Mary Susanne Lamont, president of M. S. Lamont & Associates Ltd., started out at the very bottom of the financial services totem pole. “I worked in London as a filing clerk for one of the firms,” she said. “I had worked for brokerage firms and a bank, and then one of the people that I had met through business said I ought to go out on my own and he would back me. So that's how I started.”
Her shrewd eye for finance has served her well ever since. She advises her clients to consider all the factors before choosing an investment. “Back in the days of the technology sector boom, those were the worst days. People would come in and their first question was, 'What kind of rate of return do you have?' And that is not the first question somebody should ask. They should worry about service and trust, with return as the third issue,” Lamont said. She did all she could to steer them in the right direction, foreseeing a bursting bubble. “It was even worse than buying mining companies, where you don't know whether they're going to find gold or not. These people were buying shells of companies, which had absolutely nothing.”
Notwithstanding the challenges of dealing with overconfident investors, M. S. Lamont & Associates has been growing steadily and weathering recessions large and small. As demand has waxed and waned, Lamont has learned the value of building relationships. Many of her clients have been with her since she first opened her doors 25 years ago.
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