Gap Widens Between US Economy And Stock Market 

We have been showing the above chart on our weekly webinar (http://highrockcapital.ca/current-edition-of-the-weekly-webinar.html) for the last couple of weeks.

Today the US Commerce Department announced that  US Q1 GDP rose at an annualized meager 0.7%, well below the Q4 2016 number of 2.1%.

Basically, the slowdown was a result of reduced consumer spending. The consumer, as you all may recall, represent about 2/3 of the US economy.

They had been a confident bunch, with consumer confidence peaking in March, but that did not translate into spending in the 1st quarter. Consumer confidence slipped in April.

Economists widely believe that there will be an improvement in the 2nd quarter (and beyond), but that would only narrow the economy / stock market gap marginally. 

US stock valuations are running at about 20% above their 10 year average, something that hasn't been seen since the "dot-com bubble".

The benchmark All Country World Index (ACWI) that we use for measuring against our global equity performance consists of over 50% US equities, so all of this makes us a bit cautious.

There are plenty of positive emotions driving stock prices to their recent highs (known as the "Trump Trade") with all the promises (tax reform, deregulation and infrastructure spending) on the table. However the gap between when these promises are fulfilled and their eventual outcome (impact on the economy) are far from clear.

The longer it takes, the less confident the consumer may become.

Historically, shortly after consumer confidence peaks, a recession has ensued:

There are a great many moving parts to the current US and global economic outlook and this is just one, but it does give us pause.

When we look for value in the assets that we want to purchase, we try to identify risk, which is a very important aspect of the work that we do for our (High Rock) clients and ourselves (because we invest in the exact same assets as our clients).

If we see risk that we find unsuitable, we are comfortable remaining in a defensive posture towards investing (until risk moves lower and value returns). Cash and cash equivalent holdings are defensive assets.

When stock prices are at their highs, so is the risk that they will move lower in price. The gap between the US economy and stock prices tells us that risk is high (and value is low) in owning that particular asset class.

You don't always have to be "fully" invested. 

Click on the link for:

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Building Trust And Backing It Up

The Small Investor Protection Association (SIPA) put out a report titled Web of Deception just about the same time that we were putting the finishing touches on our Our Voluntary Code of Conduct for the Stewardship of Your Wealth

Which you can find on our website on the home page:

http://highrockcapital.ca/index.html

While we are only part of the 3% of financial advice givers who absolutely must put their client interests ahead of their own (see Paul's blog on Fiduciary Duty ( http://highrockcapital.ca/pauls-blog/standard-of-care-vs-fiduciary-dutya-significant-difference) because we are required to do so by law, we are not required to have an Independent Review Committee.

However we do so to provide our clients with the comfort that we are doing what we say we will do.

 Commit to having an Independent Review Committee (IRC) for complete transparency

In fact, we are the only portfolio management company in Canada (to the best of our knowledge) who manages client money on a Separately Managed Account (SMA) platform who does this.

Each quarter, with their portfolio summary and client note, our clients receive a letter from Wychcrest Compliance Services:

http://highrockcapital.ca/uploads/3/4/2/5/34254660/hrcmi_ircreview_1q17.pdf

In a nutshell, it informs clients that our policies and procedures are in order, that our Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) registration is in good standing (and providing our fiduciary responsibilities) and that there are no outstanding complaints against us.

More importantly, it states that:

We have also reviewed the accounts of the principals of High Rock Capital and can confirm that their personal investment accounts largely reflect the same securities as your accounts. 

In essence, it is a follow-up to our claim that we invest in the exact same models (and assets that are in those models) as our clients.

In other words, we are "eating our own cooking".

Even if your advisor tells you that her / his portfolio is 60% equities and 40% fixed income, will they tell you exactly what securities they own?

Reminds me of that scene from the Wizard of Oz when the truth is revealed:

"pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"

What an absolutely bang-on parallel to what SIPA has been reporting on and as a former investment advisor and branch manager, I have seen it all, first hand.

There is an alternative to the old style investing norms and we (at High Rock) are leading the way in building and maintaining trust with our clients through complete transparency.

Want to discuss this further and in more detail?

scott@highrockcapital.ca

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bianca@highrockcapital.ca

Focus Returns To Inflation, Trump Policy Among Others After French Election

Euro-risk has been significantly reduced with the outcome of the French election as it appears that the centrist candidate will become the next president. The French appear to have found the middle ground. What an idea!

