Sascha Isaacs of Richardson Wealth family office: career path to VP
Isaacs is vice-president and portfolio manager at Richardson’s Family Office Wealth Counsel, for clients with $25 million-plus in assets
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Sascha Isaacs joined Richardson Wealth Ltd. in 2021 as vice-president and portfolio manager in its Family Office Wealth Counsel, the Private Family Office’s investment arm for clients who have more than $25 million of assets.
With only 15 per cent of financial advisors in Canada being women, according to Sun Life Global Investments, Isaacs is a rare female leader in this space. This is important, as women’s share of wealth assets is expected to double by 2028, Sun Life says.
Isaacs hails from CI Financial and was in capital markets before turning to wealth management as an investment counsellor for ultra-high-net-worth families for well over a decade.
Here, Isaacs describes the route she took to bring together her investment and wealth management experience to Richardson Wealth’s Private Family Office.
What decisions about education did you make as you developed your career?
“Initially, I was interested in becoming an accountant, and my undergrad was focused there. However, as I neared my final year, I developed a deep interest for investment management.
After graduation, I was not certain exactly what area in the financial industry interested me most, but my first role at a wealth management firm provided me with a good overview of the industry and I decided to pursue the CFA charter, to develop my skills in investment strategy and money management.
Upon completion of the charter, I changed roles within the organization and moved into high-net-worth wealth management. A well-rounded wealth management education was important to me, in order to provide a holistic approach to the families I worked with, so I decided to pursue the CFP designation and become insurance licensed.
During the pandemic, I found myself with free time, as I was not travelling for work, and completed the CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst) designation to improve my knowledge in the large and growing alternative space.
A solid formal education is core to anyone wanting to be successful in this field as it represents your commitment to the profession and demonstrates your technical training. Furthermore, having a well-rounded educational foundation has been core to my success in wealth management.
I have always been very purposeful with my education decisions; every designation I pursued was for a clear and defined purpose. However, I recognized early that there are limitations with formal educational programs, and that experience was equally, if not more important.
I actively sought out hands-on learning experiences. I have been fortunate to work with very smart and talented professionals who were generous with their time. I remained curious, pored through our clients’ tax returns, wills, structuring memos, anything I could get my hands on, and I asked lots of questions.
Because I was focused on high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients, the issues they faced were complex, so I had the opportunity to widen my breath of knowledge.
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I am also an avid student of history and human behavior in my spare time, which have been fundamental to my success as a capital allocator.”
What roles have you moved through in your career?
“After my undergrad, I joined Assante Wealth Management/CI Investments and spent 16 years at the firm, in various roles.
I initially worked at the dealership, in business development, supporting advisors in their own growth. I transitioned to fund operations, where I was responsible for managing currency hedges across multiple funds.
This was an inflection point in my career where I had to decide if I wanted a career as a fund manager or in wealth management.
I realized that what really made me tick was the ability to help real people, to see all parts of a problem and solve it, to be witness to the impact I had on families. I took on a role as an investment counsellor in our private client division and spent 10 years working with high-net-worth families.
It was here that I was able to develop my skills in wealth management. My experience allowed me to work with a wide range of clients, from farmers to business owners, executives, retirees, and families with generational wealth. I was very fortunate to be part of a large organization with diverse opportunities within the financial industry, where my career growth was supported and invested in.
In 2021, through one of my mentors, I was introduced to Richardson Wealth and explored an opportunity to join their Private Family Office in a leadership capacity. The role spoke to me because it was an opportunity to provide a bespoke, high-touch experience to a small number of affluent families.”
What made you choose to go in the wealth management direction?
“Wealth management is not all about money, it’s about people, it’s understanding who they are, what they want to achieve, what they want their legacies to be, what’s important to them and helping them get there, with confidence.
My gratification comes from helping families navigate their financial lives, simplifying complex situations, and helping them make sound decisions. I have always promoted a multidisciplinary team-based approach to wealth management, with subject matter experts working closely together for one common objective.
While my expertise lies in laying out the investment strategy for our clients, understanding that it is but a component of a larger plan is crucial to success.”
What is the portfolio management landscape like now post-COVID?
“The pandemic accelerated our acceptance and use of technology in our everyday lives. We leapt forward several years from this perspective relatively quickly, because we were forced to adapt. Now that we are on the other side of the pandemic, we are witnessing the unwinding of years of loose monetary policy. Gone is the era of low inflation and low cost of capital. Strategies that worked in the last cycle won’t work for the next.”
What are things specific to female clients that are important to focus on?
“Much has been covered surrounding the transition of wealth from baby boomers to the next generation. However, there are a few reasons why it’s important to focus on women. Shifting demographics result in an aging population, and as their husbands pass, wealth will be inherited by the surviving spouse, and women typically outlive men.
Aside from these shifting demographics, younger affluent women want to have more control of their finances, compared to the older generation. Women approach their investments differently; wealth advisors must embrace the human side of finance if they want to be successful with this segment of the market.”
What advice do you have for younger women in this field?
“Embrace your femininity. What makes us successful wealth managers are precisely those female qualities of empathy, compassion- humanizing wealth management.
Seek out mentors and sponsors. I have been fortunate to have had incredible mentors, sponsors and leaders along the way, who have helped shape the way I approached investment strategy, wealth management and my career ambitions.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Growth only happens when we move outside our comfort zone.
When I was in my 20s, pursuing a career in the financial industry, and wanting to have a family as well, someone told me, I can’t have it all.
We can have it all, but we need to reframe what ‘having it all’ means. I’ve had to miss some of my kids’ concerts, and I haven’t been able to have dinner with my family every night. I’ve left work early to attend parent-teacher interviews and I’ve skipped work events because of family obligations – and that’s all ok.
Having said that, women are an integral part of the future of finance and leaders in the industry need to do more to encourage women to enter and stay in the industry.”
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
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