Weekly Strategy Perspectives: Craving Clarity

The Through Line: The thirst for certainty has reached fevered proportions, yet the very opposite may prevail for at least a few more months even after U.S. President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping tariffs on virtually all......

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Global Markets Commentary: The great rotation

Worried headlines were the order of the day during the first quarter of 2025. Words and deeds of the new U.S. administration produced many heavy hearts and unpleasant surprises......

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An Overview of Tax Policy Proposals for the Upcoming Federal Election

Following the recent announcement of a Federal Election on April 28, the Federal political party leaders have begun to outline their election platforms, including tax policy.  We have briefly summarized the tax policy announcements of the three......

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Weekly Strategy Perspectives: Guest Feature: AI Insights

The Through Line: The AI revolution is fast upon us, bringing an intense amount of change and opportunity. Such periods of transformation inevitably lead to a host of questions......

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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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The smart investor’s guide to reducing taxes and growing wealth

A smart tax plan doesn’t just maximize your registered accounts, it structures your finances in a way that optimizes every dollar you earn on the road to retirement – and beyond......

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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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Investment Strategy - March 2025

As we publish this report, some U.S. tariffs on Canada and Mexico have been postponed (again) until April 2. The nascent U.S.-instigated trade war is clearly negative for the entire North American economy as it increases inflation and lowers......

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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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3 reasons why HNW women may not be ready for retirement

For some, the ideal retirement involves annual scuba diving trips to Belize and golfing at the best courses around the world. For others, it’s staying close to home to spend more time with family or taking joy in sharing their wealth......

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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!