Category: Strategic Planning
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Paper Money vs Real Wealth
High income can be deceptive. It creates the appearance of abundance, stability, even financial success. But income alone is not wealth, and confusing the two can quietly undermine families for decades. And, create blind spots for the next generation, which may put their own financial future at risk. High Income Is Not the Same as
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Home Bias and Global Investing: Global vs. International Equities Explained
When investors talk about diversification, the terms global equities and international equities are often used carelessly. They are not the same thing. For Canadian and U.S. investors, understanding the distinction can materially improve clarity, discipline, and long-term results. What is the difference between global equities and international equities? And, why does it matter? Global Equities
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Stepping Into Family Wealth Stewardship: Next-Gen Challenges
Stepping into the role of “point person” for your family’s wealth and investments is both an honour and a burden. It can feel exciting and purposeful but also heavy and awkward. Many next-gen investors don’t plan to make this their full-time job, yet they still want to protect their family legacy, create alignment, and ensure
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Three Ways to Get Unbiased Financial Planning Advice Before Selling Your Business
When someone is preparing to sell a business, financial complexity tends to spike all at once. A future liquidity event collides with legacy obligations from a prior divorce, questions about lifestyle and cash flow, the need to update an estate plan, high stakes investment decisions, and a big tax bill. At that moment, the most
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How Canadian Family Foundations Manage Their Investment Portfolios
Across Canada, family foundations take many forms—from small, entrepreneur-led charities to large, multi-generational organizations with dedicated staff and professional advisors. How these foundations manage their investment portfolios can vary dramatically, depending on their size, history, and governance structure. Below are some of the most common approaches used by family foundations today, along with the strengths
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Family Office Checklist for Canadian Investors
Successful family office wealth management doesn’t depend on being the greatest investor. Optimizing for risk and return matters, but financial goals can often be achieved with plain-vanilla, liquid portfolios. The greater challenge for wealthy investors is succession. When families fail to prepare the next generation to take responsibility, no amount of hot stock tips will
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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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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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Income That’s Built to Last
Step 4 – Why Selling Assets Shouldn’t Be Your Income Plan When a portfolio needs to fund a lifestyle, many investors fall into a quiet trap: generating cash by selling off assets. On the surface, it seems harmless. And, it might even align with “total return investing”. But over time, drawing on your capital base can
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Restructuring Fees and Aligning Incentives
Step 3 – The Real Cost of Complexity When we conducted a full audit of the family’s portfolio, the most jaw-dropping figure wasn’t performance-related. It was the fees: $330,000 per year. And they weren’t even getting full value for it—until we began restructuring fees to reflect the actual value being delivered. That amount was spread