For Ted Ecclestone, being financially savvy has been in his blood since elementary school.
Now 59, the founder of Ecclestone Financial Group Inc. had his first taste of running a business in Grade 5 when he made $50 a week selling Double Bubble gum.
“You could buy a box … for $8 [each] and there’s 1,440 pieces in a box and you could make $28.80,” he explained.
“So you take the eight bucks off what you paid for it, I was making $20 a box and I was selling two and a half boxes a week, all the way through September when I was in Grade 5 [until] we got out of school in June.
“I made a boatload of money.”
However, on the first day of Grade 6 the young entrepreneur’s dreams of a repeat year were extinguished when he was called to the principal’s office.
“He sat me down and said that I can’t sell gum anymore,” Ecclestone said with a laugh. “And it’s like, ‘well why?’
“And he says, ‘Because our janitors have taken all summer scraping it off the bottoms of the desks.’”
At 14 Ecclestone began investing his own money in the stock market.
“I had a pool of capital … dad would buy what I asked him to buy,” Ecclestone said. “And then when I was 18 … dad said, ‘Okay here’s your portfolio, you’re on your own.’ It’s one thing to have money, but it’s another thing to make it work as hard as you do.”
However, he said it always came easily for him.
“With the stocks it was the easiest thing to do because, I mean this sounds ridiculous, but back then there really weren’t any mutual funds,” he said.
“Now … it’s made it so confusing for people that … they glaze over and they can’t even talk about it because, whether they’re embarrassed to talk about it or they don’t know even the questions to ask, they don’t know … but for me it was just a natural thing. I knew I was going to make money.”
At 19 he was also doing income taxes for 200 to 300 people.
“All by longhand, like with a pencil and an eraser, and then just one thing kind of led to another,” he said.
However, when he graduated from high school, Ecclestone did not immediately start out in the insurance or financial industry.
A heavy equipment mechanic by trade, he worked with machines in Arthur and Guelph for a number of years before making the full jump into financial planning.
Through it all, Ecclestone has lived in Centre Wellington, close to Fergus.
On Dec. 4, 1989 Pat Rafferty of Rafferty Insurance Brokers Ltd. asked Ecclestone to install Rafferty’s snow blower to his tractor.
“I said, ‘and I need a job’,” Ecclestone recalled.
By Jan. 1, 1990, he had a job with Rafferty Insurance Brokers and was being trained and working toward earning his license.
“I had traded car parts and radiators and done all sorts of things for people on their vehicles … people want their vehicles to run really well and efficiently; they want their portfolios of investments and insurance to run efficiently too,” Ecclestone explained.
“So it’s only just a different product. My toolbox now is my computer and the phone.”
By 1993 Ecclestone had incorporated Ecclestone Financial Group (EFG), still working with Rafferty but under his own umbrella.
In 1999 he bought the red brick house at 245 St. David Street North – and he has been there ever since.
EFG handles almost $250 million in assets, Ecclestone explained, and the group offers a variety of services.
“On the risk management side of the house we offer life insurance, disability insurance, critical illness, group life and health benefits, long-term care and travel insurance,” he explained. “On the money management side of the house we offer mutual funds, GIC’s (Guaranteed Investment Certificates), stocks and bonds.”
The company currently has four licensed representatives for stocks and bonds, and mutual funds and GICs but with new legislation coming soon Ecclestone is planning to increase his staff.
To coincide with the potential increase in staff, Ecclestone also chose to begin expanding the EFG building in February.
Come Oct. 15, there will be a 5,600-square-foot addition on the back end of the original 1,800-square-foot red brick house, with four other businesses sharing the space.
The expansion will allow EFG to build its client base as well as maintain current investors. Ecclestone explained that even when a client moves out of Ontario they often stay with EFG.
“I have licenses for Ontario, New Brunswick and PEI and Alberta and BC, as well as Kentucky and Georgia,” he explained,
Looking toward the future, Eccelstone said he sees EFG as being a place to give young investors a starting point.
“This industry is so difficult to get into now; like if you don’t have at least $150,000 (of gross commissions) come March, the dealers don’t want you,” Ecclestone explained.
“The business is getting incredibly difficult to get into for any young people that want to get into it. So I see my role is helping young advisors getting into this business.”
He has plans to create a house advisor role.
“There are ways of working around this so that we can sell life insurance investment products where we don’t have to hit that high a criteria,” Ecclestone said.
“So what I see is first of all one house advisor that will be allowed or authorized to sell one type of a product to a client until those assets would get to be between 50 and 75 thousand dollars … then the client would be then given the choice of whether they move to a regular mutual fund sales rep.”
Eventually he would like to have two house advisor roles so the business can be open from 8am to 8pm to better accommodate clients.
Kevin Herder, marketing assistant, has been at EFG for 13 years. He said the company is a good fit for him.
“It’s just been for me a great place to work … Ted’s an easy guy to work for,” he said.
“You just get to build a relationship with the clients and the people you work for … it’s just been fun over the years to continue to build that and see Ted as more of a friend than a boss.”
Herder said being located in a small town really allows EFG representatives to get to know their clients.
“You see them out in town, you know who they are, they know who you are,” he said. “There’s work to be done but … you actually have that relationship with the people you deal with here.”
Ecclestone’s efforts to better the community go beyond the walls of EFG.
He’s been part of the local Rotary Club for about 25 years, was on the Groves Memorial Hospital Community Foundation and the Fergus Fall Fair committee, running the pedal tractor pull at the fair.
“It’s good to be involved,” Ecclestone said. “This is an incredible community.
“I just can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s so much fun … because you’re helping people find their way with insurance and investing.”
EFG is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new addition on Oct. 14 at 12:30pm.
