Member Story - Ron Lander

 

Life started for me in New Plymouth, thanks to an earlier generation of Landers’ who in 1841 sailed there on one of the first boats to arrive from Plymouth, UK.  It was a great place to grow up, with the grandeur of  Mt Taranaki and the ocean, where I spent many happy hours fishing, sailing and surfing, being a couple of things that remain firmly etched in my mind.  Surfing remains a passion to this day and I consider myself fortunate to have been part of it from the early years!

On finishing my schooling at New Plymouth Boys High, I headed off to Lincoln University where I completed DipAg and DipVFM qualifications.

I worked as a Agricultural Adviser for a couple of years before heading off on what I thought would be a 2 year stint overseas, but this ended up a total of 7, with a couple of years back in NZ in between.  This included 5 years in Sweden where I was employed in Stockholm by a firm of Consulting Engineers and Economists, who were at that time working on projects in North Africa and the Middle East.  I was employed as a Project Analyst / Agricultural Consultant and worked on a variety of fascinating projects in Libya, North Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

In between my two stints overseas, I worked for the Rural Bank as a rural lender, where I registered as a Valuer and on my return to NZ in the mid 1980’s, rejoined the Rural Bank and moved with them to Auckland.  In 1989 I joined the Primary Industry Bank of Australia (PIBA) and had the opportunity to assist set up this new specialist rural sector bank in NZ.  This was later taken over by the Dutch Rabobank and come the new millennium, I decided it was time for a change so in 2001 made one of the best decisions ever to relocate to Tauranga, with wife Suzanne and our two daughters.

In my years in banking I assisted clients build their wealth through borrowing, but also saw many otherwise successful people lose part or all their wealth through poor investment decisions, following the sale of property and/or business assets.  This prompted me to retrain, becoming a Certified Financial Planner and Authorized Financial Adviser.  In this role I work primarily with couples and individuals new to Tauranga and people approaching or in retirement, assisting them minimize investment risk and achieve their lifestyle and financial goals.

I operate under the umbrella of the firm NZ Financial Planning Ltd and I’m very pleased to say that no clients lost money in the recent finance company debacle as a result of advice from NZ Financial Planning Ltd advisers, as none of these companies met our criteria for fixed interest investments.

I also continue to work as a Registered Valuer, contracting to a local firm to do residential and rural valuation work.