Portfolio manager, Strategist, financial columnist

Martin Pelletier, CFA

Two lessons from my grandfather's experience during the Great Depression.

I’m often asked about the framed farm lease hanging on my wall. During the Great Depression, my grandfather purchased 120 acres of farmland from the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. As a condition of that sale, he was required make annual lease payments, meaning working the land by hand and sharing a percentage of the revenue from the crops.

Since he lived to be 102 years old, I was fortunate to have been able to hear the many stories of what it was actually like to live back then, tales that have given me a unique perspective on just how lucky we have it today.

My Story

Martin grew up in a small French-Canadian farming community in Northern Alberta, attended the faculty of business at the University of Alberta & University of Örebro Sweden and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder. He is passionate about risk-managed investing, new technological innovation, financial stewardship, sustainable living, and social well-being.

Martin is a former competitor in martial arts, loves finding new places to explore locally and around the world with his wife and two young boys, is early into his journey with photography, lived in Eco-friendly community, is struggling to be carbon-neutral and finding ways to give more than he takes. He is still learning daily from the School of Hard Knocks.