So now focus will turn to Washington to see what will transpire with the budget, the wall, health care and tax reform, which is supposed to be announced this week. Also, avoiding a government shutdown (before Saturday) is on the agenda. We must also keep an eye on developments with North Korea, Russia, Syria and Afghanistan.

Behind the headlines:

Central banks (the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank meet this week to announce their latest policy decisions) will be focused on the latest developments in inflation, which for March saw some significant set-backs in the move towards their 2% targets.

In China, regulators have been trying to curb speculation by tightening rules on leverage trading. Chinese markets have dropped significantly in recent days as a result. 

At the same time, Emerging Market corporate debt in $US continues to pile up, which leaves another set of global economic vulnerabilities if interest rates rise and economic growth falters:

There is plenty of risk still to monitor and equity market prices that remain approximately 20% above their 10 year averages.

We shall discuss all of this and lots of other global economic, financial market and wealth management issues with our clients on our weekly webinar tomorrow. You can tune in to the recorded version at this link: High Rock Private Client Weekly Webinar at or about 5pm tomorrow.

Your "Real" Return

The latest Canadian Consumer Price index data (for March) has been released and I know that you will all be hurrying to your spreadsheets to determine what the actual increase in your cost of living is. Right?

If you dine out more than the average, tipple an adult beverage more than the average or drive more than the average, you likely have a higher cost of living than the average and that is an important factor to consider when you are forecasting your lifestyle costs into the future.

And it is not just what you consume, it is where you do your consuming:

If you are consuming in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Ontario and / or BC, it is costing you more than the average.

If you are getting an average annual return of 6% after fees and taxes on your investments and your cost of living is rising at 2%, your real return is 4%.

However, if your cost of living is increasing at 3% per year, then you are going to have (over time) a lower real return (3% average annual return) and when compounding this over 30 to 40 years, it will have a significant impact.

Just like the fees you pay for wealth and investment management. Do you know exactly what fees (including hidden MER fees) you pay? 

(for more discussion on fees, see our High Rock  Introductory Webinar)

It all adds up.

Furthermore, the Bank of Canada's core inflation data, where they look for trends in their specific measures of Consumer Prices:

 They are all well below the 2% lower band of their target, so those of you concerned about the cost of servicing your debt can be comfortable in knowing that the BOC will not be raising rates anytime soon. 

How Is Your Financial Plan Progressing?

One of the most fulfilling aspects of my job is the part where I get to review the progress of a client's Wealth Forecast with them (prepared every 6 months by our Certified Financial Planning Professional, CFP).

Yesterday we met with a couple who had planned to retire at 62 (currently they are 55 and we have been working together for over 12 years). Turns out that they might be able to change that goal and move it up a couple of years because they are nicely ahead of schedule. We will run a scenario for them to see if it is feasible. 

But how great to be able to have options!

When we create our Wealth Forecasts we stress that they are "working models" and need to be monitored, reviewed regularly and updated as is necessary.

Not only are they a planning tool for our clients (we can create "test" scenarios, based on a variety of assumptions and / or time horizons) but they are imperative for developing the appropriate portfolio strategy. 

These particular clients were definitely happy with average annual returns of over 8.5% (after fees) over the last 4 1/2 years (vs. our Benchmark at 5.6%) while our assumed average annual return (for forecasting purposes) was 5.5% (before fees and taxes).

But the most important question they asked: "what sort of risk do we have?". This is the type of question asked by a "steward" of their family's wealth (as opposed to the "gambler" who asks: "if the stock market is up 12%, why are my returns not up 12%").

First and foremost, there will be risk involved in attaining any growth levels better than you might get with Government of Canada 90 day T-bill (at or about 0.50% per year).

But we (at High Rock) are extremely aware of all the risk and work diligently to make sure that we are working to get the best possible risk-adjusted returns for our clients (return per unit of risk, see table below).

More importantly, we will never perform as does the "stock market" because there is too much risk in owning just one asset class. We want to have diversity across a number of different asset classes as a means to lowering risk. We also want to be selective as to what asset classes we are exposed to and when. At the moment, we (at High Rock) feel that stocks are over-priced and expensive (and have believed this for quite some time now), so we will own a reduced allocation to this asset class while we look for value in other asset classes (or wait for better value in the stock market).

