THANK YOU
I am very pleased to share that our team Marche Wealth Management has settled in at our new home, Wellington-Altus Private Wealth. Thank you for your trust and confidence in us as we’ve completed this transition.
Our move to Wellington-Altus puts us in a position to continue delivering superior results for our clients, and to continue delivering on our promise to them: Your life, uncomplicated.
We made this move to ensure we have the platform to continue serving your family and future generations for decades to come. With more than $50 billion in assets under administration, Wellington-Altus has been recognized as Canada’s top-rated investment dealer by the Brokerage Report Card for seven consecutive years.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
My role and time commitment to managing your wealth are unchanged. I remain the person directing, and ultimately responsible for, making trades, and for ensuring that you meet or exceed the goals set out in your financial plan, which we custom-designed for you. Our investing philosophy has not changed and will not change.
Our entire core team made the move with me—Matthew Wilcox, Tracy McClure and Elizabeth Yip—and Joy Loewen has returned to ensure that the transition is as seamless as possible for our clients.
The recent addition of Matthew Wilcox to our team is part of our commitment to serving your family for decades to come. Matthew is a wealth advisor and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and will soon hold the most prestigious and difficult-to-achieve wealth management designation: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
SAFETY OF ASSETS + INDEPENDENCE
At Wellington-Altus, our clients get the best of both worlds: truly independent and objective advice, with big bank safety. We have rock-solid financial stability with the security of a Schedule 1 bank. Our clients can invest with confidence, knowing that National Bank Independent Network (NBIN), a division of National Bank of Canada, ensures the safe custody of all assets and performs our back-office services.
ADVANCED WEALTH PLANNING
Investing is only one part of managing wealth. This is one of the reasons we particularly value the depth of Wellington-Altus’ Advanced Wealth Planning Group.
The AWP team helps our clients with everything from tax and estate planning to insurance, business planning, succession and cross-border issues. In other words, they help with many of the complex financial decisions that come with building, protecting and eventually passing on wealth.
They work closely with us, and with our clients’ accountants, lawyers and other professional advisors, to make sure all the pieces work together. For our clients, that means access to a deep bench of specialists when needed, while we remain at the centre of the relationship.
The objective is simple: make complicated financial decisions easier and help our clients keep more of what they’ve built.
OUTSTANDING CLIENT EXPERIENCE
Wellington-Altus embraces innovation, values the importance of investing in technology, and believes in having the best of what’s available for our clients. We have partnered with leading-edge providers to deliver best-in-class technology and platforms and have access to some of the best money management solutions in Canada.
A NEW FIRM THAT MEETS OUR VALUES
After almost 27 years at the big banks, it was time for a business where we could have direct input into the strategic direction of the firm, and the ability to communicate more effectively about all aspects of our clients’ wealth—including online access, enhanced reporting, and electronic trading summaries.
WHAT DOES NOT CHANGE
There is no need to move your bank account. Your banking relationship stays the same.
OUR INVESTING PHILOSOPHY
Here is a statement of our investing philosophy, which we have followed for many years and will continue to follow:
Our philosophy, founded on the principles of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, is to manage concentrated portfolios composed of quality businesses we want to own for many years. We believe this approach is designed to support long-term performance, improve after-tax returns, and keep costs to a minimum. We focus on owning companies that:
Our portfolios are not designed to replicate the market; instead, they are customized to each client. Above all, we focus on preservation of capital.
RECENT MARKET MOVEMENTS
All of our clients’ portfolios are up double digits this year, and our clients are running considerable surpluses in their financial plans. That said, our portfolios have experienced a decline over the past month or so that our clients are not accustomed to.
The primary cause is rising interest rates. As noted above, we own predominantly dividend-paying companies in our portfolios. Such companies have come under pressure because rising interest rates make interest-bearing investments more attractive relative to dividend-paying stocks.
Our view is that this situation is temporary. Despite the current volatility, we like our positioning: our portfolios are holding the most cash since the onset of Covid, precisely because we have been cautious to prepare for circumstances such as these, and so we can in fact take advantage of volatility. Therefore, if we see continued weakness in the prices of high-quality companies that meet our stringent investment criteria, we will employ cash to add to our portfolios.
We view this as a normal part of the market cycle and one we are ready to capitalize upon if the right opportunities present themselves.
MAKING MONEY FROM AI
For many years following the 2008 financial crisis, inflation and interest rates remained very low. Borrowing money was inexpensive. That is changing.
Increasingly, growth is coming from something much more tangible: governments and businesses spending enormous amounts of money on infrastructure, energy, manufacturing and technology.
Of particular relevance is a change in our point of view on companies that are investing heavily, especially in the area of AI.
Until now, investors have rewarded many of the companies building the infrastructure that AI needs to function. We believe attention will increasingly turn to the companies using AI, and whether they can lower costs, increase their productivity, provide better service—and most importantly to us as investors, turn those improvements into higher profits.
Over time, as we have said many times here in Marche Monthly, stock prices tend to follow earnings. And so, our focus is evolving from determining who is building AI to determining who can make money using it.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE
An important area of focus for Matthew at the moment is making sure that our clients’ accounts are easily accessible online. If you need any assistance with this, or with setting up customized consolidated reporting, please do not hesitate to contact Matthew at 416.446.5458, or matthew.wilcox@wellington-altus.ca.
Our mobile app is also temporarily unavailable. We will be in touch to let you know when it is back up and running. In the interim, it is very easy to access your accounts online through our website: www.marche-wealth.ca. The functionality is so user-friendly that it is comparable to the app. If you need any assistance at all with using it, please reach out to Matthew.
WE ARE HERE
If you have any questions at all about our move to Wellington-Altus, or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.
If you would like to do any further reading about our move, we have prepared the following PDFs (click on the links):
Why We Joined Wellington-Altus Private Wealth
Safety of Assets – Wellington-Altus Private Wealth
Awards Received – Wellington-Altus Private Wealth
Frequently Asked Questions – Wellington-Altus Private Wealth
Thank you again. Enjoy the last few days of summer!
We don’t speak jargon. We’re all about uncomplicating your life, so we speak plain English. If there is someone you care about – someone who would appreciate this simple and straightforward approach—please feel free to share this message with them or put us in touch.
Want to discuss any aspect of this month’s blog, or any other issue on your mind? Have a story idea? I am always happy to receive your call or email.
Tyler Marche, MBA, CIM, FCSI®, FMA
Your life, uncomplicated
tyler.marche@wellington-altus.ca
t: 416.446.5432
WHO WE ARE
Please note our new contact information:
Tyler Marche, MBA, CIM, FCSI®, FMA | Senior Wealth Advisor & Senior Portfolio Manager
t.416.446.5432
c.416.804.0550
tyler.marche@wellington-altus.ca
Matthew Wilcox, CPA | Associate
t.416.446.5458
matthew.wilcox@wellington-altus.ca
Tracy McClure, CPA, CFP® | Associate
t.416.446.5452
tracy.mcclure@wellington-altus.ca
Elizabeth Yip | Associate
t.416.446.5447
elizabeth.yip@wellington-altus.ca
Joy Loewen | Associate
t.416.593.2899