MDN Trinity Financial Services, contracted with Sun Life Financial Distributors, has announced a recent milestone — the hiring of the financial firm’s two youngest partners in its history, Crystal Loreth and Michael Martens.
Both are 29, UNBC graduates, and have had years of service at Trinity Financial Services, serving customers in the North before their appointments.
Martens grew up in Vanderhoof and was taught the business at an early age by his uncle, Stephen Neudorf, CEO of Trinity Financial Services. He attended UNBC with a double major in general business and finance.
Martens told The Citizen he was particularly impacted by his time at UNBC, especially in bringing one of his school projects into the real world of business.
“I’m going to, in particular, shout out to Charles Scott,” said Martens. “He put a lot of emphasis on things like core value propositions, unique selling propositions. In a nutshell, he basically made the school come into reality — where it’s not just an assignment or an exam; it was something that actually prepared us really well for what we’re doing now.
“One of the cases in point would be his entrepreneurship class. We actually had to develop a business model for a totally made-up business. We made up its own financials, its own marketing campaigns, its own PR strategies, risk mitigation — all of that. Then pitch it to a Dragon’s Den, just like you would see on TV.
“All of a sudden, this assignment that my group ended up winning — we had real-life people saying, ‘Hey, we’ll give you the 200 grand that you’re looking for, for 30 per cent of your concept.’ So all of a sudden it was like, oh my goodness, this is not just an isolated school project. This was now a real-life thing where there was real money on the table.”
Loreth, from Prince George, also attended UNBC, studying for a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting and finance. A family friend of CEO Neudorf and his wife, she said she found immense value in accounting and felt her position was a natural fit.
“I had a draw to the nature of the business just innately,” said Loreth. “I always said that I was going to be an accountant. I had an opportunity to connect with Stephen as a client first as well. We got to talking and it’s fun to see the value that these conversations have and hold in my life, in regard to starting my financial journey so early on — having that kind of guided advice along the way while I was going through undergrad.
“I was trying to determine my next steps in my career. An opportunity came up for me back in 2017 to start as a service associate. At the time, Trinity Financial was a pretty new firm here at Sun Life. It was a great experience for me to help create a bit of back-office process and really understand a little of what goes on behind the scenes.”
From there, Loreth began sitting in on meetings and helping with client selection. She quickly earned a position as a certified safety professional at Trinity Financial Services and began working her way toward partner.
When Loreth heard the news she would be appointed partner, she described it as feeling “surreal.”
“I remember the conversation happening on a Tuesday — the opportunity for Michael and I to have a connection to the firm that we’ve worked so hard for,” said Loreth. “Then the public announcement was on a Tuesday, and I just remember going home that first day and saying, ‘It’s just a Tuesday, right?’
“It just feels really surreal. I’m excited for the impact not only in our firm, but for the rest of the community. Michael and I do try to make sure that we’re out there. I know early on in my career, my goal was just to make sure that I could make an impact with as many people as possible. Anybody who would like to kind of have an opportunity — I would make sure that it was available. It feels surreal, and it’s flattering for sure.”
MDN Trinity Financial Services is a financial wealth management firm that helps local businesses, families, and individuals invest, plan, and meet financial goals.
One of the most important parts of MDN Trinity Financial Services is serving the northern community — something both of Trinity’s new partners hope to accomplish in their new roles.
“We’re not here just for a short moment,” said Loreth. “There isn’t that uncertainty of career change in that direction. It’s about creating a lot of that confidence for our clients — that we are here to be alongside them throughout their journey.
“That shows that reflection in Prince George itself — that you have a lot of representation that’s confident, that’s reliable, right here in Prince George. When you look outside Prince George, it’s not a small community anymore. We’re growing quite quickly. For people and for clients to see that they have good, true, holistic advice right next door — I think, as far as individuals go and just the confidence in their own plan, that will do a really good job of creating that confidence in their own lives.”
Martens told The Citizen that Trinity Financial Services hopes to expand its services and explained that Prince George provides his firm a unique opportunity to do so.
“Prince George is a community of 80,000 people. We’ve got this type of population and a handful of firms that are actually good in this space and taking care of clients. One of the things that I find kind of interesting about PG in particular is just how many great people are here that don’t necessarily have access to the services they should have access to — just because it’s not a well-represented industry in this part of the province.”
Loreth added that her experience being born and raised in Prince George has fostered a feeling of community that she feels helps her clients connect.
“When we have a great meeting with a client and we connect in all the right ways and their plan is rockin’ and rolling, they are so quick to share that experience with their friends and family,” she said. “I think that creates a bit of that closeness as well with the community — that everyone’s so willing to lift the people around them up.”
Martens added that he hopes to use money as a tool to better people’s lives — not as a means to an end.
“It’s not about the money,” said Martens. “We’ll use the money as the tool, but the money is not the object of what we’re doing with clients. It’s providing the peace of mind and ensuring that the clients have confidence in their own financial journey.”
