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Last month, two UBC undergraduate students launched an online financial company, Skyward Financial, aiming to educate clients about finance and investing. Lead by a passion for finance, sharing accurate information, and their strong bond, Co-Chief Executive Officers Curtis Holt-Robinson and Tara Lalehparvar want to make a change in the financial industry.

 

“Skyward financial is a 100 per cent virtual financial initiative aimed at promoting accurate, reliable financial information,” says Holt-Robinson. “People are extremely uneducated and miseducated about finances, so we've created an education based initiative that provides the best quality information in the most easily accessible way for people. We're just trying to promote something that's desperately needed in the world.”

 

The Vancouver based company runs no obligation financial sessions online for free. Clients can learn the basics of credit, how it works, interest rates, assets, debt, savings, along with stocks, bonds and mutual funds. At the end of the sessions, Skyward provides each client with a personalized financial plan to fit their financial needs.

 

 “We are focusing on a non-sales model where we do not try to sell our clients any sort of investment products,” says Lalehparvar. “It's really about making sure that they are as knowledgeable as they can be, given their lack of expertise. We don't expect our clients to be financial experts, but we want them to have the foundational knowledge that they need to collaborate with us when we're making [financial] decisions, and most other agencies don't do that.”

 

From Skyward’s sessions, clients can expect to learn about money, feel more confident and strategize financial plans, regardless of what period of life, amount of money or financial situation they are in.

 

“We ideally want our clients to feel like they can navigate the [financial] world with somebody who is with them, not at odds against them,” says Holt-Robinson.

 

According to a survey from Lowest Rates, 31 per cent of millennials have good knowledge of financial literacy in Canada. In 2019, about 41 per cent of Canadians took up financial advice.

 

“We are targeting people who most likely don't have any money such as students, young graduates, workers who are making minimum wage, and high school graduates,” says Lalehparvar. “Those are the people that need financial literacy the most and the people that the industry is really not looking at.”

 

While Skyward is a financial company, the Co-Chief Executive Officers explain how money is not the main motive behind their intentions.

 

“We have an aim to empower young people and an industry that doesn't care about them. For us, it's more rewarding to see people actually feel like they're able to navigate financial situations,” says Lalehparvar.

 

“We work tirelessly to make sure that people are taken care of, because we don't just care about our couple cent paychecks, we care about the remarkable potential people can champion and hold on to,” says Holt-Robinson.

 

Skyward Financial is currently partnered with Sentinel Financial Management, a corporation with insurance and investment firms across North America.

 

For more information about Skyward Financial visit https://www.skywardfinancial.org/.