Meet Gareth Dormon: The Art of Discussing Money

2019-05-21T15:12:36+12:00 July 12th, 2018|Categories: Staff Profiles|Tags: , |Comments Off on Meet Gareth Dormon: The Art of Discussing Money

Let’s play a little guessing game. Three statements about SurePlan’s Gareth Dormon and one of them is NOT true.

  1. He worked the high seas on luxury cruise ships auctioning art
  2. He’s a financial advisor
  3. House music fans know him as DJG (he’s really quite good!)

If you picked #2 then you’re right on the money. Gareth has sampled, sailed and sold his way around the world but he stresses he’s not a financial advisor.

As SurePlan’s Client Development Manager, Gareth will likely be the first person you’ll meet after you call or contact the company when it’s time to put your financial future under the spotlight. His role is to handle all the upfront work with you before Mike Allen, the company’s financial advisor, takes over and drills down to the nuts and bolts of your financial plan.

Gareth’s diverse and colourful background has its benefits. It would be rare not to find some common ground with him when he walks into your home one evening to talk finances and how SurePlan can help.

“People are often confused by what we do. Is it mortgage broking, insurance or is about investment or looking at your finances? Actually, we are all these things. We incorporate it all into a financial plan to give you some direction,” says Gareth.

After your initial contact with the business, it will be Gareth who’ll pop in to see you one evening – most likely either at 6pm or 8pm.

Like restaurant sittings, Gareth’s evenings are booked out as he ventures around various neighbourhoods, from the Hibiscus Coast to Pukekohe, meeting potential SurePlan customers in their homes.

Evening work isn’t easy, but he loves it. “I get a really good feel for people and they are more relaxed when they’re in their own home,” he says.

He’s a natural conversationalist around almost everybody, he’s had a lot of practice at it.

Out at Sea

In 2009, on the day President Obama was inaugurated, Gareth joined luxury cruise ship Journey out of Fort Lauderdale to auction art.

While Obama was embarking on his eight year tenure as US President, Gareth was getting his own initiation into the world of art in the humidity and heat of Florida.

“I’d done art history at school but apart from that I knew absolutely nothing,” he laughs.

As he was only allowed to sell art on sea days, the rest of the time was spent sightseeing around various ports in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Then there was fine dining, meeting passengers, crew members before hopping off one luxury liner to the next.

The Virgin Islands one day, Dubrovnik in Croatia or St Petersburg, Russia the next. Go to a map of all the glamorous Northern Hemisphere cruising ports and chances are that Gareth has been to most of them. St Barts in the Caribbean, just so you know, is his favourite.

His art history counted for nothing in the end. “ I found out [buyers] weren’t really interested in the art itself but more about whether it matched their carpets or soft furnishings,” he says. “It was the easiest job in the world.”

So the question begs: Why would you give it up? Was it seasickness, too many games of shuffleboard with the grey nomads or just an aversion to the Erte art nouveaux he had to constantly sell?

The past, present and the future

None of the above. In the end, it was the lure of New Zealand.

Gareth grew up in Henley-on-Thames in the UK. He thought his destiny was to become an architect because his cousin had taken up the profession and he wanted to be just like him.

Fate stepped in when Gareth was 17 having just started down the path of studying architecture.

One night with friends on an English country road, Gareth was involved in a horrific car accident that could easily have paralysed him. It took six months for him to get his life back on track and during that time he discovered a silver lining of sorts. He realised that he had no interest in being an architect, so he quit school and became a chef.

You work pretty long hours in hospitality, so this might count for why Gareth is unfazed working days and evenings. Important to note here he doesn’t do Fridays or weekends – that’s time exclusively saved for his family.

You’ve got to do things right

The beauty of New Zealand brought him back, but it was the promise of an exciting new business that proved to be the catalyst to him finding his passion. SurePlan’s Managing Director John Schell decided Auckland needed financial advice done well and seven years ago the company was conceived.

Gareth was a key team member from the outset. “While other companies offered financial advice, they weren’t doing it particularly well. John convinced me to join him. I really enjoy it. I love what we can do for people,” he says.

What is financial advice you ask? See how it’s changed the financial outlook for the Lotu-Iiga family!

If Gareth comes to visit you in your home, get used to the first question he will throw at you once the coffee has been poured and everyone is sitting comfortably.

“Why am I here? It’s always what I ask them first,” he says.

“That’s the most important. Then I ask the easy but hard questions like: When do you plan to retire, what income would you like to retire with?”

They’re simple questions, but as you read this and find yourself pondering how you would answer them, you realise it’s not that easy.

Most of us tend to avoid thinking about it. Gareth has become accustomed to the unique Kiwi mindset of future planning or the ‘she’ll be right’ attitude many of throw at a problem.

If it’s one thing he’s taken out of meeting literally hundreds of SurePlan clients over seven years, it’s that it will not be alright if you think a government pension or a Lotto windfall will pave your retirement street with gold.

Have a look at SurePlan’s mortgage calculator to see how much interest you could be saving by making top ups to your mortgage repayment.

And an overwhelming trend for Aucklanders is that more and more of us are making plans to get the hell out of Dodge. In the seven years he’s been working in client development, Gareth has seen an upward trend of clients citing the need to search of a cheaper home, have more food in their supermarket trolly and ultimately just looking for a better lifestyle out of New Zealand’s biggest city.

Because one day, what you want out of life suddenly changes.

One minute you’re DJG, taking a year out of corporate life sampling music in the clubs of St Kilda in Melbourne till all hours of the morning, then the next your hobby turns into a job then becomes a lifestyle you decide isn’t exactly what you wanted.

That was Gareth the musician, who started out as an architect, turned his talents to hospitality then sold art to rich cruise passengers. The new chapter in his life now comes from a different sort of working office – the living rooms of SurePlan clients every evening. So give them a call, get the coffee pot ready and Gareth will be around to help start your financial planning journey.