Our Team

Dave Watson

dave@wfsadvisory.ca

Founder & President

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Dave Watson started his career in the Financial Services Industry in 1992. He spent his first eight years as a representative and manager with a top Canadian life insurer. Dave’s primary focus is to implement wealth-building and estate-planning strategies for individuals, farmers, business owners, and high-net-worth clients. 

Dave qualified numerous times for the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table “Top of the Table” ranking him amongst the top 4% of the world’s leading financial services professionals. 

In his free time, Dave enjoys fishing, boating and spending time out at the cabin with his family.

Mike Sterling

mike@wfsadvisory.ca

Partner

Mike’s role at WFS Wealth and Financial Strategies is to work closely with clients to fully understand their specific situations and goals. He helps our clients make informed financial choices to build on their savings and protect what they have saved against unexpected events and prepare financially for the future. 

Mike Sterling started his career in the Financial Services industry in 1991. The first 15 years were spent working as a representative and manager with several of Canada’s top life insurers and Mutual Fund providers. Growing up in Vancouver Island, Mike’s history working in BC allows for communication and connection with WFS clients to span across the country. 

When he’s not working, Mike enjoys spending time with his friends and family and walking his two dogs.  

Martin Herscovitch

martin@wfsadvisory.ca

Vice President, Client Relations

Martin’s role at WFS Wealth & Financial Strategies is to provide top-notch service to our clients by ensuring all their needs are looked after. Whether it’s responding to client inquiries and requests, working with our insurance and investment partners, or working with the client’s other tax and legal advisors, Martin always ensures our clients are consistently taken care of. 

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Martin Herscovitch started his career in the Financial Services industry in 1993 and has worked as an advisor and client services manager for several top Canadian investment and insurance firms. Since 2003, Martin has worked with Dave Watson as a client services and compliance manager. In 2017, Martin became the Vice President of Client Services for WFS and continues to work with the team to make sure all clients’ needs are taken care of. 

When Martin is off the clock, he spends his time travelling with his family, watching movies at home and hanging out with his wife, kids, and two dogs.  

Lise Watson

lise@wfsadvisory.ca

Executive Vice President

At WFS Wealth & Financial Strategies, Lise provides marketing leadership with objectives and strategy for targeted markets, while setting current and long-term goals for the internal team. 

Lise received her Bachelor of Nursing degree with Honours in 2006 from the University of Manitoba. She had various important roles throughout her nursing career mainly as a Public Health Nurse. Her leadership and ability to help create, implement and manage care plans, in complex client and family dynamics, makes her transition into marketing very fitting.

Lise enjoys traveling, spending time with her family at the cabin and walking her two dogs.  

Krista Arklie

krista@wfsadvisory.ca

Advisor

Krista has recently joined the WFS team, after completing her LLQP insurance exams and enrolling in the CFP program. Krista’s role at WFS Wealth and Financial Strategies is to analyze clients’ needs and provide financial strategies to protect wealth and ensure loved ones are taken care of. Krista will be working closely with the team’s partners to deliver solutions to complex situations. 

After obtaining her Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance, Krista began her career as a financial advisor in 1995, working for a large financial institution. She returned to academia, earning her Bachelor of Education in Mathematics and Business in 2006, and began a rewarding career teaching high school Mathematics and Accounting. 

In her downtime, Krista enjoys attending Jets games with her friends and family and travelling the world.  

Terry Bialek, C.I.P., C.R.M.

terry@wfsadvisory.ca

Insurance Specialist

Licensed as a life insurance broker since 1979, Terry has been providing clients with risk management advice for over 40 years. 

Terry enjoys meeting with people to talk about their goals and dreams and help them to guarantee that even if something happens to them, those goals and dreams can be completed. Delivering a cheque to someone who has lost a spouse and seeing the relief on their face that financially they will be alright is very emotional. We don’t just sell a piece of paper; we sell a promise to deliver money when it is most needed. Money that can be used to pay off the mortgage, provide educational funds for children and maintain the lifestyle of the family in a time of loss. The first claim cheque Terry delivered in 1999 proved how important proper planning really is. Every claim cheque he’s delivered since continues to reinforce the importance of what we do for our clients. 

In his free time, Terry is an avid sports fan who enjoys watching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Winnipeg Jets and going for long bike rides.  

Chantal Deacon

chantal@wfsadvisory.ca

Client Services Manager

Chantal’s role at WFS Wealth & Financial Strategies is to provide top-notch service to our clients in Brandon and the Westman area by ensuring all their needs are looked after. Whether it’s responding to client inquiries and requests, working with our insurance and investment partners, or working with the client’s other tax and legal advisors, Chantal always ensures our clients’ needs are taken care of. 

