Patchwork Pro
By Heidi Staseso, Advisor's Edge

Giving tokens of appreciation to clients often comes in the form of gift baskets or edible items -but for some advisors, it can be a challenge to come up with fresh ideas. Judith Cane, a registered health underwriter with Wealth Strategies in Orleans, Ont., found a unique concept with a personal touch: quilts. She makes them from scratch. Her latest, designed with a maple leaf motif, was tailored for a client recently diagnosed with cancer.

She says clients feel at home when they enter her office and are immediately drawn to one of her quilts prominently displayed on the wall. "I thought that was much nicer than having the index chart there!" she says.

Cane likens the art of quilt-making to creating financial plans. "You take pieces of someone's life - tax returns, paycheques and an investment portfolio - and put them together to create this financial plan," she says. "With a quilt you take pieces of fabric and fit them together to look beautiful and last for life." She says revising her own business plan was similar. In 2002, after Judith Cane working for a decade as an insurance advisor with large corporations, the former Million Dollar Round Table member opted to improve her own life balance and reinvent her practice.

Targeting divorced and widowed women, she teamed with advisor Robert Abboud, whose expertise in family planning helped cement a holistic practice. Most of Cane's clients come from referrals, trade shows and seminars, but her goal is to bring 25 new clients on board annually. She concedes downsizing her practice came at a financial cost, but her quality of life, which includes fostering happy clients, prevails.

"When somebody sends you an email that says, 'Thanks for helping me pay cash for my first car,' you realize how much your work matters."