The "stock market" (whether it is the S&P 500, the S&P TSX or the All Country World Index, ACWI ETF) has had better absolute returns, but has not been able to achieve the same return per unit of risk as our client portfolio (measured over the last 2 years). 

When stock markets turn lower (and they will), investors who have too much risk will feel a great deal more pain than those who have less risk.

These are the conversations that we love to have with our clients, because our relationships with them are intended to be long-term: throughout the duration of their lives.

It is why we put emphasis on strong and regular communication in our voluntary code of conduct: 

#4 Make ourselves available for ongoing reviews, updates and anything else you may want to discuss 

Do you have a plan and / or a strategy?

We are always happy to help...

scott@highrockcapital.ca

And, as a reminder....

Past returns are in no way a guarantee of future returns. However, at High Rock we work very hard for our clients (and ourselves) to get the very best risk adjusted returns as possible.

Whose Money Is It Anyway?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-s-deceptive-titles-put-investments-at-risk-1.4044702

It may be your money, but when a financial advisor / salesperson "gathers" your assets for their commission based remuneration (assets under their administration), they get a sense that they are now their assets and they are not going to want to see them leave (because there goes their revenue stream).

I wrote a blog back in November (http://highrockcapital.ca/scotts-blog/the-human-element) 

about a client who was fired by her advisor because she and her husband decided to buy a house against the advisor's advice (which meant taking a chunk of their savings away from his assets under administration on which he earned revenue of 1%). 

They bought the house over a year ago and the house that they bought was in Toronto. We know what prices in Toronto have done over the last year.

Needless to say, that particular advisor was not thinking of what the client wanted or needed, just his own bottom line.

A week or so ago, one of our High Rock clients decided that they wanted to build a strategy into their Wealth Forecast for the purchase of a vacation / retirement home in a warmer climate. So we did just that. They were a particularly astute couple and had done their homework and provided a spreadsheet of costs and potential rental revenues. We counseled them on the risks (currency conversion rates, interest rates, $US bank account, $US Visa card, possible tax and estate issues, etc.), but in the end after all the inspections were completed, it was a go!

We executed the $US purchase at the wholesale rate yesterday (they pay us a fee on the investments that we manage for them, so we do not take any additional points on foreign exchange transactions). At the time, their bank's website offered a conversion rate at approximately $12,000 more expensive than what we were able to get for them (one of the many benefits of working with an Asset Management firm).

A dream realized (at a reasonable cost)! And the $US is considerably higher today, so risk well managed as well.

Are those assets that we might otherwise have managed? Possibly, but that is not our purpose here. Our purpose is to help clients achieve their goals. If that means helping them utilize $ that we might otherwise have managed, then that is how it goes. It is, after all, their money.

From our voluntary code of conduct: 

#3  Respect that our client’s money is theirs to take whenever they wish (with no costs for moving money out of our care) 

So that is how it should work. 

There is an alternative to the old ways of doing things and we (at High Rock) are paving the way forward.

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bianca@highrockcapital.ca

Protectionist Policies Are The Big Risk For The Bank Of Canada Outlook

Not necessarily "fun" reading for the weekend, but if you are at all concerned about interest rates, what may likely happen next and why and when, (and whether to float or fix your mortgage or HELOC), you may want to have a peek at the latest Monetary Policy Report put out yesterday by the Bank of Canada.

You may note that the usually more upbeat report (for the last few years the Bank of Canada has issued somewhat more positive views than what has actually occurred) is not particularly so this time around: basically discounting recent economic improvements as temporary and painting a fairly cloudy and uncertain view of the future.

Most of that has got to do with the lack of certainty of US policy initiatives, but also the tendency to view the rise of protectionist policies as potentially economically disturbing:

"An increase in protectionist policies could, depending on their degree and extent, have a significant impact on the Canadian and global economies. The rapid pace of trade liberalization from the late 1980's to the early 2000's helped increase global economic growth."

"A notable global shift toward increased trade protectionism would pose a risk not only to short-run demand but also to long-run growth and prosperity. A move to a significantly less-integrated global economy could also involve a lengthy adjustment process and could require difficult reallocation of workers and resources across industries."