Chantal Deacon started her career in the Financial Services industry in 1999 as a client service assistant to Sun Life advisors in Brandon, Manitoba. For over 20 years, Chantal has worked with Dave Watson as a client services assistant to our Brandon and Westman Area clients in our Brandon office. 

Chantal enjoys her free time with her kids, her husband, and spending time with their friends and family.  

Marina Herscovitch 

marina@wfsadvisory.ca

Communications Manager

Marina’s role at WFS Wealth & Financial Strategies is to strengthen communication with our clients and maintain WFS’s online presence. With a focus on internal operations and communications, Marina provides top-notch service to our clients to ensure all their needs are looked after. With nearly a decade of experience in graphic design and communications, Marina also plans and maintains WFS’s online presence, and provides social media management and website development for the internal team. 

After earning her Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from the Faculty of Architecture in 2019, Marina has taken on a new career in the Financial Services Industry. In her free time, Marina enjoys baking, trying new restaurants, and getting together with her friends and family. 

Testimonials

“Over the last several years that we have known Dave, he has become a valued source of information in the insurance world for us. Dave has taken the time to learn our personal financial situation through significant consultation over this time. Dave has been able to provide to us a plan that is tailored to not only our current financial situation but to our future desires and needs. 
Dave has been able to show us a future path that we are presently looking forward to. We have, over the years, been involved with other advisors but have never had this
sense of security in our future. 
Dave and the people behind him represent a financial planning option that many should engage with.” 

– Grant Arklie | President 
Red River Galvanizing Inc. 
Springfield, MB 

Testimonials

“Dave Watson’s commitment to his clients never waivers. Dave is always evaluating
what he is doing in his practice, how he serves his clients, what he might be missing or what he might be able to improve upon. 
Dave started his career as an advisor and later a manager with a major Canadian life
insurance carrier. He partnered with another advisor to form a very successful
brokerage office. After selling that operation, he founded WFS Advisory and has grown that operation to be one of HUB’s most successful firms. Dave is a consistent member of the Million Dollar Round Table’s Top of the Table. He recently added a second advisor to his practice to better serve clients in both Manitoba and British Columbia. 
Dave tailor designs his solutions to specifically meet the needs of the client. He also works in collaboratively with a client’s other professional advisors to ensure that his recommendations are in line with all strategies and plans.”  

– Terri Botosan | Chief Executive Officer 
HUB Financial Inc. 
Woodbridge, ON 

Testimonials

“Dave has been the financial advisor for my wife and I for the past three years and I
think he deserves recognition at the national level for his excellence. 
As a “customer” you always wonder if a financial advisor puts your interest as the
highest priority in lieu of power imbalance that might potentially exists between you and your advisor. Over time it was proven to us repeatedly that he always made the recommendation to us based on what works best for us and not him.
His ideas were not only ethical, but also up-to-date- knowledge-based and very smart. Advisors like Dave are a rare find. This high level of ethics and professionalism is what you dream for every professional to have. He always stated the facts without any positive or negative spin (to push us in any specific direction). He was very patient at explaining the details over and over to us who had no knowledge of the field. He was very consistent in his approach and his prediction stood the test of time.  

– Reza Vosoughi, MD, FRCPC | Staff Neurologist, St. Michael’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Neurology 
University of Toronto 

Testimonials

“Dave has a very welcoming, friendly, professional and personable nature, who works with integrity to provide his clients with sound financial advice and guidance. 
Dave’s up to date expertise in the financial sector creates a trust that is rare to find.
We highly recommend WFS Wealth and Financial Strategies and their services and look forward to many more years working with Dave.” 

– Dr. Reza Aslani | Dr. Shadi Rezazadeh 
Winnipeg, MB

Testimonials

“If you are looking for out the box strategies for your clients WFS Wealth & Financial Strategies has some interesting products. 
With the assistance of WFS, we can service our clients in a non-traditional way, a way
that will differentiate ourselves from the competition.” 

– A.A. (Stino) Scoletta, CA | Partner / Tax Specialist 
MNP in Brandon, MB

Testimonials

 
“Dave has played a major role in managing our investments for the past ten years. 
We continue to work with him and the WFS Wealth & Financial Strategies team because of their understanding of, and commitment to, our longer-term investments objectives. 
Additionally, their understanding of the market and recommendations on how to adjust our portfolio, have been instrumental in managing these investments in difficult times.” 

–Tim & Janice Swanson | Client