Shope + Associates, LLC

Helping retirees and near-retirees develop a well-thought-out plan that gives them the confidence to make work optional and live a life of freedom. We do this by helping you manage your assets according to your purpose and values, minimize your lifetime taxes, and generate consistent income. It doesn't end there, though. We continually monitor your plan and meet with you on a regular basis to ensure your needs are met. We keep the process simple and our pricing straightforward, just like it should be.

Managing Partner | Fee-Only Financial Advisor

Shope & Company, Inc.

Operated a private wealth management firm committed to working comprehensively with client's wealth management plans. Responsible for creating investment, financial and estate planning strategies that work together to expand, manage and distribute wealth. Maintained a strong reputation for portfolio management, designing tax and estate planning concepts and strategies to meet and exceed objectives and provide implementation so the family's goals are realized.

Financial Planner | Owner

Sigma Financial Corporation

Sigma Financial Corporation is a comprehensive financial services firm committed to helping clients improve their long-term financial success. Their customized programs are designed to help manage our clients’ wealth by delivering an unprecedented level of personalized service.

Independent Broker Dealer, No Proprietary Products, 9-Time Winner of Investment Advisor BD of the Year, 3-time Winner of REP. Magazines Broker Dealer Report Card

Certified Wealth Strategist® | Financial Planner

Hantz Financial Services, Inc.

At Hantz Financial, in addition to maintaining a financial planning practice, I served in numerous capacities in the growth of the organization.  My responsibilities included:

- Training and developing first-year advisors in the Greater Detroit Region.
- Assisted the Advanced Planning Team, which was focused on solving the issues of High-Net worth clients, in the development of case studies and comprehensive financial plans.
- Helped in the growth and transition of a group of recruited advisors in Northeastern Ohio.
- Worked with advisors between Mid-Michigan and Southern Ohio to reinforce the importance of integrating estate planning into the overall financial planning process for the firm’s clients.

Financial Consultant | Co-Founder

Lennington & Associates, PLLC

Responsible for the implementation of systems and strategies to ensure clients of Hantz Financial addressed their estate planning issues and concerns.  This involved developing a process by which each financial plan included a comprehensive review by an estate planning attorney from Lennington & Associates.

Director of Business Development

American Express Financial Advisors

Served as a paraplanner for a group of experienced financial advisors.  I was responsible for numerous administrative tasks and functions enabling the practice to operate efficiently and effectively.

Paraplanner

Certified Wealth Strategist® (CWS®) | Helping those 50+ learn how to retire confidently, reduce taxes, and generate consistent income to become financially independent.

If, after reading through the short description of who I typically serve and how I work, you find that we may work well together, feel free to contact me via phone or email for a complimentary, no-obligation initial consultation.

I have been fortunate to work with an outstanding group of committed clients for many years.  While each client holds their own values and visions unique to them, a few commonalities may help you determine if you would also benefit from my services.

- Most clients are either retired or within 10 years of retirement.

- My clients place a high value on financial planning and less emphasis on taking high risks trying to generate maximum return.

- My clients are long-term investors, comfortable with a custom asset management plan based on their risk tolerance, time horizon, goals, and income needs - not day-trading. 
 
- Most clients believe that their wealth is very important to them but no more important than family, faith, health, and community.

I am a Fee-Only financial advisor who takes great pride in acting on behalf of my clients. This means I have a responsibility to put my clients' interests well before my own in all recommendations.

At the core of our relationship is a custom financial plan geared toward life events such as retirement, wealth transfer, business succession, and asset protection.

Communication is key.  In addition to regular phone calls and emails, we will establish regular face-to-face meetings, typically 2-4 times per year.  Regular contact ensures a much higher probability of finding true meaning and success in your wealth.

If you have found you’d like to have a conversation about working together, I’d be happy to dedicate an hour to getting to know you better, discussing your intentions, and determining if I can provide value to you and your situation. 

To set up an initial meeting, contact me at pshope@shopeandassociates.com or by phone at (734) 479-1400.

Patrick Shope

Alana Tart Coaching

Certified coach (ICF-ACC, CPCC, NARM), mindfulness teacher (BAMBA, Counselling & Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body) with a background in psychology working with clients at inflection points (including when quietly asking: “is this still what I want?”).

This work is practical, strategic, and deeply human, helping you reconnect with clarity, capacity, and a sense of meaning that fits from the inside out.

Coaching & Mindfulness (Individual or Group, inc MBSR)

The Legal Director

The Legal Director  (TLD) is a fully regulated law firm that provides businesses with experienced, high-calibre lawyers on a fractional or flexible basis. 

