Category: Reporting
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The Case for Investment Transparency in Philanthropy
Investments often represent the majority of a foundation’s assets, yet they remain one of the least visible parts of how philanthropic capital is governed. While grant making is typically well documented and publicly shared. Investment decisions, such as who makes them, how they’re made, and what they aim to achieve, are often opaque. This gap
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What Canada’s 2025 MFO Survey Really Reveals About “Family Offices”
The newly released Canadian Family Offices Multi-Family Office Landscape 2025 report provides a clear view into what Canadian Multi-Family Offices (“MFOs”) actually look like; who they serve, how they charge, and how they operate. But beneath the numbers lies a deeper story about what is and is not a true family office. Two findings stand
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The 9 Most Common Asset Classes Used by Canadian Investors
Investors in Canada rely on a core set of asset classes to create balanced, resilient portfolios. Each asset class behaves differently—its volatility, expected returns, and correlation patterns shape how it contributes to long-term wealth. Clear understanding of these characteristics, along with the benchmarks that represent each category, helps families build simple, enduring investment policies. 1.
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Active Returns: More Than a Simple Calculation
Active return is one of the most important measurements investors should make with their portfolios. And a full understanding of active return can provide powerful insights into how your investments are performing. Many investors often compare their portfolio’s performance to a benchmark. Like, an index or composite that represents the market or strategy they’re making.
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Would You Rather Build a Complex Tech System or Simply Hire Another Admin?
As family offices grow, the volume of data grows with them. More accounts, more private assets, more custodians, and more reporting requirements. At some point, every wealth-holder or family office faces a pivotal question: Would you rather embark on an overwhelming new tech project with a long onboarding process that nobody on your team is
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Understanding What You Really Pay: Helping Investors See the Whole Picture
When investors divide their wealth among several advisors, it often becomes difficult to get a clear picture of how much they’re really paying in fees. That was the situation for one of our client’s holding companies, which had split approximately $100 million across three investment advisors — each responsible for a “low,” “medium,” or “high”
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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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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