2020 Business Review

What can be said about 2020… “The worst year ever” has been thrown around a lot, and for the marginalized, those sequestered in long-term cares, and those with young kids trapped inside the house, it certainly felt like it at times. As students of history, it was a thought-provoking year where we experienced first-hand the global unease that must have permeated civilizations following the many occurrences of the bubonic plague or particularly virulent strains of flu which caused death counts many orders of magnitude larger than we are experiencing today¹.

From our vantage point in Northern Ontario, the physical danger that CoViD-19 presented paled in comparison to the mental angst that the combination of social isolation and stranger-danger has embedded in our psyche. We feel a deep compassion for those who have had this experience magnified by a personal experience with the health effects of this disease.

Like many of you, the quarantine prompted deep reflections on the way we lead our lives and the quality of our relationships with those whom we spend most of our time. The optimist inside us hopes that the lessons learned during this period carry forward into the post-vaccine world, one in which people take the time to cultivate the friendships that matter to them and be more mindful of our individual impact on those around us.

On the business side, it truly felt like a tale of two cities. Those who were operating tech-savvy practices focused on risk-reduction and client communication seemed to thrive, while the larger, slower-moving companies had trouble adapting. For Innova Wealth, it was truly a banner year with the fastest growth we have ever experienced. Along with strong rates of return in client accounts, the volatile markets evidenced the strength of our alternative and tactical asset allocation strategies, resulting in a significant surge in new client introductions. We recognize how fortunate we are to share this success with you and appreciate your continued trust in our stewardship during these uncertain times.

Through the combination of this exceptional growth and the deep reflections that this year has bestowed upon us, we are introducing some structural changes to our business in hopes that we can continue to serve you better with an increased level of expertise.

Specifically, we will continue our transition toward business-wide planning campaigns, targeting one aspect of your profile per year and leveraging our team members to ensure that everyone’s planning needs are being met.

Below is an outline of our scheduled review campaigns for all client profiles:

In conjunction with your lead advisor, a review of your profile will determine if any action items are required to optimize your finances. Our team members may reach out to gather additional information as required.

This specialized team campaign approach will ensure that all accounts are looked over, while freeing up additional time for the advisors to focus on their investment management duties which, along with a substantial increase in the total amount of assets under management, have grown in complexity with the launch of our private pool. Combined, Innova Wealth advisors now share in excess of $280 million in assets under management, a truly remarkable figure.

To further improve on the quality and depth of our in-person client communication, we will be transitioning our investment update meetings to a more formalized quarterly, semi-annual, and annual schedule. Doing so will allow advisors to prepare a more in-depth analysis for clients and improve our ability to remain focused on the management of those dollars outside of these periods.

Of course, more condensed investment updates will be available to clients who require them outside of these periods as we remain available to you. We also hope to introduce a new client portal by the summer that will allow easier online access to portfolio summaries and easy-to-understand reports.

Further to this, we are pleased to announce the introduction of custom, self-directed socially responsible investing portfolios.  In recognition of our clients' evolving needs, as well as a potential market opportunity (Link), we have applied our investment guidelines to the 100 most ethically-responsible companies in the world to build a custom portfolio for interested clients.  To learn more about Socially-Responsible Investing, we invite you to listen to this short video (Link) or to speak with your advisor about including this in your portfolio.

Given the changes that CoViD has brought to our day-to-day operations, we intend to continue to provide you with monthly newsletters and deep-dive performance updates as follows:

We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and Thanks for your new client introductions as we view these as the greatest sign of your trust in our operation. We hope that you understand that along with our $500,000 new client investment minimum, we are instituting these constraints on our growth to ensure that we can continue to provide you, your family, friends, and co-workers with best-in-class products and service. We expect to be able to loosen this restriction in the future as we use 2021 as an opportunity to invest in systems, technology, and training while we continue to improve our best practices and office processes, before hiring more team members.

As we shift our business to allow for greater emphasis on the management of existing assets under administration, we will be restricting new client in-takes to three new families per quarter, per advisor. This will also be done a campaign basis to leverage efficiencies and ensure that all families receive the best client experience.

Throughout the next year, we will be introducing new recognition campaigns for these mutually beneficial introductions including donations to charities of your choice or preferred fees.

We look forward to discussing these exciting developments as well as many others with you as we look forward to an exciting year for Innova Wealth!

 

Sources
1.^[ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics

Disclaimer:

Aligned Capital Partners Inc.(ACPI) is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (www.iiroc.ca) and a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (www.cipf.ca). Investment products are provided through ACPI and include, but are not limited to, mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. Please contact Jean-François Démoré or Cliff Richardson, or visit https://invest.innovawealth.ca for additional information about the Innova Tactical Asset Fund. All non-securities related business conducted by Innova Wealth Partners is not as agent of ACPI. Non-securities related business includes, without limitation, fee-based financial planning services; estate and tax planning; tax return preparation services; advising in or selling any type of insurance product; any type of mortgage service. Accordingly, ACPI is not providing and does not supervise any of the above noted activities and you should not rely on ACPI for any review of any non-securities services provided by Jean-François Démoré or Cliff Richardson. 

Information has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable.  All opinions expressed are as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice.  Content is prepared for general circulation and has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it.  The information contained does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment fund, security or other product or service.  Past performance is not indicative of future performance, future returns are not guaranteed, and a loss of principal may occur.  Content may not be reproduced or copied by any means without the prior consent of the author and ACPI.  For current performance information, please contact Innova Wealth Management of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. Important information about the Fund is contained in the offering memorandum which should be read carefully before investing.