His book “The Border Guide: A Guide to Living, Working and Investing Across the Border,” is about to go into its 10th printing.  It’s been on Canadian best seller lists since its first edition.

Bob is president and co-founder of Keats, Connelly and Associates, the nation’s largest wealth-management firm specializing in cross-border issues.  It is based in Phoenix with offices in Florida and Michigan.  Keats was just appointed to the national Advisors Trust Company, a federally charted trust company.

The good life to him and his wife Barbara is living the past 15 years in Arcadia, the last 10 right on the Arizona Country Club golf course.

“He doesn’t worry about a tee time, he just finds an empty hole,” Barbara said of her husband who literally steps out their back door in the evening after work and takes to the greens.

Bob put it this way: “I get rid of all the stress of the day by hitting that stupid ball.”

Golf shoes, sandals and walking shoes are neatly stacked by the door for whatever mood strikes the family. 

“We, the children and dogs, walk the course a lot,” Barbara said.

Bob and Barbara are parents to Rebekah, Sarah, Daniel and Carl in a blended family.  They have been married for 18 years.

“His, hears and outs, and they’re all outs,” Barbara said of the clan.  The whole crew, along with grandsons Daniel and Colton are planning a family cruise to Alaska in July.

Their sense of family fits right into their appreciation of where they live.

:”I love Arcadia because it’s a community within a community, from Little League to high school to picnics.  You run into people you know in restaurants,” Barbara said.

It’s such a tight community that when Bob was playing golf during a church retreat and shooting the breeze with fellow players, he discovered the president of the Arcadia Little League was living in the house he and Barbara first owned in Arcadia before moving four blocks away.

“I thought he was joking,” Bob said.

Bob came to Scottsdale when he was transferred from his Calgary company.  In Canada, he already was helping U.S. citizens maneuver their way in a foreign country.

“When I got to Scottsdale I found I could be a greater help for Canadians than U.S. residents,” he said.

Bob started a “Sunbelt Canadians” newsletter in 1984, sharing his expertise in cross border issues.  In 1991 the Canadian Automobile Association, figuring it had the right market, approached Bob.

“They said, ‘if you write it, we’ll publish it,’” and so “The Border Guide” got started. 

“Weather is key” to why there are so many Canadians in Arizona, Bob said. 

“Here there’s sunshine, golf and it’s pretty easy to get here, just two nights by car,” he said.  “every place else you have to fly and rent a car.”

Canadians are active in the Valley through the Canada Arizona Business Council, and “when you talk to most Realtors, they say a third to half, and in some months 100 percent of the (home)buyers now are Canadian,” Bob said.  And these are cash deals. 

An annual Canada picnic in January attracts 500 to 2,500 participants.

On doing business in the U.S., “the big thing is, it is not the same,” Bob said.

He equates it to marriage and divorce.  “It’s easy to get married, but hard to get divorced.  There’s lots of paperwork.”

Barbara said her husband’s book is so popular because “it’s a layman’s tool to understand complicated issues.”

The 15 chapter titles may be a clue to the popularity of the book.  They include: “the Value of a Buck,” “The Taxman Cometh,” “You Still Can’t Take It With You,” “Doctor in the House” and “Take the Money and Run.”

Bob gives cross border workshops once a year in the Valley, Palm Springs and in Florida in Naples and West Palm Beach.

       
E-mail Tracy at: tracywerth@cox.net

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