About National Bank: Get to know Jeff Young and his personal banking team

Located in the heart of downtown Calgary on Stephen Ave. is Personal Banking 1859 (PB1859), National Bank of Canada’s private banking division. Here you’ll meet Jeff Young and his team of private bankers, wealth advisors, associates and credit specialists. They’re ready to bring your private banking experience to a new level, with expertise to help entrepreneurs and small business owners with their unique challenges.

Jeff, manager of private banking across the prairies, stresses that the service level they’re able to provide to their clients is a direct reflection of the company’s culture.

“We have a high standard for both employee care and client care. When our employees feel happy and taken care of, they’re better positioned to tackle the complexities that our clients face,” said Young. “Our small size allows us to be agile and provides autonomy in decision making that just isn’t typically seen with larger banks.”

But don’t let the team’s size fool you – they’re still part of the sixth-largest financial institution in Canada. That puts them in this sweet spot of having a breadth of service offerings and the ability to attract top talent while being able to maintain a deep understanding of each client’s individual needs and goals.

Expertise to bring your biggest financial projects to life

That understanding goes beyond merely having a conversation about your financial goals – what Jeff’s team really wants to understand are your life goals. By engaging clients in those discussions, they can learn what is truly important and figure out how to help get you there.

The path to reach client goals can be complex: Consider family dynamics such as second marriages, children from each marriage, estate planning—now add wealth on top of that. That’s where having a private banker on your side who understands what you want to achieve adds real value.

When it comes to investments, PB1859’s open architecture approach allows them to pick the best-of-the-best money managers who work behind the scenes; Jeff calls this their brain trust. With the backing of their head office in Montreal, all money managers are held accountable and are constantly evaluated to ensure they continue to deliver the maximum impact on a client’s mandate.

“It’s seamless from the client perspective but there’s a lot of brainpower and effort going on behind the scenes,” he adds.

Anyone who speaks to Jeff will quickly realize that this client-centric approach is truly a core value, not only to the organization, but to every member of the team.

Finding big picture solutions

While PB1859 is a relative newcomer in Alberta (expanding into Western Canada in 2015), they’re well-versed in the unique challenges of our province’s financial landscape and entrepreneurial spirit.

Part of what differentiates them from other private bankers is that they’ve merged with National Bank’s commercial division to better serve business owners that are vital to Alberta’s economic success. Speaking about their entrepreneurial clients, Jeff says one of the more common challenges they face is structure.

“Typically, they will have an operating company and a holding company and will have a tax advisor who recommends they minimize their income,” says Jeff. It’s a common tax strategy, but it can present challenges for lending when the need arises.

“When we look at lending to entrepreneurs, we’re not punching numbers into a software program,” he adds. “We look beyond their tax strategy to truly understand the client, their sources of revenue and their wealth.”

Ultimately, when you bring your private banking needs to PB1859, you’re merging high ‘EQ’ with tenured and experienced bankers, wealth advisors and estate and financial planning experts who deliver tailored wealth management strategies.

To start a conversation about how PB1859 can help you reach your goals, get in touch with Jeff at jeff.young@nbc.ca.