What’s the word at the top? It’s always good to know what the CEOs are thinking.
Over the past year, Canadian Family Offices has interviewed seven executives at multi-family offices. Where are they investing? What do their clients want? And what do they foresee for the months to come?
Here they are, in no particular order.
Michael Grondin: From third-gen entrepreneur to family office CEO
Michael Grondin spent more than two decades as a portfolio manager at financial institutions including RBC Wealth Management and Merrill Lynch, where he created his own wealth management team at the tender age of 26. Today he is president and CEO of Samara, a multi-family office in Montreal.
“I’m a third-generation entrepreneur, and all our partners and stakeholders are or have been entrepreneurs. So we can all relate to the importance of helping other entrepreneurial families prosper while using their wealth to leave a legacy and make a meaningful difference in our society.”
In our conversation, Grondin unpacks Samara’s core values and how they help to ensure family continuity across generations.
Grayhawk’s co-CEO Peter Mann: wealth, investing and family challenges
Multi-family offices have a tough mandate. As co-CEO of Grayhawk Wealth, Peter Mann has come to learn that it’s not just about delivering consistency and building trust in all aspects of the business, but handling the added layer of complication that wealth and intergenerational issues can add.
In our interview, Mann delves into the firm’s investing and industry outlook and his clients’ top concerns.
Back in 1995, pioneer Marvin J. Schmidt handpicked his first family office team
Marvin J. Schmidt came early to the family office business. The founder and principal of The Schmidt Investment Group and senior wealth advisor at CIBC Private Wealth in Edmonton chose his family office team back in 1995. At that point, the investing world cared little for financial planning, and family offices were in their infancy in Canada.
He would go on to build his firm into an altruistic, client-centric practice with a focus on philanthropy. “I grew up learning how to have a servant heart. It’s a big part of why I got into the business,” he says.
In our interview, he talks about being the son of a minister and a schoolteacher, how the wealth management business has changed, and how his firm builds a school in honour of every one of its new clients.
‘What it takes to be best’: Kash Pashootan’s keen focus drives $4 billion firm
Today, Pashootan applies his passion for learning to uncovering investment opportunities as founder and CEO at First Avenue Investment Counsel, with offices in Toronto and Ottawa. The firm’s alternative offerings extend to residential real estate and private equity, and today the company oversees more than $4 billion in assets.
“Anything I’ve done, I’ve thought big,” Pashootan says in our Q&A interview.
Tasso Lagios of Richter family office: two decades’ experience
Tasso Lagios, managing partner at Richter, has been working with some of Canada’s wealthiest families for more than two decades. In that time, he’s seen different iterations of family offices, the areas where many excel and the areas where they need to ask for help.
In our interview, he gives Canadian Family Offices readers a glimpse into his experience, as well as his insight on the challenges he sees for the country’s high-net-worth families. He also talks about building portfolios and working closely with multi-generational business families.
Elke Rubach aims at younger, early-stage-wealth segment of family office market
“The families we serve tend to be less affluent. In terms of multi-family offices, there’s a massive gap between firms that serve young professionals and business owners with $5 million to $10 million, and those that serve the ultra-wealthy,” she says. “You shouldn’t have to be a massive name to have access to a family office.”
Intending to stay in Canada for a short time, Mexico-born Rubach started as a lawyer at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. One year stretched into two, and then into eight when she was hired by the Bank of Nova Scotia.
In our interview, she talks about common mistakes made by wealthy families, the value of candid conversations with clients, and the challenges and opportunities ahead for Canada’s wealthy – but not extremely wealthy – families.
Arthur Salzer’s secret sauce: Private investment from the start
Arthur Salzer was 22 when he realized he wanted to help family enterprises. Today he is founder and CEO of Northland Wealth Management, a multi-family office in Oakville, Ont.
In between, he spent time studying the family office market in the U.S. and analyzing the top 20 firms. “I wanted to bring what’s best in class to Canadian families.”
And that meant looking at alternative investments – private equity, private real estate, private credit. “We’ve been investing in that almost since the inception of the firm. We were one of the first private investors in Shopify when it was valued at $70 million. We became one of the first multi-family offices in the world to invest in Bitcoin in the spring of 2019.”
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