Wellness Series
The National Ballet of Canada's new Wellness Series, produced by the Celia Franca Society, is designed to feature topical information sessions about living well and planning for the future. Exclusive to donors and subscribers, this fall's Wellness Series consists of four, 45-minute interactive “lunch and learn” webinars.
Speakers
Marion York
CPCA, CFRE, Professional Consultant on Aging
Marion York offers a private, client-centered service as an advocate and guide for older adults and their families. She addresses a broad range of issues and supports the best quality of life including cost, availability and quality of resources in the community.
Marion is dedicated to supporting and empowering older adults to age with dignity by navigating sound planning decisions and transitions. Planning for both anticipated and unanticipated obstacles is an integral part of aging. Marion offers a holistic approach and partners with families to offer choices, help make decisions and deliver solutions.
Navigating the complexities of the health care system and a loved one’s journey, she helps facilitate discussions, updates plans, liaises between professional advisors and keeps the family informed so that adult children may have peace of mind and confidence that their parent is being well looked after.
Marion understands the invaluable role that a trusted advisor and advocate can play and has experience from her own circle navigating the complexities of the health, community and home care systems and supporting them through meaningful discussions and important decisions.
Yeti Agnew
Legal Sherpa® Lawyer, Yeti Law Professional Corporation
E.M. (Yeti) Agnew is an internationally recognized educator, author, speaker, and Estate Planning Lawyer. Yeti shares her unique perspective on estate planning and has been a featured guest on radio and TV, including CBC and Toronto AM. She is the Author of Legaleasy: a step-by-step guide for Canadian art galleries and museums and Co-author of The Art World: Law Business and Practice in Canada, and Giving Transforms You among other publications.
She is a former Governor of the University of Waterloo and Trustee of the Royal Ontario Museum as well as being named a Trailblazer by the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. As the creator of the Legal Sherpa® Process, she and her team have led hundreds of professional women and business owners safely through the estate planning Himalayas of Law in order to more fully preserve, protect and pass on their hard earned wealth.
Karen Sparks
MBA, CFP, TEP, Director, Wealth Planning, BMO Private Wealth
Karen advises high net worth families and business owners on comprehensive wealth planning solutions, as part of an integrated team of Wealth Consultants and in-house technical specialists. Drawing on extensive financial product expertise and planning acumen, Karen helps clients articulate and understand their unique objectives for accumulated wealth. A skilled listener, she acts as a value-add resource for Investment Advisors and their clients, ultimately providing a blueprint from which to execute a customized – and optimized – wealth plan.
Karen joined BMO Wealth Management in 2011, following progressively senior roles in the financial services industry, specializing in wealth planning, marketing and communications, and business development. In her previous role, she worked as a Vice President for a private investment counsel firm where she provided high net worth clients with comprehensive wealth planning and investment counselling services.
Keith Thomson
CFP®, CIM®, FCSI®, Stonegate Private Counsel
Keith Thomson began his career in 1985 as a financial advisor with McLeod Young Weir. He is a Fellow of The Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI®) which places him in the top 5% of all financial advisors in Canada. He is a licensed Chartered Investment Manager (CIM®) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) with a specialized focus in philanthropy. Keith has had numerous articles featured in such publications such as The Globe and Mail and CPA Magazine, the latter being read monthly by over 90,000 Chartered Professional Accountants.
Keith currently serves on the boards of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners whose mission is to champion the growth and development of strategic charitable gift planning in Canada and of Seva Canada whose focus is to restore sight and prevent blindness in the developing world. For over five years he was Chair of The African Medical and Research Foundation and has also served on the boards of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and The Toronto Foundation. For over two decades Keith has funded his own family foundation and donates annually a minimum of ten percent of all his business income to charitable organizations locally, nationally and internationally.
Keith, his wife, Tanja, their daughter Kiera, and dog Haggis, reside in the Beach neighbourhood of Toronto.