About Us

About Us

Whitehouse Retirement Wealth Group

We bring specialized knowledge in the field of wealth planning and retirement. And our life experiences have shaped the values we bring to serve you. 


We are passionate about protecting our clients’ future security, finances, and comfort during retirement. 


You dream of a worry-free secure future. 

You want knowledge and guidance to grow your investments for the life you imagine.

Here’s how you get clarity on your future and wealth:

We journey with clients through every stage of life and help them arrive at their wealth goals to protect and grow their invested dollars. 

We manage clients' money through our Discretionary Wealth Management services.

We prioritize building a lasting trust relationship so we can collaborate with clients in a long-term investment strategy with transparency.

We take a personalized approach through a conservative investing strategy for lasting results. 


Why are we concerned with your secure future?

My father’s financial downfall kindled my lifelong pursuit.

His entrepreneurial genius allowed us to have the outward appearance of a well-to-do family. 

But when he lost it all, that’s when I learned the most valuable lesson about money. 


My father started a family furniture store, which ultimately flourished to become the largest store of its kind filling half of a city block in Calgary’s Beltline area, in a booming downtown of the 1970s. 


His brilliant mind and his endless ideas were matched by his energy to act on them. 


He pursued all sorts of entrepreneurial things, but the furniture store in Calgary prospered the most.

Mistakes

But mistakes were made. The store was put into receivership. He never recovered and ultimately, he died penniless.


This lesson built my foundational beliefs about managing money and planning. It’s the reason why I care to help people protect their future.


Years after his death, we discovered mental health issues challenged many in our extended family. We realized our dad likely also spiraled to his financial downfall because of difficulties with mental health.


Blind spot

But one of his biggest blind spots was about planning for the future. Had he invested any of his money from any of his businesses before he passed, my mother in her old age could have been well off. Ultimately she managed with a small pension, and by receiving help from her eight children.


My mom was always the frugal and conservative one. But she could only do so much about her husband’s decisions.


Do not let this happen …

So, I became intensely interested in finances with the idea: “Do not let this happen to yourself.”


It spilled over into my work and drove my decision to enter a career in finance. I knew I could help others in creating a safe future with a smart plan with their money.


Wish I knew

I meet men and women from every type of financial background. Their desire for a safe future reminds me of my mother’s desire for peace of mind and her eye on the big picture. I wish I knew back then how to protect my mom before she was left with little.


And so, from a young age, I took the dollars I earned, and committed to a plan to one day have zero problems with money.


Simple

I’m now dedicated to helping individuals and families who desire the best for their financial futures, preserve their wealth, and live comfortably. Simple.

Our Team

Hi, I’m Jim Whitehouse.

My career as a wealth advisor spans close to four decades.

I am committed to delivering personalized financial strategies and guiding all kinds of people who are the mom-and-pop next door or high-net-worth individuals who want to preserve or transfer their wealth.

 

Outside of work, I’m an avid tennis player and golfer. I’m a father of three grown children and a husband to Verna, my incredible ally, for almost four decades.

 

I attended the University of Calgary and the University of Nice in France. At nine years of age, I discovered the bagpipes and was inspired to learn to play. I continue today as a Pipe Corporal with the Calgary Police Service Pipe Band. I proudly suit up with a kilt, bagpipes and all the regalia with fellow pipers who play at official events throughout the city, Canada and internationally.


Katlyn Irvine

Common sense and well-being on and off work hours.

Katlyn has a knack for adding a pleasing warmth to every interaction. Clients benefit from her care. She tends to the front end of each interaction to reinforce confidence and

to ensure the relationship stands the test of time. In a long-range investment strategy, time is essential.


Katlyn is an associate at Whitehouse Retirement Wealth Group who reciprocates client trust with positive energy that puts others at ease.


Katlyn carries herself with a rare blend of youthful enthusiasm and timeless grace. She

is a testament to the fact that age is not a determinant of one's character or values. Her old-fashioned sensibilities serve as a refreshing reminder that certain virtues – like

honoring a promise and showing thoughtfulness with good manners - never go out of style.


When not at work, Katlyn is energized by her happy place – weight training at the gym. Her generation is sometimes stereotyped for self-indulgence, but Katlyn pays no

attention to it. She is fuelled by routine, authenticity, and simplicity. She’s a foodie, with her health as a focus. But she knows that mealtimes are an opportunity for social connection, and so she creates moments for genuine conversations as the hostess and chef, serving scratch-made meals with friends.

Fernando Ponce

Seriously fixated, with a secret side

Fernando Ponce is a guy whose serious game face at work seems fitting for his fixation with portfolio management in service to his clients.


He can easily spend time deep in data, processing trends and crafting sound strategies tailored to each client's goals. But he has a secret side.  “We believe in working to live and not living to work,” he says. All clients bring a financial objective. But he also gets behind their mission to transform their dollars into a freedom plan for fun. Weekends of escape. A comfortable retirement. Travel. Family. That is what matters.


Simple pleasures are the most valuable part of life, observes Fernando. And so, he’s driven to help his clients protect them through smart investing.


“We’re trying to achieve their common goals and we’re not just taking ourselves too seriously all the time,” he says. Although the hours of his workday days fly by immersed in client portfolios, he’s happy to unplug and escape down a highway, hang out in nature, or flop in front of a movie

he’s watched a dozen times before. The serious side always gets a break with his family and closest friends. 


Fernando is an Associate Portfolio Manager and Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Calgary with 7 years of investment industry experience.


He brings an energetic dimension to client relationships and personal knowledge to his role – plus the irreplaceable substance of decades of expertise passed on from mentoring by veteran advisor James Whitehouse.

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