What Hidden Fees Won't Tell You About Your Portfolio

What you receive: A custom portfolio of individually held public equities — visible by name, share count, cost basis, and current value on your real-time dashboard. Every security registered in your name. No pooled fund wrappers, no commingled vehicles, no opaque structures. You own Royal Bank shares, not "units" in a fund that happens to hold Royal Bank.

How we build it: Our proprietary Operator Alignment Score evaluates companies on 14 criteria: insider ownership levels, capital allocation discipline, dividend track record, balance sheet conservatism, governance quality, free cash flow consistency, return on invested capital, competitive moat durability, regulatory risk exposure, management tenure, payout sustainability, debt-to-equity ratios, sector cyclicality, and ESG material risk factors. We select companies that mirror the financial discipline our clients practice in their own businesses.

Portfolios hold 18–30 positions with sector-level diversification constraints. Concentration is intentional — not accidental. Each position is sized based on conviction level, volatility profile, and correlation to existing holdings. We rebalance quarterly, or opportunistically when market dislocations create entry points.

Wondering if you need to pick the stocks yourself? You don't. Marc-Antoine Savard, CFA, and Priya Chandrasekaran, CFA, conduct all research and selection. You participate in strategic decisions — such as whether to tilt toward income generation or capital appreciation — while they handle security-level analysis and execution. See how this worked for a $4.2M manufacturing portfolio in our case studies.

Explore Direct Equity Solutions

What you receive: A custom bond and GIC ladder with precise cash flow schedules aligned to your business cycle, succession timeline, or capital expenditure plan. Every instrument held individually — no bond fund intermediaries skimming basis points. You hold the actual Government of Canada bond, not a unit in a fund that might sell it at a loss before maturity.

How we build it: Individual laddering across federal, provincial, and investment-grade corporate issuers. Spans 1–10 years with semi-annual or annual maturities. T+1 settlement cycle on all trades. Each rung calibrated to your specific liquidity requirements — whether that's quarterly equipment lease payments, annual property tax installments, or a planned expansion in year three.

We source bonds through institutional-grade desks, accessing inventory most retail investors never see. Credit quality floors are established during your strategy design session — typically A-rated or higher for the core ladder, with selective BBB exposure for yield enhancement in shorter maturities.

Concerned about bond complexity? Each ladder comes with a one-page maturity schedule. Cash flows are mapped to your calendar — month by month, rung by rung. You know exactly when every dollar arrives. No surprises. No duration risk buried in a 200-page fund prospectus.

Discuss Your Income Needs

What you receive: Corporate capital deployed into a direct mandate matched to your time horizon — passive income, acquisition funding, estate planning, or owner retirement. Every asset held in your corporation's name. Full transparency for your accountant, your lawyer, and your board minutes.

How we build it: We audit your corporate structure, assess surplus capital's purpose, and construct a direct investment mandate tailored to those objectives. Capital Dividend Account (CDA) optimization is integral to every corporate deployment — ensuring that the tax-free portion of capital gains flows through to shareholders efficiently, often saving $15,000–$40,000 on a $1M+ surplus over a five-year period.

For operating companies, we maintain strict separation between working capital and investment capital. We establish minimum cash reserves based on your trailing 12-month operating expenses before deploying a single dollar. For holding companies with no operating expenses, the full surplus is available for mandate construction.

Worried about locking up capital you might need? We build liquidity into every corporate mandate. Maturities align with your cash flow calendar. Operating capital is never at risk. If you need $200K for a warehouse expansion in month eight, that $200K sits in a GIC maturing in month seven — not in an equity position subject to market timing. Our case studies demonstrate exactly how this works across multiple industries.

Assess Your Corporate Surplus

What you receive: Minimized aggregate tax drag through strategic asset placement across account types — RRSP, TFSA, corporate, non-registered. The savings are quantified in real dollars on your annual report, not buried in footnotes. Every year, you see exactly how much tax-location strategy preserved compared to a naïve allocation.

