Thane Stenner on return to Canada, new podcast and how families are investing now
Family offices in Canada are doing well at ‘closing the gap’ with their U.S. brethren, he says
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If you haven’t heard of Thane Stenner, you likely haven’t been paying much attention to the upper echelons of Canada’s wealth management industry.
The founder of Tiger21 in Canada — a high-net-worth investor peer network — is one of the nation’s most sought-after wealth managers, whose clients’ net worth ranges from $25 million to $2.5 billion. His team, now with Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management in Vancouver, was ranked No. 6 in Canada by Wealth Professional for 2022.
Stenner also launched Smart Wealth last year, now among the most popular podcasts on BNN/Bloomberg.
Stenner recently spoke with Canadian Family Offices about industry trends and how Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs think about wealth.
You recently returned to Vancouver to join Canaccord Genuity after working for Morgan Stanley in California. How did working in the U.S. shape how you manage wealth, and what led you back to Canada?
“A few years ago Morgan Stanley recruited me and my business partner, moving to Palo Alto and then San Francisco. Obviously, the tech ecosystem there is pretty remarkable. It’s also very competitive, and I feel it sharpened my saw as an adviser. The analogy I would give is it’s CFL up here and NFL down there – bigger, faster, stronger, and more legalistic.
“But I was born and raised in Vancouver and have family here. With COVID, I felt like it was a good time to come back. And Morgan Stanley had a relationship with Canaccord Genuity that made it a natural fit.”
You are a veteran adviser to family offices. How have the services you provide evolved over time?
“Out of our 45 clients in Canada, half are family offices, so it’s an area we deal with daily. The Canadian marketplace may be a little behind the U.S. in its evolution and development. But Canadian family offices are closing the gap, accessing more tools and research than ever. So we now provide a lot more services, too. These include investment management, due diligence on third-party investments, and access to global research, over 50 different sources.
“Additionally, we provide performance reporting from an overall global aggregated basis. So it’s not just their investments with us, but all their investments, to give that big picture.
“There also is a shift to economies of scale, combining forces as multi-family offices. Or at least a lot of single-family offices have moved to smaller staffs and outsourcing versus everything in-house with a bloated payroll. They cherry-pick professionals and, in many ways, it’s a smarter business model.”
You recently launched your podcast Smart Wealth. What does it offer listeners?
“I am really trying to draw out nuggets about what has made these guests successful. Generally, I know these people — many are clients — so I am able to go a little bit deeper. They also know I am not going to be a jerk and embarrass them. But I do want to get real with them sharing what they can.
Out of our 45 clients in Canada, half are family offices, so it’s an area we deal with daily.
Thane Stenner
“For example, my third guest was John Ruffolo, founder of Maverix Private Equity. This guy is basically the venture capital king in Canada, but 18 months ago he was in a serious cycling accident where a semi-truck hit him, and he is basically paralyzed from the waist down. I asked him in advance whether there were any no-fly zones I should avoid, and he said, ‘No, ask anything you want.’
“If I can draw out some interesting insight, maybe that helps others running family offices, and so far feedback has been really strong.”
What are some of the challenges and concerns these individuals have about wealth today?
“There is a sense of isolation in what they do and who they are. That’s one reason I started Tiger21 in Canada years ago. It is not easy talking about dilemmas and challenges they’re dealing with, for example, with their friend from high school, who might go, ‘Really, like really?’
“But the reality is they’re trying to grapple with things and be good stewards and do the best job possible. So while there is that isolation factor, there is another key element – they’re constantly wanting to learn.”
What are family office clients’ investment interests today?
“Portfolios used to be only stocks, bonds and cash. Yet they’re more cautious about public markets today than likely ever, dialing back risk. Where we’ve made a lot of money for clients in the last six years is in the pre-IPO — the private to public area — offering access to companies that are going public in the next three years. Their wealth ends up opening up more doors for them, with alternative and private investments a growing focus.
“Another is co-investing, which used to be something pension plans did. But a lot of family offices or super wealthy entrepreneurs are what we call ‘insti-viduals.’ They are institutional in nature because of the wealth they have. That said, tax efficiency is a top concern lately because the number one cost of managing wealth isn’t fees, it’s taxes. So they’re constantly looking for strategies to legally minimize those costs.”
Is it just about preserving wealth for the next generation, or is there more to it than that?
“People after COVID are feeling a little bit more mortal, so they’re looking at their estate plans. They are thinking about what comes next. They’re pretty passionate about their families and about philanthropy.
“So in the podcast with Michael Lee Chin, CEO of Portland Holdings Inc., he talked about the notion of doing well and doing good – a growing theme among all clients.
“The fact we were recognized with an award from the Charitable Impact Foundation recently is a result of our clients donating more than $80 million last year. So while there are some people who are really wealthy who, quite candidly, have some nastiness to them, our clients aren’t that way. They have some pretty big hearts.”
Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.