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John Christensen, CPA, CA, TEP

Regional Vice-President, Wealth Planning

As Regional Vice-President, Wealth Planning, John works closely with our high-net-worth clients to identify issues and provide complex, tactical, wealth planning support that complements their wealth plans. John has a focus on tax and estate planning strategies for business owners, professionals and other affluent individuals and families.
John joined CI Assante Private Client in 2020 after working as a Senior Tax Manager at Ernst and Young LLP. As part of Ernst and Young’s tax team, John provided tax planning and compliance services to owner-managed companies and cross-border businesses. John also worked as a Tax Manager at KPMG LLP in their Enterprise practice. There, he worked with various high-net-worth families and provided estate and succession planning for their businesses. John brings more than 15 years of professional wealth planning experience to CI Assante Private Client.
John is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) who has completed the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (now Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada)
In-Depth Tax Program. In addition, he holds the Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designation.

Dan Stewart, BA, FMA, CFP®

Regional Wealth Planner

As a Regional Wealth Planner, Dan Stewart facilitates the delivery of wealth planning reports. Using a needs based approach, Dan works with our clients to not only gather pertinent financial information, but more importantly, to identify issues and to help our clients articulate and document their goals in order to build a plan that meets their complex needs. Working with the support of the wealth planning team, Dan delivers a plan that addresses retirement planning, cash flow management, risk management, business planning and estate planning. Dan became part of CI Assante Private Client in 2015. His experience in wealth planning and asset management spans over 20 years. It includes Account Executive at Manulife Financial, Training and Development Manager for advisors at Freedom 55 Financial and as a Financial Planner at SISIP Financial Services. For the past 15 years he has taught as a part-time Faculty Professor at Algonquin College where he facilitates courses leading to the PFP and CFP® designations. Dan holds a BA (Finance) from Algonquin College. In addition, he holds his Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) and Financial Management Advisor (FMA) designations.

Dilmini Bonas BSc. (Hons), LL.B., TEP

Regional Vice-President, Wealth Planning

As Regional Vice-President, Wealth Planning, Dilmini works closely with our high net worth clients to identify issues and provide complex, tactical wealth planning support that complements their wealth plans. Dilmini has a particular focus on estate planning and wealth transfer strategies for business owners, professionals, and other affluent individuals and families. Dilmini joined CI Assante Private Client in 2019 after practicing estates law in private practice. During her time in private practice, she worked both as an estate planning lawyer and represented clients in estate litigation matters. Dilmini assisted clients with establishing and implementing individualized estate plans that prioritized their wishes and views with respect to legacy building. As a litigator, she represented beneficiaries, estate trustees, and guardians for property and personal care. Dilmini has appeared before all levels of Court in Ontario. Dilmini is a lawyer with a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Birmingham (UK) and a Bachelor of Science degree from York University. She is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Brent Steele, CA, CFP, CPA

Vice-President, Wealth Planning

As Vice-President, Wealth Planning, Brent Steele works closely with our high-net-worth clients to identify issues and provide complex, tactical wealth planning support that complements their wealth plans. Brent has a particular focus on tax and estate planning strategies for business owners, professionals, and other affluent individuals and families.

 

Brent joined CI Assante Private Client in 2001 after holding a senior accountant position with BDO Dunwoody Chartered Accountants. At BDO Brent provided both personal and corporate tax planning advice and compliance to a wide variety of clients. Upon joining Assante, Brent spent his first year as a Private Client Tax Reporting Officer in Winnipeg. Subsequent to this, he transferred to Ottawa where he worked as a Private Client Manager in eastern Ontario for four years. In 2006, Brent transitioned into his role as Regional Vice-President, Wealth Planning and as of 2013 is the Vice-President, Wealth Planning overseeing the delivery of our wealth planning services across Canada by our regional teams. His overall professional experience in wealth planning exceeds 25 years. Brent is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Manitoba.

 

In addition, he obtained his Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) designation and completed both the CICA In-Depth Tax Course and the CICA Advanced Tax Issues for the Owner-Managed Business course. He is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario and the Canadian Tax Foundation.

 

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Troy Rumpel, CFP®, CLU®

Vice-President, Estate Planning

As Vice-President of Estate Planning, Troy Rumpel is well-positioned to deal with the technical aspects of our clients’ more complex situations. He works to mitigate risk, protect assets, and provide tax deferral strategies and solutions that allow a smooth transition of estate or business assets to the beneficiaries or surviving partners. He provides in-depth information on various insurance products and services that compliment the overall wealth management for our clients.
Troy provides more than 25 years of financial services industry experience with roles of increasing responsibility from advisor to regional manager to vice-president with several leading Canadian insurers prior to joining Assante in September 2004.

He has earned the Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Registered Health Underwriter (RHU) designations and is a member of CALU, Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting.

Troy is based in Hamilton and services the province of Ontario as well as looking after the Assante Estate & Insurance Services field teams across the country.

Derek Smith, CFP

Regional Vice-President, Estate Planning

Derek has over 21 years of experience in the life and health insurance industry, including 17 years working with advisors and insurance specialists at investment firms as a national accounts wholesaler for several large Canadian insurance companies. Previous to this role, he was involved in developing proprietary insurance products designed for high net worth Canadians. These products relied on his ability to coordinate and facilitate income strategies involving front and back-end leveraging of cash surrender values within permanent life insurance policies.

 

He has earned the status of Registered Candidate (FPE1) from the Financial Planning Standards Council of Canada and continues to work towards his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation.

 

Derek is based in Mississauga, Ontario and services the GTA and Northern Ontario regions.