How we build it: U.S. dividend-paying equities inside RRSPs (Canada-U.S. treaty exemption from 15% withholding tax). Canadian eligible dividend-payers inside corporate accounts (generating Capital Dividend Account credits). Interest-bearing instruments inside TFSAs (sheltering the highest-taxed income type). Growth-oriented equities in non-registered accounts (deferring gains until realized, then taxed at preferential capital gains rates).

Daniel Fournier, CPA, CA — 12 years at KPMG — architects every structure. He models three scenarios for each client: current placement, optimal placement, and the dollar difference between them. The average client recovers $18,000–$32,000 in year one simply by relocating existing holdings across account types — without changing a single security.

Think your accountant handles this? Most accountants excel at tax compliance — filing returns, managing instalments, ensuring CRA deadlines are met. Investment tax location is a distinct discipline. Knowing that a U.S. REIT inside an RRSP avoids withholding tax, but the same REIT inside a TFSA does not, requires cross-border tax treaty knowledge that falls outside standard accounting practice. We work alongside your accountant — not instead of them.

Calculate Your Tax Savings

What you receive: A line-item report showing every dollar you pay annually — Management Expense Ratios (MERs), trailing commissions paid to your advisor, trading expense ratios, deferred sales charge (DSC) penalties, performance fees, swap fees, and foreign exchange markups. Your trade confirmations and account statements deconstructed into plain language. No jargon. No percentages disguising the real cost.

How we build it: We deconstruct your existing portfolio fund by fund. Every mutual fund, ETF, and segregated fund is broken into its component costs. Then we design a phased transition plan that minimizes tax consequences — harvesting losses where available, staging dispositions across tax years to manage capital gains exposure, and avoiding DSC redemption penalties by timing exits to your maturity schedule.

This diagnostic is complimentary. The report is yours regardless of whether you proceed. It's the first step in our six-step process, and over 70% of prospects who complete it choose to move forward — because the numbers speak for themselves.

Skeptical of the savings? The average Canadian mutual fund charges ~2.0% MER. On $2M, that's $40,000/year — often completely invisible on your quarterly statement. Your advisor receives a trailing commission (typically 1.0%) embedded inside that MER, meaning you never see a bill, never approve a payment, and never question the cost. Our all-in cost on $2M: $7,000–$12,000. See the math in the comparison below, or explore real client results.

Request Your Free Fee Autopsy

What you receive: Investment structures that support estate freezes, prescribed-rate loans, and family trust allocation — every asset held directly for complete transparency. Independent risk assessment reports for each generational sleeve. Annual performance reporting broken down by trust, by beneficiary, by account type — so every family member understands exactly where they stand.

How we build it: We collaborate with your legal and accounting professionals to design structures where investment assets support the transfer mechanics. For estate freezes, we construct the investment mandate for the new common shares — typically growth-oriented, since the freeze locks the current value on preferred shares. For prescribed-rate loans, we ensure the investment portfolio generates returns exceeding the CRA prescribed rate, making the strategy net-positive after loan interest.

Family trusts receive their own investment policy statement, tailored to the trust's purpose and the beneficiaries' time horizons. A trust benefiting minor children receives a different mandate than one designed to fund a spouse's retirement income. Annual reports document each trust sleeve's performance independently — critical for trustee accountability and CRA compliance.

Already have an estate lawyer? Good. We work alongside them — and alongside your accountant. Investment strategy and estate law are complementary disciplines, not redundant ones. Our role is ensuring the investment assets inside your structures are working as hard as the structures themselves. Schedule a conversation to discuss your family's situation.

Plan Your Legacy

What you receive: A portfolio calibrated to replace business income upon exit — accounting for sale proceeds, earnout payments, consulting retainers, and the psychological shift from operator to investor. Not a generic retirement calculator. A living model that updates quarterly as your exit timeline evolves.

How we build it: We model three scenarios: early exit (sale within 12–18 months), staged exit (gradual reduction of ownership over 3–5 years), and retained minority ownership (ongoing dividend income from a minority stake). Each scenario generates a direct-hold portfolio with defined income targets, liquidity constraints, and tax-optimized withdrawal sequences.

