I help incorporated business owners with two things: investing the money their corporation keeps, and insuring the business and the people behind it, from corporate-owned life insurance to group benefits. I have worked in this field since 2004, and independently since 2008.
Most of my clients own a Canadian-controlled private corporation, often with a holding company, and keep more in it than the business needs. I work in English and French, mostly by video call, with owners in the Montréal and Toronto areas and across both provinces. Insurance is available in both provinces; mutual funds, for now, in Québec only.
Being independent means I can compare a wide range of options for you. On the investment side, that means mutual funds from a large variety of fund families across Canada, plus segregated funds. On the insurance side, it means 14 Canadian insurers, including all the large ones and almost all the mid-sized ones. I recommend what fits your situation, not one company's shelf.
What I help with
Corporate investing. Investing the surplus inside your corporation with tax in mind: keeping passive income from eating into the small business deduction, choosing investments that are taxed lightly inside a corporation, and coordinating what you hold in the corporation with what you hold personally. Mutual funds are offered through WhiteHaven Securities Inc., currently to clients in Québec only. Segregated funds, which are insurance contracts, are offered through iAssure Inc.
Corporate-owned life insurance. Funding the tax your estate will owe at death, moving money out of the corporation tax-free through the capital dividend account, funding a buy-sell agreement between partners, protecting the business against the loss of a key person, and reviewing policies you already own.
Where the two meet. Whether a dollar of surplus belongs in an investment account or in a permanent policy changes the tax your corporation pays every year and the tax your estate pays at the end. Seeing both sides, and projecting which choice leaves your family better off over the long term, is why I hold both licences.
Group benefits. Group insurance for you and your employees, and group retirement plans such as a group RRSP or a DPSP.
Why independence matters on a corporate file
Investment managers with a long record of consistent results after fees, whose results are also tax-efficient inside a corporation, are hard to find when an advisor works for a single investment company. Independence gives me access to the choice corporate owners need.
The same goes for insurance. A corporate policy can take decades of premiums, so small differences in price, guarantees and how an insurer has treated its policyholders add up to large sums. I can quote most of the Canadian market for a given product the same day. On a corporate case I compare every insurer that offers the right design before recommending one, and my investment recommendations come from a fund review I run twice a year. The method is on how I compare investment funds and insurers.
For more on the difference this makes, see banks versus independent advisors for corporate investing.
How I work
My role is to show you how today's choices play out for your business and your family 10, 20 and 30 years from now. Nobody can predict everything, but we can set priorities with the whole picture in view.
Education comes first. My job is to help you understand your options, not to decide for you. Every recommendation comes in writing, with the reasons, the trade-offs and the cost.
I work alongside your accountant, lawyer and notary. I don't prepare tax returns, draft legal documents or give tax opinions. When a question belongs to them, I say so and bring them in. The steps, from the first call to the yearly review, are on what to expect when you work with me.
Background
Before this field I sold two small businesses at a profit and worked in corporate lending, first as a credit risk analyst and then as a director. I became an advisor in 2004 with one of Canada's large advisory firms and went independent in 2008, building referral partnerships with accountants, mortgage brokers and real estate agents.
I recruited and mentored new advisors and ran an agency until I sold it in 2020. Since then I have worked on my own, focused on incorporated business owners and the questions their corporations raise.
If something happens to me
I have no plans to retire, and I intend to keep doing this work. Still, a one-person practice should say in writing what happens if the advisor can no longer work.
I have a continuity agreement with another licensed advisor: younger than me, very knowledgeable, and someone who shares my values and my long-term approach to clients. If I could no longer serve your file, he would take it over. Your mutual fund account is held with WhiteHaven Securities Inc., not with me personally.
How I am paid
I don't charge for advice: not for the first call, the review or the written summary, and not for any conversation after that. When you buy an insurance policy, the insurer pays me a commission. When you invest in mutual funds through a client name account, part of the fund's management fee is paid to WhiteHaven Securities Inc., which passes part of it to me; in a nominee account, WhiteHaven Securities Inc. charges an annual fee agreed with you and passes part of it to me. Segregated funds are insurance contracts, so for those the insurer pays me.
Every recommendation has to pass one test: is it what serves you best? How I am paid, and how I handle conflicts of interest, is set out on the compensation page so you can judge that for yourself. Fee-based accounts, and what each option costs in dollars, are on how advisor fees work.
Licences and registration
In Québec, I am registered with the Autorité des marchés financiers (certificate no. 160460):
- Conseiller en sécurité financière / Financial Security Advisor (insurance of persons), on behalf of iAssure Inc.
- Conseiller en assurance et rentes collectives / Group Insurance and Group Annuity Plans Advisor (group insurance of persons), on behalf of iAssure Inc.
- Représentant de courtier (Épargne collective) / Dealing Representative (Mutual Fund Dealer), on behalf of WhiteHaven Securities Inc.
For insurance, I am a member of the Chambre de l'assurance.
In Ontario, I am licensed by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) as a Life Insurance and Accident and Sickness Insurance Agent (licence no. 15142710).
You can check each of these yourself in the AMF register, with FSRA, and for mutual funds in the CSA's National Registration Search.
Insurance products and certain other services are provided through iAssure Inc., an independent firm in the insurance of persons and in the group insurance of persons. These activities are neither the business nor the responsibility of WhiteHaven Securities Inc.