Needless to say, under these conditions it is hardly likely that the BOC is going to be raising interest rates any time soon.

Even if US interest rates are expected to go higher, don't necessarily expect Canadian rates to keep pace.

For our (High Rock) clients we have to consider all the risks (part of our diligence, deep research and discipline), which in some cases are not always obvious, especially when the "animal spirits" of optimism are forging ahead with emotion.

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bianca@highrockcapital.ca

Fees

Investors large and small deserve to be treated with respect.

 When the mutual fund management industry pays advisors to sell their funds, investors deserve to be told exactly what the costs are that they are bearing and what they are paying for.

Perhaps the advisor should also have to justify the portion of what he gets paid to sell that particular fund (known as the "trailer" fee) as well.

A fee-based advisor does not receive a trailer fee. The client will pay the firm that he works for a % of the total of the client's assets under administration (based on a preset %) and the firm will then pay a commission to the advisor (usually in the vicinity of 40-50%).

Nonetheless, as a client, you should still know what you are paying and exactly what you are paying for.

I just sat through a very interesting webinar with the Ontario Securities Commission folks about the Consultation on the Option of Discontinuing Embedded Commissions (CSA Consultation Paper 81-408). CSA is the Canadian Securities Administrators who are charged with coordinating regulation among the various provincial and territorial securities commissions.

The general premise is that what are known as MER's (or management expense ratios, i.e. the "embedded" or hidden cost of mutual fund fees) have inherent conflicts of interest when a portion of this is paid back (from the fund company who collects them) to the advisor who sold them in the first place.

The problem is that the advisor is not required to share this information up-front. It is usually buried in the prospectus or information memorandum or the tiny print on what is called a Fund Fact document.

Even ETF MER's are not required to be disclosed. If you have a "low cost" portfolio of ETF's you could easily be paying an additional 35-50 basis points or more on ETF MER's above and beyond your advisor's fee. Unless you do the background research, you may not know this at all, because your advisor is not required to tell you.

If you are working with an adviser (there is quite a difference between a  financial or investment advisor with no fiduciary responsibility and a licensed portfolio management company and advising representative or adviser, with fiduciary responsibility), all of this would have to be disclosed.

http://www.sipa.ca/library/SIPAsubmissions/500%20SIPA%20REPORT%20-%20Advisor%20Title%20Trickery%20October%202016.pdf

Key words in the above link: Title Trickery. It is worth a read.

We are adamant about disclosing all of our fees/costs to our High Rock clients.

But we are only in the category of 3% of advice givers required to provide that kind of transparency.

So the CSA is exploring the option of ending embedded fees because they have potential conflicts of interest. They have been doing so since 2012. The financial advice industry is fighting this. They claim that if investors knew the costs that they may not seek advice. They call that a potential "advice gap".

Well there is no "advice gap" at High Rock's Private Client Division:

You pay a fee of 1%. With that you get a financial plan (prepared by a CFP professional): your Wealth Forecast that shows you (with some general assumptions) what you can expect to save, grow and have for your future and your estate. You get some of the best portfolio management available (where we actually manage the money "in-house") that focuses on risk and long-term returns to compliment all of your financial goals that are revealed through your Wealth Forecast. You get regular monitoring of your progress and guidance with changes that may come about as time progresses.

You pay an additional 0.15% for the custodial (account maintenance and back-office) services and safety (Canadian Investor Protection Fund, CIPF) of Raymond James Correspondent Services.

You may pay between 0.05% and 0.10% in ETF MER's (as a percentage of your total portfolio), depending on the structure of your asset allocation.

Total cost = approx. 1.25%

As a comparison, the RBC Balanced A fund (with $5.2B under management) has an MER of 2.16%. And what do you get for that fee?

Just asking.

There is an alternative and we have been leading the financial industry in a different direction for two years:

http://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/high-rock-capital-management-leads-the-charge-on-fee-disclosure

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scott@highrockcapital.ca

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bianca@highrockcapital.ca

Truly Client First

When my High Rock partner, Paul and I first sat down to map out the strategy for our Private Client Division over two very short years ago, we were faced with a pretty significant undertaking: how, in a world of fairly skeptical  savers and investors, were we going to be able to turn enough heads to be able to show the world that we were going to do something that was different and better?

