Smart Wealth™ with Thane Stenner: Insights from Pioneers & Leaders

“Ensuring the Legacy of Family Business Through Relational Governance”

For more than twenty years, Francesco “Franco” Lombardo has been a family business advisor and facilitator to some of the world’s most diverse and wealthiest families. He set up Veritage, his global advisory firm that exclusively focuses on building relational governance.  

Franco uses his Safe Space™ model to empower families to show up authentically and to express their feelings surrounding money and relationships. Passionate about nurturing the next generation of family-owned businesses, Franco is the cocreator, and one of the leading facilitators of the Scone Project and Maasai Project, Ensuring the Legacy of Family Business an interactive next-generation leadership development program for business families. As founder and host of INFLUENCE - a gathering of the globe’s highest net-worth families representing their family businesses, Franco facilitates a custom-curated program designed to deepen familial relationships.  

The author of five books, Franco also hosts the podcast “Safe Space with Francesco Lombardo” - a show for Family Business Leaders and Next Gens. Franco has delivered presentations for the Milken Institute, Campden Wealth and family Business Conferences, Institutional Investor, Tiger21, various YPO/WPO global chapters. He has also been featured in the award-winning Spear’s Magazine and was described as ‘The Truth Agent’ by CEO Magazine. More recently Franco was inducted into the Family Business United Family Business Hall of Fame, which "recognizes the exceptional contribution of individuals and their work in advancing the field of family business."  

Scott Terrio, BA, QIC, CPCA, has been a regular author at Macleans and Canadian Business magazines and a listed columnist for Moneysense, focusing on consumer debt issues. He is a frequent media commentator, appearing on BNN Bloomberg TV, CBC and various radio broadcasts. He has contributed to such publications as The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The National Post and The Walrus, among others.

In his decade in the insolvency industry and now as Head of Consumer Insolvency
at Hoyes Michalos Hoyes, Scott has met with and filed well over 8,000 clients,
primarily consumers. He brings his previous background in sales, marketing and
business development to making clients feel as comfortable as possible in
guidance through various options and tactics, and in trusting advice and solutions
under difficult circumstances.

His professional experience includes the following:

• Ontario Ministry of Ag, Food & Rural Affairs, 1993-1996
• John Deere Canada, 1996-2010
• Cooper & Co. Ltd. Licensed Insolvency Trustee, 2010-2018
• Hoyes, Michalos & Associates, 2018-Present

Richard James Deacon is an award winning Private Office Real Estate Advisor with the world’s #1 luxury real estate firm Engel & Völkers. Richard is the Co-founder of TIGER 21 Canada, an exclusive and highly private investor education organization for ultra-high net worth families. TIGER 21 has over 1100 members across the globe with collective assets in excess of $135B. TIGER’s mission is to help members improve their investment acumen, tackle common issues of wealth preservation, manage family-related challenges, understand estate planning options, philanthropic endeavors and legacy impact. And of course manage their extensive real estate portfolios. Richard also had a 20 year career in media and advertising, working with the billionaire Thomson family and The Globe and Mail.

Richard was inducted into Engel & Volkers Private office in 2021 in only his fourth year as a Realtor, given that EV PO requires 3 years of consecutive performance to become a PO Advisor, Richard is likely the only Advisor to have ever made PO in the first 4 years of their career.

Richard has an international background with 28 years of global luxury sales and marketing experience and today specializes in helping his clients with buying and selling some of the most iconic properties across Canada's #1 wine region, the Okanagan Valley. The Association of Interior Realtors Board area covers the snow caps of the Rocky Mtns to the east, the rolling hills of ranch country to the west and the arid desert of the south that borders Washington State.

Richard is a passionate and connected philanthropist and his list of volunteer involvements include his role as; Past-President of the National Advertising Benevolent Society, being inducted into the Canadian Advertising Hall of Honor in Toronto, as a Past Director of the acclaimed Children’s Charity Arts Umbrella, as a national judge for the Courage to Come Back Awards, a Mentor of the Year awardee in the Vancouver Board of Trade Leaders of Tomorrow program, as past Chair of a capital campaign for the Union Gospel Mission’s Women and Children’s Ministry, Past- President of the Nicola Valley Food Bank and Campaign Cabinet member for the University of British Columbia’s Business Families Centre.

Dr. Tom Deans is the author of three books on the subject of family
wealth transfers. His first book, Every Family’s Business: 12
Common Sense Questions to Protect Your Wealth, remains the
best-selling family business book of all-time and was selected by The
New York Times as one of the top-ten books business owners should
read. The book has sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

His second book, Willing Wisdom: Seven Questions Successful
Families Ask, reached #2 on the Globe and Mail’s best-sellers List.
The book has received critical acclaim for its controversial
explanation of why 15 million Canadians do not have a legal will.
Willing Wisdom continues to stir debate on the merits of disclosing a
will with intended beneficiaries.

In May 2024, Dr. Deans released The Happy Inheritor: How
Successful Families Prepare Heirs and Transfer Wealth, the third
and final book in his Family Wealth Trilogy.

The book examines how many successful families transfer wealth
with the help of their advisor through the use of facilitated family
meetings to bring predictability and transparency to their estate plans.
For families who struggle with this process, the book offers insights
into why. This ground-breaking book reinforces the importance of
family philanthropy in preparing the next generation for the $300
million that is inherited every day by Canadians.

Having delivered more than 2000 speeches in 28 countries, he is
regarded as the preeminent thought-leader on the subject of inter-
generational wealth transfers.

With his family selling businesses for more than $100 million, prepare
to unlearn everything you thought you knew about transitioning family
wealth.

Deans is a graduate Mount Allison University, McMaster University
and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Warwick in England.

His books and speeches aren’t just about money and clever tax
plans. They’re about giving people the confidence, inspiration and
the tools to begin important family conversations about the last taboo
– money.

To learn more about Dr. Deans and his books, visit
https://www.thomaswilliamdeans.com/.

Judi Cunningham is the founder of Trella Advisory Group, a consulting firm that works with family enterprises and families of wealth. She holds a Master’s in Family Systems Counseling and over 25 years of experience working with complex enterprising families. Judi is known for her innovative educational initiatives. She pioneered the Family Enterprise Advisor Program, establishing global standards for professional advisors.  Judi serves as the Chair of the Board for the Purposeful Planning Institute which helps advisors serve families of wealth.