As part of TLD I work with SMEs as a fractional/part time General Counsel advising on all areas of business law including:
- Commercial Law and Contracts (including customer, supplier and distributor agreements)
- Technology agreements (waterfall/agile/SaaS)
- NDAs & Confidentiality Agreements
- Crisis Management
-Cyber security (readiness and breaches)
- Data protection
- Competition and Anti-trust issues
- Dispute resolution
- Risk Management

Client Legal Director

Dominant Information Solutions Canada (DISC) Inc

Dominant Information Solutions Canada Inc (DISC) is a niche provider of security consulting service. We service industry and government clients by providing services that include: developing cyber security programs, designing and engineering cyber security and IT solutions, breach response services, and providing risk assessment and management services. DISC works with clients to examine new and innovative technologies from the Canada and overseas to ensure customers get an optimal return on investment from their capability. 

Since 2019, DISC has been a leading global innovator in niche satellite engineering and security, receiving multiple research grants for methods to improve the health and operational success of satellites.

DISC also specializes in providing Subject Matter Expert advice to court cases, and has provided court opinions in high profile cases in Canada such as the class action suites against Lifelabs, Capital One, and Facebook.

General Counsel and Board Director

The Mentor Well

The Mentor Well aims to provide teens and young adults with essential life skills, emotional support, and personal growth opportunities through one-on-one mentoring, group mentoring, and various online courses. We focus on fostering long-term development and mental wellness in an increasingly complex world, equipping young individuals to navigate their futures confidently.

COO, General Counsel, Mentor

Philip Morris International

Senior Counsel

Ascential Plc

Ascential is a specialist, global, publicly listed information company that helps the world’s most ambitious businesses (e.g. P&G, Unilever, Nestle, gsk, Bayer, Philips, hp) win in the digital economy by providing business-critical intelligence, world-class events and advice to enable smart decision-making for businesses. It operates from 39 offices around the world serving customers in over 150 countries. Its brands include Edge, Flywheel, WGSN, Medialink, Cannes Lions and Money 2020.

Legal Director (Group) at Ascential

Ooyala (acquired Videoplaza)

A global online video platform, offering best-of-breed online video analytics and monetization solutions that boost revenues from video. Part of Telstra Corporation Limited from 2014 until 2018.

Senior Corporate Counsel (responsible for EMEA)

Videoplaza (acquired by Ooyala)

Videoplaza's mission was to empower broadcasters and video publishers to build profitable and sustainable businesses in the internet-delivered TV world. More than 50% of the broadcasters in Europe run their advertising businesses on Videoplaza's flagship offering Karbon (Videoplaza’s customers include M6 (France) and IP Deutschland (Germany), TV4 (Sweden), Mediaset (Spain), STV (U.K.), MediaCorp (Asia), Sony Entertainment India and Singapore's Mediacorp). The technology, built for video, is device agnostic and empowers publishers to trade across sales channels, maximising the value of their audiences. Videoplaza's services were offered globally and the company had local teams across Europe and Asia.

Head of Legal and Company Secretary

Latham & Watkins

An integrated, multinational full-service law that provides strategic and innovative legal solutions to clients' complex business and legal challenges.

Associate

Virgin Media

The first "quadruple-play" media company in the United Kingdom, offering television, internet, mobile phone and fixed-line telephone services. It had ~5M customers in 2012 and revenue of £4.1B. Now part of Liberty Global.

Secondee from Latham & Watkins- Associate Counsel (Regulatory and Digital Entertainment)

Executive Coach | Mindfulness teacher | General Counsel (ex BigLaw, ex Fortune 100) | Outdoor enthusiast

Values driven leaders and high achievers turn to me for the hidden dynamics that make or break careers. Most come to me for one of three reasons:

✨ They’re facing huge change and uncertainty and want someone in their corner who understands.

✨ They don’t know what they want and are looking for clarity about their next steps.

✨ They’re ready to create more meaningful impact.

Beneath each of these challenges are the same hidden dynamics, the patterns that leave people feeling like they’ve lost the map, unable to see what’s really driving their choices or holding them back.

Maybe you’ve been putting off reaching out to a coach. I did the same. Self-sufficiency works… until it doesn’t. (If I’m honest, it cost me professionally. Years.)

Maybe you’re not even sure coaching would help. Or hardest of all, like many of my clients, you’re not sure what you want anymore, and you’re starting to wonder if you ever really did.

