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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Calgary's podcast with Mario Tonoguzzi on Canada's podcast network.
[00:13] SPEAKER_02: Joining me today is Sherry McMillan, who's founder of McMillan, the state planning corporation.
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today, Sherry.
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: We're delighted to be here. Thank you for having us, Mariam.
[00:24] SPEAKER_02: All right, well, let me just start Sherry, but if you could explain to me what exactly McMillan is state planning is and what you do.
[00:33] SPEAKER_00: Certainly. Well, I'm very blessed and it's been an evolution, the business as it's grown, but we started in 1996 and our why today we realized is safeguarding family significance.
[00:46] SPEAKER_00: So it means that predominantly our clientele happen to be entrepreneurs who put their life's energy and work into some sort of platform of purpose.
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: And so there's so many particular areas that you have to make sure we're protecting around that life's life.
[01:06] SPEAKER_00: So most people think of a state planning, I guess, with a bit of a myth, Mario, they think that a state planning is about dying, but actually we spend about 80% of our time in life planning, working around the business owner and what you're creating and how to, you know, multiply it and leverage it in the community and also how to well transfer it one day.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: So we're very comprehensive. We are always growing up in legislation and law because the government is always changing the rules on our entrepreneurs.
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: Both in tax and in law, and so we're exceptionally comprehensive.
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: We have a whole team of accountant, lawyers, financial planners and even counselors because if you're a real family, you probably have one or two concerns or issues that you face as a family.
[01:55] SPEAKER_00: And so we look at the whole picture and then find a way to optimize that life's work so you can enjoy it in your lifetime with your family.
[02:04] SPEAKER_00: And that's a new modern twist on a state planning is that it's not about when you're gone, but ultimately how you can benefit and enhance the estate while you're alive and enjoy it with your family.
[02:16] SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people also extend that out into the community with charitable giving as well.
[02:22] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about the history behind it, how you started this business and how it came to be?
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. I'm very blessed to be the surrogate grandson in my family because my grandfather didn't have any grandsons when I was born.
[02:41] SPEAKER_00: And I was the first grandchild and so and my mom continued to have girls thereafter.
[02:46] SPEAKER_00: So I was adopted as the fishing buddy and we used to go up to Lake Louise and go fishing all the time grandfather and I.
[02:56] SPEAKER_00: And when we were young, it was really common because he was a farm boy from Saskatchewan and you know we had big Christmases.
[03:04] SPEAKER_00: Everybody in Christmases.
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: And I was going to Calgary, my grandfather built any of the dinosaurs. So it was a really fun, exciting time Christmas until his parents passed on and then you know the conflict began in the family over the estate and I'm sure the listeners today know of somebody or have been in personal connection with someone fighting over in the state.
[03:29] SPEAKER_00: We actually have a kind of joking or office where we say you don't know somebody until you share and stay with them and then it comes to like if you get a longer knock.
[03:37] SPEAKER_00: And so you know that was the male in the family and so he was responsible to care for the estate and his sister had stayed on the farm.
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: And so unfortunately there was some back tax and they lost the farm and so my grandfather continued to send money out to Saskatchewan to his sister but you know the relationship broke down over it and so my cousins and so for the answer, because I stopped having connection the way I'd hoped.
[04:06] SPEAKER_00: So when I was young I was 10 and he explained this to me I didn't really understand what that meant but I said when I grow up I'm going to make sure families don't fight over the farm not realizing it's not only the farm it's everything else we built in our life.
[04:22] SPEAKER_00: So stepping forward in my 20s.
[04:31] SPEAKER_00: I was you know studying fine and it's lovely elder couple came in and they had about a hundred million dollars of money GIC expiring and I asked them what they wanted to do and they didn't really know but they were you know in their 80s so I said well you go home and think about it and then you come back in a couple days and we can determine what to do.
[04:53] SPEAKER_00: So I just put it in a short term open account so that they could ponder what you know the best planning approach was well did I ever get into trouble because what the bank expected of me was to lock it back into maybe a five year GIC but this couple was in their 80s and so very quickly I started to realize that there was a severe gap in the marketplace.
[05:19] SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a holistic comprehensive people were looking at your purpose or what significant to you and then planning legally and planning your estate effectively for you to have the best use of it so bravely as an insane young lady in 1996 I was 24 after graduating I basically started McMillan estate planning and have it looked back ever since.
