As a man of faith, Greg Goldsworthy feels blessed to be able to care for people through his business, and the 78-year-old has no plans to slow down.
The Financial Centre of Collingwood is celebrating 50 years in business on July 13. Goldsworthy started the business in 1973 at 28 years old as a fresh university graduate.
“This has never been about making money. This has been about helping people. I feel that if I do what God wants me to do, He’ll bless me with a good life,” Goldsworthy told CollingwoodToday this week. “He has.”
“Over 50 years, you develop relationships. People are friends and clients,” he said.
Goldsworthy was expelled from high school in grade 10 growing up in Scarborough, and went back to school to Centennial College when it was first introduced as an option in the late-1960s as an adult student, completing a three-year business diploma.
“I jokingly say I’m the most highly educated high-school dropout you’ve ever met,” he said, with a laugh.
After graduating, he worked for some major banking institutions before considering going back to school.
“After a few months, I realized I was not built for work in a giant bureaucracy,” he said.
At the advice of his wife, Goldsworthy got a degree in business in Kitchener/Waterloo and after graduating in 1973, he started up what would become the Financial Centre of Collingwood.
He started building a client base for the insurance part of the business, travelling across the province from Brampton, where he was married with his first child on the way.
In 1975 after the birth of their second son, Goldsworthy and his wife Sharon felt it was time to set up roots for their family and the business, and chose Collingwood as their home base.
“We had visited some cottages in Wasaga Beach on vacation. We loved this area,” said Goldsworthy.
Goldworthy originally set up shop in his own home, eventually moving into the same building on Hurontario as The Gayety Theatre, but bounced around to The Temple Building (124 Hurontario) and again to a spot at 22 Second St. before settling at his current spot at 59 Hurontario in 1993, purchasing the building in 1997.
The company started as a life insurance business, evolving over the years to provide more financial services. Now, it is a full-service, independent financial institution.
Over the years, the business has grown along with its client base.
“When I was younger, we were working with a lot of younger families with children and we were doing education savings plans,” he said. “Over time, we had 40 or 50 companies we were representing.”
“At first, we were talking to parents about their kids. Now, their kids have grown up and we’re talking to those same people about their grandkids,” said Goldsworthy. “Now, I do a lot of estate planning because my clients are older.”
“It’s multi-generational.”
Goldsworthy recalls that in 1986 when the Shipyards closed down, many financial institutions in Collingwood brought in extra staff to help the laid-off workers with their severance packages.
“The union endorsed our firm because we were the only independent (firm), and our business flourished,” he said.
As a man guided by his faith, Goldsworthy says one of the main reasons he feels so at home in Collingwood is that the people who live here embody “caring.”
“That’s an integral part of our practice,” he said. “If people are just interested in consuming, they’re not thinking about the future. What are they going to retire on, or how are their children going to go to school?”
“That’s been instrumental,” he added.
Over the years, Goldsworthy says he’s weathered the move to the internet, where many people do their taxes online or apply for financial products directly through their bank.
However, there’s something an institution like his can offer that those options can’t: an independent perspective.
“For those options, when people do research, the research will be biased for the supplier,” he said. “If you don’t ask the right questions, you’re not going to get the answer you need.”
As advice to young up-and-comers entering the financial sector, Goldsworthy suggests working with an existing firm at first to get your feet wet before deciding whether to go it alone.
“To truly be successful, in my opinion, you have to care for people,” he said. “They should come at it from a position of knowledge about the products and also getting to know people, their hopes and dreams.”
Goldworthy’s youngest son joined the firm 20 years ago, and he says that someday, his son will take the reins of the business.
However, today is not that day.
“I’m often asked when I’m going to retire. Nobody in the Bible retired. As long as God gives me life and health, and I can feel like I’m helping people...I’ll keep coming into the office.”
“Sharon doesn’t want me hanging around the house all the time anyways,” he said with a laugh.
