Tribute to Jacques Lussier, CFA - CFA Montréal Past President

Montréal, March 19, 2021 – It is with great sadness that CFA Montréal learned of the passing of former president Jacques Lussier, PhD, CFA, ICD.D, on March 10, following a battle with cancer. He was 62.

 

The association wishes to pay tribute to this extraordinary individual, who left an indelible mark on the world of finance and the history of CFA Montréal.

 

Jacques spent nearly 10 years in academia, teaching at HEC Montréal, and more than 20 years in the financial industry, where he had a profound and lasting impact. He was the co-founder, CEO and CIO of IPSOL Capital. Prior to that, he was the chief investment strategist for Desjardins Global Asset Management, where he worked for 18 years.

Jacques was a long-time member of CFA Montréal’s Board of Directors and served as the president from 2013 to 2015. He was actively involved in both CFA Montréal and the CFA Institute and leaves behind an extraordinary legacy in terms of advancing financial literacy. He played a key role in revitalizing CFA Montréal and helped raise its profile and credibility, both here at home and around the world. He was the person responsible for bringing such internationally renowned speakers as Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman to a Montreal audience.

 

His generosity shone through in everything he did and everything he wrote. He authored a number of publications for the CFA Institute and volunteered to draft two series of fact sheets on investment principles for CFA Montréal.

In 2018, he received the C. Stewart Sheppard Award for outstanding contributions to the CFA Institute’s continuing education programs. He drafted multiple sections of the CFA exam and conducted a study for the CFA Institute that eventually led him to write a book entitled Secure Retirement. It was in large part because of his retirement planning research that CFA Montréal was presented with the CFA Institute’s Outstanding Research Award in 2020.

 

Jacques’s work was published by the likes of Bloomberg and the Columbia Business School, and his insights have been praised by some of the financial world’s most eminent writers.

 

“Jacques was brilliant, with a razor-sharp financial mind. He was a true inspiration, and he’ll also be remembered as an incredibly kind and humble man. He believed that investment professionals can contribute to the betterment of society by espousing such core values as integrity, ethics and authenticity,” said Carl Robert, CFA, CFA Montréal’s current president. “He recently shared with me that he considered his contributions to CFA Montréal to be his greatest career achievement. It’s very touching to know that, and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.”

 

Jacques was respected and admired by everyone in our community, and the entire CFA Montréal feels his loss deeply. We have created an online space where people can share their thoughts and condolences, all of which will be forwarded to his wife, Sandra.

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