If genuine understanding can only come from experience, then at Educators Financial Group, we’re proud to say we’ve been living and breathing the world of the education community since 1975.
We were born during a period when (because of the summer months) teachers were viewed by financial institutions as ‘occasional workers’, and therefore too ‘high risk’ to be given mortgages. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) then decided to establish an alternative to the banks. A place teachers and their family members could turn to for the mortgages, financial solutions and investment advice they weren’t getting anywhere else. Thus, Ontario Teachers’ Group (OTG) was formed, and it all started with the simple idea that the unique financial needs of the education community would be best served by those who genuinely understood those needs.
From teachers to all educators
As the financial needs of the education community evolved over the years, so did the need for us to evolve along with it. Part of the evolution involved updating our name to reinforce our commitment not only to teachers – but to all educational workers and support staff. So, after extensive collaborative research that involved your peers, ‘Educators Financial Group’ was chosen as the name that best captured that commitment.
The education community’s financial specialist
While we are owned by OSSTF/FEESO, today Educators Financial Group administers more than $650,000,000 in assets for over 19,000 active and retired clients across all OTF (Ontario Teachers’ Federation) affiliates. It is because of our strong relationships and longstanding history with all educators that we’ve earned the unique position as the education community’s financial specialist. Plus, with our lower investment fees, mortgage rates typically 1.5% lower than the banks*, and a top-notch portfolio of investments all managed by industry-leading experts, there’s no shortage of the financial solutions we can offer exclusively to educators and their families. Whether you need expert advice on pension income maximization, planning your 4 over 5, summer cash flow challenges, how to minimize tax on gratuities, or any other educator-specific topic – we can answer your question and, more importantly, help you to achieve your financial goals.
*Based on our comparison of Educators Best Rate Mortgage with the average of the big 5 Canadian banks’ posted rates for 5-year mortgages from October 2009 to October 2010.
