level of sophistication to the Family Office as the founder does with the business that being transferred to the next generation. The difference with the family office is that it’s not something you learn in business school.  Because of differing personalities, each family office is different.”

Based on her Family Office management experience from 2008 to 2014, Justine proposed that Richter establish a service dedicated to Ultra High Net Worth Family Offices.  “I had the company’s full support right from the start. As our clients’ businesses matured; we realized that by offering generational transitional advice and planned legacy philanthropy initiatives, we could stay relevant to our clients, building on the years of trust from working together.”

Already an empathetic person by nature, Justine has further developed that part of her nature in the course of her work with her client families. To this end, she has accepted to be the Honorary Chair of the Barry F. Lorenzetti Foundation annual gala to raise much-needed funds for Mental Health initiatives. Members of the Canadian Military suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) are included as beneficiaries. Please visit: www.fondationlorenzetti.org

For more information about Justine Delisle and the services offered by Richter, please visit www.richter.ca