Weekly Strategy Perspectives: What Could Go Right?

The Through Line: The door to the globe’s worry closet has been flung wide open this year, with a broad array of challenges spilling out. Just a few of the many monsters loosed from the closet to keep us up at night: tit‑for‑tat trade wars......

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Weekly Strategy Perspectives: Global Policy Pivots – Transitory or Enduring?

The Through Line: While meant for moving objects, Newton’s first law applies to trends as well – and President Donald Trump clearly qualifies as the outside force prompting pivots in a wide swath of global trade, security and political alliances......

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Stock market selloff – tariffs and then some

Equity markets in both the U.S. and Canada are being rattled by a combination of tariffs and, at least in the case of the U.S., convergent factors including DOGE cuts and softening economic data......

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Weekly Strategy Perspectives: Breathe

The Through Line: Our natural wiring prompts us toward a desire for instant (and all-too-often hyper emotional) reaction to breaking news......

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Global Markets Commentary: Tariff Tantrum

On March 3, U.S. President Donald Trump followed through with the implementation of a slate of tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, marking the start of a North American trade war. Canada fired back with retaliatory tariffs......

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Trade War – ACT II

Following days of uncertainty and mixed messages, both from other Cabinet members and from the President himself, President Trump confirmed that 25% tariffs on imports from......

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Weekly Strategy Perspectives: When the only way out is through

The Through Line: The old adage that suggests “when one door closes, another opens” is really only half the story. Significant transformation is rarely as easy as moving seamlessly from one chapter to the next - more often, we must traverse......

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Weekly Strategy Perspectives: Nauseously Optimistic

The Through Line: Companies have navigated a mind-numbing blitz of challenges over the last decade, learning to dodge and weave adeptly......

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Weekly Strategy Perspectives: Tuning into the 10-Year

The Through Line: Equity markets are often the first place investors look for hints as to how a breaking news item will be perceived. Yet bond markets can serve as a more insightful gauge to measure an event’s potential......

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Weekly Strategy Perspectives: The Fundamentals are Fine

The Through Line: Although the year is still in its infancy, markets have already been confronted with several volatility-inducing macro surprises. Determining if or how the developments will bend the fundamental arc of industry or economic......

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Retirement Planning Calculator Tool

This Retirement calculator will allow you to input assumptions to generate a retirement illustration and a tool for estimating income in retirement.  This self-input calculator tool will provide a good high level summary while we would develop a more comprehensive tax optimized plan for our clients using our access to a more detailed and sophisticated planning software when we meet.  Enjoy!

https://www.bmo.com/financial-calculators/retirement-savings/

 

Portfolio

To Preserve & Protect Your Legacy

Managing the Health of Your Wealth by Building Smarter Portfolios

 

We believe the greatest opportunity for clients to achieve their investment objectives and to realize optimal risk-adjusted returns is by using a well-constructed portfolio combining active, passive and alternative strategies allocated to meet their unique needs. Given all of these factors, we believe portfolio construction efforts should focus on seeking a balance between growth potential and downside protection. This means being sensitive to stock valuations, ensuring wide-ranging diversification and focusing on income.
 



In its broadest sense, diversification means exposure to a variety of asset classes that have historically had lower correlations to each other.  For many investors, this could mean adding real estate, international exposure and alternative strategies (such as long-short, absolute return, and market neutral mandates) to their portfolios.

Our Portfolio construct provides adequate and prudent diversification to global equity markets and fixed income, while incorporating an allocation to Absolute Return managers. 

Please contact us to learn more about our portfolio construct and historical performance.
 

Why Select a CFA

Why Choose a CFA?

The Case for Passive VS Active US Equity

Historically, the US equity market as represented by the S&P 500 Index, has been extremely difficult to beat!  In the past 15 years, less than 3% of Active Managers have been able to Outperform the Index. 

The S&P 500 is highly efficient, liquid, and does not suffer from high single security concentration risk (ie. like the TSX Index has in Canada in the past with Nortel, RIM, Valeant, and Shopify today). 

Please click here to see the latest SPIVA research on how difficult it is to outperform the S&P 500 US equity index.  This is why our core strategy for US equity market exposure is a Passive US Equity allocation incorporating low cost Index ETFs.

Benefits of Alternatives

With markets at all-time highs, volatility at multi-year lows, high equity market valuations and general political and economic uncertainty, investors have a desire to protect capital and earn a competitive return. Absolute Return Strategies are often utilized by High Net Worth families to Enhance Returns & Add Downside Protection to complement Traditional Portfolio Asset Exposures.

Click here to discover the Power & Benefits of Adding Alternatives to your Portfolio!