BC Business
"They've never hired someone my age," Lauren Minogue says of the wealth management division of $90-billion Connor Clark & Lunn Financial Group, where she works with high-net-worth clients in their 50s through 70s.
Minogue manages accounts for high-net-worth clients
Life Story: “My journey wasn’t determined,” Lauren Minogue says of her rise to VP with one of Vancouver’s biggest money managers. Raised in Edmonton, Minogue did a BComm at UVic’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business. She then returned home to work for her parents, both of whom are business owners, before moving to Vancouver. There, Minogue started out in business development with a tech company. But numbers have always been her strength, so she joined Fidelity Investments in 2016, becoming an inside wholesaler while earning the rigorous Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Disheartened by the conflicts of interest she saw at many investment firms, Minogue decided to move to Connor, Clark & Lunn Private Capital in 2018 after meeting managing director Catherine Dorazio. “They’ve never hired someone my age,” she says of the wealth management division of $90-billion Connor Clark & Lunn Financial Group, where she works with high-net-worth clients in their 50s through 70s. Although Minogue thinks she’s lost out on potential clients because of her age, she’s found that most wealthy families respond well when she offers to help advise their children. “They’re looking to create this generational strategy,” she says. “My approach has been, What are the kids doing?”
Bottom Line: Year-over-year since 2016, Minogue has seen top-quartile growth for the business she manages. Besides increasing her assets under management at CC&L, she aims to make equity partner in 2022. Minogue, who sits on the boards of Social Venture Partners Foundation Vancouver and the Learning Disabilities Society of Greater Vancouver, also wants to get involved in an investment committee doing innovative work in impact investing.
Women in the male-dominated wealth advisory industry take a different approach that serves them well, she argues. “We collaborate. We support each other. We share best practices,” Minogue says of working with two female colleagues. “I’m biased, obviously, but I do think that women have a huge advantage in this kind of business.”