[05:45] SPEAKER_02: Tell me right now like how much of businesses grow can you talk a little bit about where the business is at right now on from those humble roots I guess.
[06:01] SPEAKER_00: Yes one entrepreneur was I opened a phone book and started networking and calling numbers because there was no other way we didn't have the internet back then so nobody always can recognize our young staff today what the yellow pages are but that's actually how you know the business began but today we've evolved such that we actually have grown into being across Canada we also have a division in the United States for cross border for the United States.
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: So we're looking for those families that have assets in both Canada and the US or children living abroad and then five years ago we expanded into England as well and the EU so ultimately we're very Western and globalized and helping families that have what we would consider an international estate and this is really common very old because what happens for most families is if we're successful the children spread out and so they don't always live local you know they make go down to the US for university and we're going to be able to do that.
[06:59] SPEAKER_00: If they get married there they stay and then in addition to that we're business owners as entrepreneurs we're expanding our network of where assets are held so we are owning things in BC but also in you know you know and all of a sudden we have a complex estate so it's become really imperative that our firm has a multi diversified approach to help families play this game of monopoly in life because we're very complex and we're going to be able to do that.
[07:29] SPEAKER_00: So that's no days.
[07:30] SPEAKER_02: And you're speaking to me right now from London are you?
[07:36] SPEAKER_00: I am here because of COVID and I'm in ultimately getting released in about a week's time so I'm very excited to go to the public we were in Calgary I guess we could do that together.
[07:48] SPEAKER_02: Okay and just for people because there is a lag time on the dates that we are talking and when it's published just for people know we're talking today on May 11th right and so and what was your very first office?
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: Oh I was very lucky to be downtown Calgary I ultimately leased space with an accountant as we built the firm but very very quickly within the first two years of the business I purchased a terrorist complex in Englewood in Calgary.
[08:25] SPEAKER_00: It was the first CP rail row house and so I'm very much into history because I am an estate planner and legacy so we preserved the original CP rail row house and I give a lot of thanks to heritage card because they helped us a great deal in finding you know ways to preserve the hardwood floors and the glass and so forth.
[08:49] SPEAKER_00: And then as we evolved we continued to grow we purchased another building and how to rezone into a heritage building and that building is over it was the second CP rail row house that building is over in the cliff bungalow area and it's a very first new plus ever built in Calgary and it's called the summer built in place so if you know the listeners want to go for a tour it's on the heritage site now so we're very lucky because it will be preserved for generations.
[09:20] SPEAKER_02: Let me just you know rewind the clock a bit I guess you know starting off as an entrepreneur at a young age or the or some of the toughest challenges for you.
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: I think for for non entrepreneur if if you want to grow in life become entrepreneur because you cannot succeed in my opinion if you don't start to think outside of the box and so you're always jumping outside the box to see how you can break the rules how you can change and more to meet the needs of the you know economy the family your purpose.
[10:01] SPEAKER_00: But in addition to that I am very blessed what I realized very young is I decided I wanted to have mentorship my entire career and consistently every calendar year go out and look for mentors that were way smarter than me and work with them for that calendar year so I could gain knowledge and information from them and what I would say is although I've gained so much from that community and seeking out you know what I'm going to do is I'm going to go and see what I'm going to do.
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: I know particular people when I've actually come to learn is I learned more from my clients than anyone and the reason is they have the life experience and so if you really get to know your clients and you listen to their life stories there's an intrinsic wisdom that's we threw everyone's life story.
[10:50] SPEAKER_00: And so we have the blessing in our work to get to know these families
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: generationally and see, you know, the things they do very well, the things that perhaps they don't.
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: And then piggyback upon sharing that in our community so that we can all do better, ultimately.
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: So I would say my biggest life lesson in what Mario, but it becomes
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: this simple and estate planning is life is either about fear or love.
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: And you get to choose. And so those families that choose to live in that arena of love,
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: they're always working in growth and change and moving and morphing
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: and developing relationships. And so it's a real honor to be part of that community
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: and constantly learning from them.
[11:49] SPEAKER_02: What about, you know, just the fact of being an entrepreneur, you know, it's quite busy, right?
[11:57] SPEAKER_02: You know, many ways it's a 24 or 7 job.
