Jessica Durka
CIM

My Background

With more than 20 years of experience helping people achieve financial confidence and understanding, Jessica Durka co-leads Neil & Durka Wealth Advisory Group in the heart of Norfolk County. Born and raised on a farm in Waterford, Jessica helps farmers and families to navigate unfamiliar financial considerations and retire supported by a steady stream of tax-efficient income and her team’s trademark wraparound wealth care.

Jessica will ask the right questions and listen carefully to your worries, priorities and goals, help map out your path and create strategies and solutions that put you at ease about your future. Many of her clients are renting out their land, nearing retirement and have children who don’t want to farm. She helps them decide how to sell, maximize capital gains exemptions, structure their farms advantageously, and build income-generating portfolios to replace rental income. Jessica collaborates with a network of inhouse partners to set up clients’ estates to benefit valued loved ones instead of the CRA, provide corporate executorship, and streamline the transition after death to keep all family members around the dinner table. She can also navigate trust strategies to protect families, especially those with special needs.

Jessica joined BMO Financial Group in 2005, graduated from Sir Sandford Fleming College in Business Financial Planning and holds the Chartered Investment Manager (CIM^®) designation, a Life Insurance licence with BMO Estate Insurance Advisory Services, and certificates in Portfolio Management Techniques and Advanced Investment Advice from the Canadian Securities Institute.

A long-time cancer survivor, Jessica has contributed significantly to health services in the region. She is Vice Chair of the Board for Hamilton Health Science Foundation, serves on the Finance and Governance Committees, and is past Chair of the Fundraising and Gift Planning Service Committees. Jessica founded South Coast Community Caring for Cancer, which has delivered 1,300+ men’s and women’s cancer care bags as well as mastectomy pillows to bring patients comfort and support. Having raised $250,000 selling pumpkins in Waterford on the roadside for Hamilton Health Sciences’ Juravinski Cancer Centre, she is known locally as “The Pumpkin Lady.” She was proudly named Citizen of the Year at the Simcoe and District Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Achievement Awards 2022.

Jessica resides on a 10-acre riverside property near Port Dover. Her personal passions include gardening, raising heirloom chickens, cycling, walking, and soaking up the natural beauty of Norfolk County with her husband.