For owner-operators accustomed to $300,000–$800,000 in annual business income, the transition to portfolio-generated income requires careful sequencing. We map CPP/OAS start dates, RRIF conversion timing, corporate dividend scheduling, and personal withdrawal needs into a unified cash flow plan. The goal: no income gaps, no unnecessary tax spikes, and no reliance on selling assets during market downturns.

Worried about the "lumpy" nature of business sale proceeds? That's precisely what this service addresses. A $5M sale that closes in three tranches over 18 months requires different portfolio construction than a clean $5M wire on day one. We design for irregular cash flows — because that's what business exits actually look like. No cookie-cutter withdrawal rates. Read how we structured this for a retiring contractor who sold his firm in stages.

Model Your Exit

What you receive: A custom portfolio dashboard displaying holdings, cost basis, market value, unrealized gains/losses, income received year-to-date, sector allocation, geographic exposure, and risk metrics — all in plain language. Consolidated across every account type: RRSP, TFSA, corporate, non-registered, trust. Better than any 40-page custodian PDF you've ever received.

How we build it: Built in-house by James Whitfield, FRM. Updated in real time via secure API connections to our custodian. Trade confirmations, account statements, dividend receipts, and maturity notifications consolidated into a single, readable interface. Accessible from any device — desktop, tablet, or phone.

Every quarterly review meeting begins with this dashboard on screen. We walk through performance attribution (what drove returns), income tracking (dividends and coupons received versus projected), and forward-looking adjustments. You'll receive a PDF summary after every meeting, archived in your dashboard for permanent reference.

Used to opaque quarterly statements filled with benchmark comparisons you didn't choose and footnotes you can't decipher? Those are over. You'll review your portfolio with the same clarity you review your own P&L. Log in to see how it works.

See a Demo

What you receive: Informed, confident participation in your own wealth management. The ability to read your dashboard, understand dividend yields versus total return, evaluate a bond's yield-to-maturity, and question any recommendation with clarity. Not passive acceptance — active understanding.

How we build it: Three one-on-one sessions (60–90 minutes each), conducted in person at our Mississauga office or via video conference. Session one covers equity ownership — what it means to own shares, how dividends work, what drives stock prices, and why we select the companies we do. Session two covers fixed income — how bonds function, what coupon rates and yield-to-maturity mean, how credit ratings work, and why laddering matters. Session three covers portfolio-level concepts — diversification (what it means and doesn't), how fees compound over decades, how to read your dashboard, and how to evaluate our quarterly recommendations.

We also cover practical market mechanics: how NYSE and TSX exchanges operate, what the T+1 settlement cycle means for your cash, and how trade execution works behind the scenes. No jargon. Every concept illustrated with examples from your actual portfolio.

Feel like investing isn't your area of expertise? That's exactly the point of this program. You built a successful business without an MBA — you can understand your portfolio without a CFA. Our Insights library provides ongoing education between sessions.

Start Learning

What you receive: A structured, multi-year program transforming successors into informed stewards of family wealth. Not theory — tangible participation with real assets, real decisions, and real consequences. The goal isn't to make your children portfolio managers. It's to ensure they can evaluate advice, ask the right questions, and preserve what you built.

How we build it: Successors (typically ages 16–35) attend quarterly family portfolio reviews. We create age-appropriate education modules — younger participants learn the basics of ownership and compounding; older participants learn about tax structures, estate mechanics, and governance. Each successor receives a "stewardship sleeve" within the family portfolio — a dedicated allocation they help manage under our guidance.

The stewardship sleeve is real money, not a simulation. If your 22-year-old wants to add a technology company, we research it together, discuss the thesis, evaluate the risks, and make the decision collaboratively. If it underperforms, we debrief why. If it outperforms, we discuss whether to trim or hold. The lessons compound faster when the stakes are real.

Worried your children won't care about financial details? We've found the opposite. When they manage a real sleeve with real consequences — and when the numbers are theirs, not hypothetical — engagement follows naturally. The families we serve across manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services consistently report that this program transforms dinner-table conversations about money.

Invest in Your Family's Future