[12:03] SPEAKER_02: How do you find the time, I guess, the balance, you know, what you do as a career for work and
[12:11] SPEAKER_02: a business owner with just life in general?
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: I would suggest that the first two decades of my life being an entrepreneur, I once,
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: in very balanced, truthfully, you know, I put my heart and soul into the development of
[12:29] SPEAKER_00: a business, although it was fun for me, so I still enjoyed every moment of it, but I was in
[12:35] SPEAKER_00: very balanced. And thankfully, I say this, I actually had a health scare. And I was told, I was
[12:44] SPEAKER_00: terminal and then told I wasn't a year later. And so that, a jarred me, being in a estate plan
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: or a deal with people being terminal all of the time, but to actually be in that position yourself.
[12:56] SPEAKER_00: And so what I realized very quickly is our only commodity is our time and energy.
[13:02] SPEAKER_00: Money is just a reflection of that time and energy. And so we have to be very rigorous,
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: protective, and diligent about how we use it, because if we're endeavoring to do things that are
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: meaningful in life, we only have a such a reserve. So after that, I realized I do have to balance
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: my life that I have to have not only the business in my life, but focus on my family and focus
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: on charitable work I want to do and some of my own self-interest. So the past I have from being
[13:37] SPEAKER_00: a young girl is elephant. So I've always researched and followed elephants my whole life.
[13:44] SPEAKER_00: And so about seven years ago, I was following a lady that's named as Dafferney Shelterick.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: And she started a charity well over 30, 50 years back. She was in Africa and lost her,
[14:01] SPEAKER_00: well she was young with two young children. And she was the first person in the world to create a
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: formula to feed or to feed elephants and save their lives. And so she developed this amazing formula
[14:15] SPEAKER_00: out of coconut milk concoction. And the first elephant she finally saved, she had to go to a wedding.
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: And so she left the elephant behind and it quit eating because it died of a broken heart. It was
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: missing her as the mother. So she learned very quickly that elephants like us need a family.
[14:35] SPEAKER_00: And so she ended up hiring a group. And so they spend every night with the elephant and
[14:42] SPEAKER_00: alternate the next night of different care takes care of the baby elephant. And in fact,
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: in order to save an elephant, you have to feed it for three years every three hour if you can imagine
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: that she was my hero as one of my heroes in life. And so I I reached out to her after I read her book.
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: And I was so blessed because her charity hadn't yet evolved into Canada. And so I asked her if we
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: could have the honor of bringing her charity into Canada. And she allowed us to. So we brought
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: that division into Canada. It's called the Sheldrick Fund. And so it rescues and saves orphan
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: baby elephants, which is fantastic. And their charity, so interesting because it's quite a legacy
[15:25] SPEAKER_00: story. So that was grandmother. Her daughters are carrying on the charity. She's now passed
[15:34] SPEAKER_00: definitely has what her two daughters are carrying on charity. And her two grandsons are now pilot
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: and are doing the anti-poaching division of this charity. So this is a three generation
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: charitable organization. So quite a success story really. Oh, that's quite fascinating now.
[15:54] SPEAKER_02: What was it about? I'm just curious. What was it about elephants that you liked?
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: Well, when I was a young girl, both of my grandmas had a massive elephant collection. So I think
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: I was certainly influenced. But I had seen this documentary when I was in my 40s. And it was
[16:14] SPEAKER_00: these gentlemen that were sleeping with these baby elephants overnight and feeding them. And
[16:26] SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to leave you for another man, but I might leave you to go to laugh. And then I found
[16:32] SPEAKER_00: to the book that Daphne wrote in it was that very charity. And so that's been my evolution is
[16:38] SPEAKER_00: becoming involved in that particular way with them. Okay, super. Well, thanks so much, Sherry,
[16:44] SPEAKER_00: for joining us today. Well, we're delighted to be honored to come on in your show. And we follow
[16:49] SPEAKER_02: you, Mario, you're an amazing host. Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that. That was Sherry Mcmillan.
[16:56] SPEAKER_02: Thank you. All right, super. That was Sherry Mcmillan coming straight from London today on this show.
[17:04] SPEAKER_02: She's the founder of Mcmillan Estate Planning Corporation. This has been Calgary's podcast
[17:09] SPEAKER_02: with Mario Taniguchi on Canada's podcast network. Thanks for joining us today.
