The Real Value of
Working With You

"David, remember March 2020? Your portfolio was down 32% in three weeks. You called me on a Sunday night and said, 'I need to get out — I can't sleep.' We talked for an hour. We reviewed your financial plan. We looked at your five-year timeline. You stayed invested. By December that year, your portfolio had fully recovered and then some. What would have happened if you'd sold at the bottom?"

"Lisa, I want to show you something that surprises almost everyone. Your brother Michael has the exact same investment mix as you — 60/40, same funds. But he holds his bonds inside his RRSP and his Canadian equities in his non-registered account. You currently hold it the other way around. Over 20 years, all else being equal, Michael will have roughly $70,000 to $100,000 more after tax than you do — simply because of where each asset sits, not what it is. That's what we mean by asset location, and it costs nothing to do properly."

"James, in Q4 last year when markets sold off, I proactively harvested $43,000 in losses from your non-registered account by selling three positions at a loss and immediately replacing them with highly similar — but not identical — funds. We stayed fully invested. We didn't miss any recovery. But those harvested losses will offset the $43,000 in capital gains you'll realize from your rental property sale this year. At your marginal rate, that saved you approximately $10,750 in capital gains tax — money that stays working for you, not the CRA."

"Patricia, when we built your portfolio in 2020, we agreed on a 60% equity / 40% fixed income mix. That matched your risk tolerance — you told me you couldn't stomach a drawdown of more than 25%. But look at this chart: by early 2022, without any rebalancing, your equity weighting had drifted to 79%. You were unknowingly taking on the risk profile of an aggressive investor. If markets had dropped 40% — as they almost did — you'd have been down $316,000 instead of $240,000. We rebalanced in January. That $76,000 difference is real money."

"Robert and Carol, let me walk you through what happens to your estate if we do nothing different. Your RRSPs — now worth $850,000 — are fully taxable on death as income to the last surviving spouse's estate. On the second death, at your marginal rate, Revenue Canada could receive $340,000+ of that as tax. Your non-registered portfolio of $600,000 has $180,000 in embedded capital gains. That's another $45,000 in tax. Without a plan, roughly $385,000 — more than 12% of your total estate — flows to the CRA rather than to your children. We have legitimate, legal strategies to address every one of these. But they only work if we plan for them now."

"Jennifer, you asked me a fair question last month: 'What am I actually paying you for?' Let's say you invested $1 million today and managed it yourself. History suggests the average investor underperforms by about 1.5–3% per year through a combination of behavioural mistakes, suboptimal tax decisions, and portfolio drift. At a conservative 2% gap: your self-managed portfolio might grow to about $2.65 million over 20 years. With our relationship — implementing the full suite of tax, rebalancing, and behavioural strategies — we're targeting 7–8% net of our fee. That grows to $3.87–4.66 million. The difference is $1.2 to $2 million. That's what I'm actually worth to you — not in theory, in math."