As a certified coach (ICF-ACC, CPCC, NARM), mindfulness teacher, and with my background in psychology and law (I am still also a General Counsel), I help clients rewire their brain and nervous system, align with their values and who they are becoming, and build the self-awareness to not only recognize but confidently overcome or use the hidden dynamics to intentionally shape their lives and careers.

I offer private coaching, practical tools and group classes.

Book a call: tidycal.com/alanatart

Alana Tart

“You Must Be More Assertive.”

Most who get this feedback do the wrong thing

They speak more in meetings
Push harder on decisions
Drop the soft tone that made them “approachable”

Nat did exactly that

Twelve months later, the feedback was: “You’ve become too intense,  try softening your approach.”

Nat was confused: What did they really want?

Working together, she quickly understood that people’s status is based on two dimensions:
💠  Assertiveness: competence, confidence, authority
💠Warmth: trust, approachability, empathy

And how those signals are read and rewarded often depends on gender

Regardless, if needing to shift to have more impact, the issue isn’t assertiveness OR warmth, it’s finding your balance

Here is What Actually Works

1. Lead with Warmth, Deliver Assertively 
↳ Warmth opens minds; assertiveness earns respect

2. Calibrate to Context
↳When the room needs clarity, lead decisively
↳When it needs trust, lead empathetically
↳The best leaders flex both, intentionally
 
3. Don’t Subtract : Add
↳ Don’t dial down; add what’s missing
↳ Too forceful? Keep your authority and add empathy
↳ Too soft? Keep your warmth and turn up assertiveness

Balance isn’t blending into the middle; it’s expanding your range

You don’t need to fake confidence to be credible.
You don’t need to act tougher to be taken seriously.
You don’t need to change who you are to be powerful.

You don't have to become someone else to be someone significant.

Image Credit: Judy Horacek

--
Follow me Alana Tart for more on everyday power dynamics

Coach, Teacher, Trusted Advisor | Also a General Counsel (ex Fortune 100, ex BigLaw) and Board Director | Soft heart, steel spine.

Most people on business flights choose a solo seat

I do the opposite

Some of my most interesting conversations have started at 30,000 feet: with senior leaders, founders, people in career transitions 

A few have turned into ongoing relationships or unexpected opportunities 

(Yesterday I was with a VP of marketing for a Canadian high end distillery)

People talk a lot about influence, access, and opportunity

In practice, they often start in very ordinary moments, like commenting on the cheese served on your Swiss air flight

(Which led to a conversation about pairing cheese with Canadian whisky, which led to sharing that I once worked in the industry, which led to exchanging business cards…)

I don’t treat these chats as a break from the work I am doing on the plane, I treat them as part of it

Sometimes the most valuable “meeting” of your week doesn’t come with a calendar invite

If I could give my younger self one piece of career advice, it would be do more of this 👇 

Yesterday I wrote to the litigation lawyers I met at the County of Carleton Law Association conference last week in Montreal
 
Some would call that “networking,” but that makes it sound transactional.

We’re human. We’re built to connect

Early in my career, I prioritised getting work done over building relationships. I also worried about seeming self-interested or opportunistic

But I’ve realised I’m always grateful when people reach out to me, whether for help or just to say hello

Avoiding outreach so you “don’t bother people” isn’t humble, it’s protective

You’re protecting your own comfort instead of giving others the chance to say yes

Most careers don’t stall because of a competence problem, but because of a connection problem

The best thing you can do for your career is to build relationships proactively and give generously.

Not because you want something, but because this is the actual work of a career: letting other people know you, trust you, and think of you when it counts.

P.S. That colourful postcard went to my family. My fellow litigators prefer email; the point is to show up in the way that connects best with each person.

“This job title doesn’t reflect your value.”

My CEO’s comment named something we rarely say out loud

Job titles are about who and what is valued in an organization

This is why 70% of office workers prefer a better job title over a raise*

Dismissing that as “just ego” is a morally comfortable way to ignore how organisations really work

Feeling valued is a fundamental human need

We lose compassion and connection when we deny that

My CEO’s comment reflected what he values: Dominant Information Solutions Canada (DISC) Inc's ability to develop its people

One way we do this is by providing expert witness testimony and litigation strategy and support in cyber and tech cases

(For our mostly ex-military team, used to briefing Generals and senior politicians, cross-examination simply exercises a well-trained muscle)

On paper, this is our lowest ROI activity

Yet we’re looking to grow it because it builds confidence, visibility, and team glue (it is fun!)

As a lawyer and executive coach, I play a key part in that

Which is why my CEO says the title on my card doesn’t reflect my value

The paradox: once you really understand this, you care enough about titles to use them wisely, but you stop needing them to tell you what you’re worth

*see https://lnkd.in/ekBV7Gn5

Happy US Thanksgiving!

