Category: Uncategorized
-
Building Wealth Is One Skill. Investing It Is Another.
The best investors I’ve known personally have generally been long-term buy-and-hold investors. They hold investments they understand, accept how markets will be uncomfortable occasionally, and give their capital time to compound. They also have something that can be surprisingly difficult to maintain: a clear sense of what their capital is for. This observation has shaped…
-
Successful Payments Should Begin Before the Money Moves
A family can have substantial wealth and still struggle to make payments. Cash is often spread across banks, investment accounts, holding companies, trusts, and family members. Upcoming obligations may be scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and conversations. The person who knows what needs to happen may be travelling when a payment comes due. All this friction…
-
Climate-Aligned Investing Roadblocks, and Potential Fixes
A family can care deeply about climate change, fund environmental charities, and still struggle to bring those same priorities into its investment portfolio. In our family office work, we see the gap between interest and action. Families may genuinely want their investments to reflect their values. Yet even approving an initial review of what they…
-
Why Our Private Fund Returns Differ from a Fund Manager’s Statements
You receive a statement from a private equity fund, then review your consolidated family office report. Both show a rate of return for the same investment, but the numbers differ. Does that mean someone has made a mistake? Not necessarily. Performance depends on which cash flows are included, when they’re recorded, what valuation is used,…
-
AI Can Generate a Family Office Report, Is It Good Enough?
I recently came across an interesting example of an AI-generated family office report. And, I think it’s pretty cool to see how AI can generate consolidated financial reports in the same class as the incumbent software providers (at a fraction of their cost). This development also demonstrates how quickly the reporting landscape is changing, and…
-
Skills That Build Wealth Can Sabotage Its Preservation
The qualities that help an entrepreneur build wealth are often easy to admire. Initiative, confidence, persistence, decisiveness, and a willingness to take calculated risks can turn an idea into a successful enterprise. Entrepreneurs learn to solve problems quickly, operate with incomplete information, challenge conventional thinking, and assume responsibility when outcomes are uncertain. These qualities are…
-
How We Help Founders with Newfound Liquidity
Many entrepreneurs spend decades building a business or a real estate portfolio. Their expertise is deep, practical, and hard-earned. But when the day finally comes to sell, whether it’s a company, a commercial property, or an entire real estate portfolio, something changes overnight. Instead of operational decisions, you now become the steward of a large…
-
Growing Up Wealthy: Learning to Spend with Intention
Growing up around wealth profoundly shapes how spending feels. For many heirs and wealthy adult inheritors, spending what others earn in a year during a single month doesn’t register as reckless or indulgent, it simply feels normal. When high spending is modeled from an early age, it becomes the default setting, not a conscious choice.…
-
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…
-
Are Market-Neutral Funds a Good Investment?
Should a market-neutral fund be part of your investment portfolio? The answer depends on your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and portfolio management style. But, while most investors should avoid market-neutral funds, others may think that market-neutral funds are a good way to achieve the best risk to return trade-off. This post will discuss some theoretical…