Before he started a career in financial advice, Paul Shelemey was always broke on Christmas. He would wander into his local credit union in December, borrow money, pay back old debts, and then start collecting new bills.
At 29, he decided that needed to change.
"Where I grew up, everybody always complained about being broke," he says. "And when I heard the story of life insurance and retirement plans, I thought, here is the solution for everybody."
It was 1965 when he left his job as a meatpacker and became designated as a chartered financial consultant. Fifty years later, his St. Albert company, Shelemey Financial, is still in business. It specializes in financial and insurance advice to individuals and businesses.
Shelemey says he learned his lessons since those early days. Don't procrastinate, pay your bills on time, and always put some money aside for later. It's basic financial advice and many people don't follow it, he says.
But it wasn't just his newfound financial wisdom that made him successful in business. The trick is being a guide, not a salesman, he says. Act professional, be nice to people, and "don't expect everybody to buy."
Clients became friends
Shelemey is proud of the personal relationship he builds with his clients. Some of them have been with him for more than 45 years. He stopped phoning people 20 years ago. They just come by referral now, he says.
There's a photo album in his office at Liberton Drive. It's filled with obituaries, newspaper clippings and pictures: a glimpse at the business' long history. He flips through the pages and points out different people.
"My lawyer for 47 years, my goldsmith, my aunt," he says. The next page shows a couple that used to own a business in Morinville. "Longterm clients," he says.
Even after clients pass away, he continues to advise their families and widows. He stresses how many of them are well provided for through their late husband's investments. Only two of them remarried, he says.
"They did it because they wanted to. Usually women remarry because they need a provider, right?" he says. "If they are looked after and provided for and protected, they are happy to be independent unless they find someone special."
Not retiring yet
There are more photos on the walls in hallways and offices. One shows Shelemey in his younger years, the signature moustache a shade darker then. Others are of his sons. Troy, his oldest, is now the company president. Nathen, his youngest, is a financial advisor.
His sons may have taken over much of the family business, but Shelemey is not ready to retire. He still advises more than 150 people. One of his mentors worked until he was 86, he says.
Now going on 80 himself, he still takes courses on new insurance programs and financial plans. Some of his proudest moments include joining the Million Dollar Round Table, a trade association of insurance brokers and financial advisors, and seeing his sons join the family business.
But mostly he's just happy to give financial advice. He even likes that better than golfing, he laughs.
"I like to see success," he says. "When people can succeed in what they are doing, their business, their family, putting the kids through post-secondary education … and doing it with relatively low-risk investing, that's really amazing."