Canadian Thanksgiving was last month. The same…and different.

I’m Canadian and have spent most of my career abroad.

Now that I mostly work with Canadians, it feels…easy.

How people communicate, decide, and build trust just makes sense. 

That ease reveals a tension I see with coaching clients:
👉You want to succeed anywhere
👉Yet your impact depends on speaking the local “social and emotional language”

Organisations and countries face this too: How to be inclusive and still keep our culture

A few truths I keep coming back to:

💠 Cultural fluency is a skill to hone; “cultural fit” often hides bias.
💠 In another culture, you’re playing an away game; your usual signals land differently.
💠Power often comes from reading the room and attuning with intention

The work, for many of us, is to:
💠Notice where things feel effortless and what that shows about your style.
💠Build range to flex (tone, pace, directness) without losing yourself.
💠Stop reading struggle as proof you’re not enough.

You can be most fluent in some places
And still grow the capacity to show up powerfully anywhere.

Same person. Different context.

Same…and different.


Picture taken by me last week in Montreal airport. The Christmoose is in front of the departure gate to the US (Etats is States in French).

When asked what we want, we still default to work:

a title, a promotion, more money, a different way of working, perhaps not working at all

We still respond like children being asked what we’ll be when we grow up

As if career is the only language we’ve ever been taught to dream in

Me?

At this time of year I want a four-meter Christmas tree forklifted onto my car.

(picture taken by me at the Christmas tree farm this weekend)

One of the biggest myths that holds people back:

You can and should apply your craft to any company 

Lawyers are particularly good at this self-convincing BS

Especially because we are awesome at compartmentalizing

Here’s the truth: when you don’t believe in the company, your career will struggle

Instead of having energy for:
💠 better thinking
💠authentic communication
💠relationship-building
💠strategic action
💠participation 

You are burning mental and emotional calories on:
💠reconciling contradictions
💠managing internal discomfort
💠navigating moral tension
💠suppressing disagreement

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿

If you want to excel, at a minimum work where you don’t have to fight yourself to do your job

This is why I am so grateful to be part of Dominant Information Solutions Canada (DISC) Inc, a gold sponsor for next week’s Space Canada | Espace Canada ‘s SpaceBound conference

(who wouldn’t find satellite cybersecurity fun?)

Most are unaware of the real drivers of their outcomes 

Blind spots, the unconscious, the power dynamics that shape our world…

It’s ongoing work to bring these to the surface and to face them

But they’re always there. 

When I started my career, I had a clear dream: to build a life that held both my and my husband’s cultures and geographies

(For context: I’m a Canadian with a British husband, now living in Switzerland.)

That dream was specific to me. Yours will have been different

I was told it was unrealistic, not sensible, unconventional, unworkable...

So I stopped consciously dreaming, and let myself be blindly guided instead

Now, in the second half of my career, I’m living that original dream

Not by fate, but by leaning into it and forces of power: my position, resources, relationships, and reputation

Once you understand what really shapes your path, you can start to design your life instead of explaining it.

(Canada’s Parliament in Ottawa, where I am this week. It’s –9°C… this dream really is uniquely mine 🥶)

The difference between a career that suffocates and a career that excites often comes down to how you communicate your value. For most, that’s hard. You can improve by doing it for someone else.

For example, here’s my colleague at Dominant Information Solutions Canada (DISC) Inc,  Rip, PEng, MSc, CD:

Rip provides clear, defensible expert opinions in complex technology, cybercrime, and privacy matters. 

He translates dense technical events into evidence that courts, regulators, and decision-makers can confidently rely on.

He is:
-a nationally recognized cybersecurity and cyber operations authority
-an experienced leader of complex technical and intelligence operations for Canada and the United States
-a recipient of the U.S. Defense Meritorious Service Medal, awarded by President Biden
-recognized as the top hunter on the World Economic Forum’s international cybercrime hunting team
-a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario
-a former leader of cyber capabilities within the Canadian Armed Forces

Rip is also humble, collaborative, and a quiet leader.

Give it a try: tell me about one of your colleagues.

Because the more you practice naming the value you see in others, the easier it becomes to claim your own

And then move toward the career you actually deserve, not just the one you ended up in.

--
I’m halfway through the first Power, Purpose, and Presence cohort, helping people build the skills, and overcome the barriers, to the careers they deserve. This week is all about reputation, positioning and visibility.

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Patrick Shope

Alana Tart

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