Cindy Bowden

A talent for relationship building

Cindy Bowden always knew she would be in a profession that would use her unique talent of developing relationships. So, it’s really no surprise that she likes working with people of all ages and demographics to help them sort out their financial houses.

“I’ve always paid attention to detail, large and small so the clients know they can trust me with their benefits, insurance and money,” says Bowden of Toronto-based Cindy Bowden Insurance & Benefits. “I anticipate how clients will think and react…and I anticipate where they will get into trouble or misunderstand things and I prevent them from doing either of those things. “

A graduate of the University of Toronto, Bowden briefly tried her hand at retail but learned quickly that wasn’t for her. So she began working in insurance alongside her father, officially entering the business at the relatively young age of 24. Friends were buying inexpensive term insurance – the right product for sure, she says – but the money was difficult to come by. When a business associate of her father’s died, she started servicing his clients.

The older clientele were looking for investment products as well as life insurance policies and soon she was being referred to some of their friends and family. It was a quick learning experience that Bowden took in her stride.

“I simply had to learn about a different age group and a different kind of product to sell. I started doing benefits and began specializing in benefits five years later.”

Bowden earned her CLU and CH.F.C. and is a firm advocate that all advisors receive designations and keep learning. She is also active in the industry: as a member and board member of Advocis, past chair of the of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Financial Education (formerly CLU Institute of Canada) and a member of CALU since it began in 1991.

One of her proudest moments was rebuilding the Institute by redefining its goals and bringing in people to sit on committees and the board.

Bowden has also been involved with charities like St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation; she has represented alumni at U of T’s Trinity College and helped create a day care in her children’s elementary school.

“When you do community work you work with a lot of different people and this helps you when you meet with clients or are in an employee meeting,” says Bowden. “In many ways, it has helped me be a better business person, a better practitioner, and maybe even a better communicator.”

Bowden has some words of advice for young women just entering the industry:

  • assume there is no gender barrier with clients
  • be yourself
  • present yourself as an advisor and not as a product selling person
  • be patient and be prepared to make a small amount of money for quite a long time
  • 
get your designations as soon as possible and then keep learning and develop your technical ability – this way you will have more to offer clients
  • 
find someone you respect and who is respected in the industry to work with who can be your mentor
  • 
find someone who can help you prospect and teach you how to make prospecting part of your everyday life.

She said one of the best decisions she made was to make an independent decision to enter the industry.

“I think it was advantageous that I came to the business consciously and not by default.”

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