Author: Caliya Connor
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Debating the Unique Role DAFs in Canadian Philanthropy
Donor advised funds (“DAFs”) are one of the fastest-growing charitable structures in Canada. For good reason! They provide donors with a strategic vehicle for their philanthropy and create the opportunity to enhance charitable giving. Billions of dollars are flowing into DAFs, with foundations holding DAFs now representing a major portion of annual giving. But, with
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Are You Paying Too Much for Investment Advice?
When it comes to investment advice, many wealthy families are paying far more than they realize. The standard model of charging a percentage of assets under management (AUM) seems innocent enough. But hides conflicts of interest. Since, the bigger your account grows, the more expensive it gets. And, not with a proportional increase in value
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Beyond the 5% Hurdle: How Wealthy Families Can Benchmark More Effectively
Benchmarking is one of the trickiest parts of portfolio reporting for wealthy families. While it might seem straightforward at first to compare performance against a benchmark. Some benchmarks are obvious such as the S&P 500 for US stocks. Other simple hurdles like CPI plus 4% or a fixed 5% return don’t offer a fair comparison
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Separating Facts from Opinions in Wealth Management
Making biased free financial decisions is challenging. As investors, we’re forced to confront our own emotions each time we make decisions. And, biases crop up and quietly work against us. Overconfidence, anchoring, and confirmation biases are some of the powerful forces that can cloud our judgment and lead to costly financial mistakes. To safeguard against
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Beyond Returns: Aligning Wealth With Values
When families think about their investments, they often focus on financial returns alone. But for many families today, that isn’t enough. They want their wealth to reflect their values, to become a force for good in the world. Not just a way to grow capital. Recently, we thought about a family in this situation, and
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Active Returns, Benchmarks, and the Truth About Performance
Many investors describe their portfolio performance in raw returns, like, “my portfolio made 15% last year” or “my portfolio gained $300,000”. While such statements may be true, they don’t tell us the whole story. And cannot tell us whether results have been good or bad. Since, what if the average return was 20% compared to
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Family Governance: The Missing Link Between Wealth and Legacy
For many families, the challenge isn’t just how to grow wealth. It’s how to make it last. Generational wealth is often lost not because of poor investment decisions, but because of a lack of structure, clarity, and shared understanding. This is where family governance comes in. Yet despite growing interest, most families still ask a
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Stop Paying More for Less: Why Pension Funds Underperform their Benchmarks
OMERS recently announced its mid-year investment results: a 2.2 % return in the first half of 2025 (Financial Post; OMERS update). The press release emphasizes “a challenging market” and “resilient performance” but let’s be honest: if your retirement savings grew only 2.2 % while simple index funds were delivering far better, you’d probably be disappointed.
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Stage 1: Getting Started with a New Family
When a new family begins working with us, we know that the first stage of onboarding sets the tone for everything that follows. It’s not just about transferring data it’s about building trust, creating clarity, and laying the groundwork for a long-term partnership. At this beginning stage, we will be turning complexity into something manageable,
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Investing Through Discomfort
Why Emotional Fortitude Matters Now More Than Ever Despite a growing list of global concerns such as geopolitical tension, trade uncertainty, and an uneasy economic backdrop, the S&P 500 has reached new all-time highs. For many investors, this feels hard to reconcile. How can markets be so strong when the headlines sound so fragile? This