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Direct equity portfolios become practical at approximately $500,000 in investable assets. This threshold allows us to build a properly diversified portfolio of 20–30 individual securities across sectors and geographies without any single position becoming oversized. Direct bond ladders — where you own individual bonds maturing at staggered intervals — become efficient at roughly $250,000.

That said, we assess the full family balance sheet rather than individual accounts in isolation. A client with $350K in a TFSA, $600K in an RRSP, and $1.2M in a corporate investment account has $2.15M in aggregate assets under our management umbrella. More than sufficient for a fully customized direct strategy.

Does your situation fall outside these ranges? Call us at (205) 866-8829. We've built creative solutions for clients at various stages — including our Builder's Blueprint program for wealth in the $250K–$500K accumulation phase. The answer may surprise you.

We charge a transparent, fee-only advisory fee: 0.25%–0.75% annually, tiered by portfolio size. The fee is deducted quarterly from your account and appears on your statement in plain language. That's it.

No trailing commissions. No embedded fund MERs. No performance fees. No transaction charges for rebalancing. No surprise invoices.

On a $2M mandate, typical all-in cost: $7,000–$12,000 per year. Compare that to the $40,000+ you'd pay inside a standard Canadian mutual fund structure — where roughly 2.0%–2.3% in annual fees are silently deducted before your return is calculated. Over a decade, that gap compounds into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our Fee Autopsy shows you the exact number for your portfolio.

Real-world examples: see our case studies documenting annual savings of $28,000–$94,800 for actual client families.

A portfolio you understand is a portfolio you hold. That principle — central to our entire process — is what separates direct investing from the opaque fund structures most Canadians own.

During the March 2020 COVID correction, the average Savard Qtrade client portfolio drawdown was 16.3% vs. 21.7% for the S&P/TSX Composite. Our fixed-income ladders continued generating predictable cash flow throughout the volatility. By September 2020, 94% of client portfolios had fully recovered.

Not a single client made a panic liquidation during that period. When you can see every holding, understand why it's there, and know exactly what income it generates, clarity replaces fear. We also proactively reach out during periods of market stress — you'll hear from us before you need to call.

No. Absolutely not.

Marc-Antoine Savard, CFA, and Priya Chandrasekaran, CFA, conduct all fundamental research and security selection. They analyse financial statements, evaluate management teams, assess competitive moats, and build positions based on rigorous valuation criteria developed over 16+ years of practice.

Your role is strategic — you participate in high-level decisions about risk tolerance, income needs, tax considerations, and long-term goals. You see every trade in real time through your portfolio dashboard. You'll always know what you own and why.

"Direct investing" means you own the securities directly — in your name, in your account, at your custodian. It does not mean you manage them alone. Think of it as the difference between renting an apartment in a building you've never seen and owning a home where you hold the deed.

We insist on it. Owner-operators typically have complex structures — holding companies, family trusts, shareholder agreements, succession plans — and investment decisions don't exist in a vacuum. Proper coordination between your CPA, your corporate lawyer, and your portfolio manager is how you avoid expensive blind spots.

In practice, this means we regularly participate in joint planning calls, share tax-lot reports for year-end optimization, and coordinate distribution timing with your accountant to minimize combined personal and corporate tax liability. Roughly 80% of our client families have a professional advisory team we collaborate with directly.

If you don't yet have a strong advisory team, we maintain a referral network of accountants and lawyers across the industries we serve who understand owner-operator complexity.

This is more common than you'd think — and it's not a dealbreaker. We build a phased transition plan that minimizes or eliminates redemption penalties.

Many DSC schedules decline over time (typically 5–7 years from purchase), and a portion of your holdings may already be past the penalty window. In other cases, the ongoing cost of staying inside the high-MER fund exceeds the one-time exit fee. Our Fee Autopsy calculates both scenarios so you can make the decision with full information.

We've transitioned over 60 families out of legacy fund structures since 2009. The process is methodical, tax-aware, and never rushed. See how it's worked for others.