 I was challenged by not being a slick salesperson.  I don't have the stomach for rejection: "cold calling" was out of the question. Looking back at my past, I saw that all of my previous relationships were built on referrals and over a long time. Paul and I have extremely complimentary skill sets: he is a master financial analyst, with a great eye for value and I loved helping people to manage their financial risk. Between us we felt that we had a foundation of incredible strength to come up with a very strong offering indeed.

Surely there was a way to get noticed and lead the wealth management industry out of its current wilderness. Basically, the biggest conflict of interest of all: financial and investment advisor's who put their interests (their commission income and "book of business") first. 

There is lots of "lip service" paid to making clients feel important, but I have been on the other side, I have seen it first hand and it is far from putting the client first.

We built our website, we took to writing blogs (neither of us are "trained" writers, something that is definitely not in our respective set of skills, although we try) and we asked those that knew and trusted us to let others know what we were up to.

Somehow, we had to break through the automatic trust that is generated by the "big" 5 or 6 banks and other financial institutions (and their very hypnotic marketing efforts) to show that our desire was considerably more wholehearted and earnest.

We don't have the big $ to compete with those marketing efforts and if we did, we would rather use them to reduce our clients fees or spend more giving back to the communities that we live in.

When markets took a tumble in early 2016, we were overwhelmed with folks seeking us out, literally we could barely keep up with the number of new clients.

That was a huge compliment. That was trust. That we became the people to turn to when things looked a little scary.

The nature of our style of managing risk means that we will never out-perform when stock markets are on the big up-swing, but when they turn south, we and our clients will be well-protected. We know that recovering from a significant sell-off (and it will happen again) is a great deal easier when you are strategically prudent.

But that is what it means to put client's first. To truly care enough to not put them at significant risk or better than that, to take them out of harms way before it falls on us (usually unexpectedly). Yes, there is risk in every asset that has the potential to return better than 90 day Government of Canada treasury bills, but knowing how to manage that risk for the long-term is what really matters.

Not too many in the financial advice business care about that. They care about revenues and shareholders.

We care about people and families.

http://highrockcapital.ca/index.html

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Employment / Unemployment

In The US:

US Non-farm Payroll employment grew at a less than expected pace of 98,000 in March. And as I say about this data each month, it will be subject to possibly significant revision:

January data was revised lower by 22,000 and February (remember all the hoopla?) data was revised lower by 16,000. So as we like to do, to smooth out the monthly swings, look at the 12 month moving average (in pink) and it continues its decline from its peak in early 2015. US job growth is trending lower.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.5%: 

So there is no imminent concern about a US recession until the current rate moves above the 3 year moving average, currently at 5.3% (but falling rapidly).

Wages are not growing rapidly, which may give the Federal Reserve some pause to reflect:

Now, with consumer spending expected to slow further, GDP for the 1st quarter of 2017 is anticipated to come in at only a 0.6% rate of growth, way less than earlier expectations (See Paul's blog... http://highrockcapital.ca/pauls-blog/is-the-fed-making-a-policy-error )

Risks are rising.

In Canada, the number of employed rose by 19,000 (a bit more than expected) but as more people were looking for work, the unemployment rate inched higher to 6.7%.

We do not see any change in current Bank of Canada policy. So stay variable on your mortgage (or HELOC), it continues to cost less than fixed and longer dated maturities (based on bond yields) are lower than they were at the beginning of the year.

Feedback:

scott@highrockcapital.ca

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bianca@highrockcapital.ca

Responsibility to Clients

If you have not yet read the Small Investor Protection Association (SIPA) report: "Web of Deception"  http://www.sipa.ca/library/SIPAsubmissions/WEBofDECEPTION_2017.pdf  please take the time. It is such an important document and it will hopefully catapult the issue of fiduciary responsibility to the forefront. You definitely want to pass it on.

We started High Rock Capital Management's Private Client Division http://highrockcapital.ca/private-client-division.html to lead the industry forward as far as our responsibility to our clients is concerned.

To this day we still meet with prospective clients who are under the false impression that their advisor has to put their interests (as client's) first (ahead of their own, as advisors), when that is not the case.

As the "Web of Deception",  reports, only 3% of all licensed advisors do. So what are the odds that your advisor does not?

Needless to say, we (at High Rock) are always looking for ways to show how we are different. In January of this year, before the CBC GoPublic unveiled their reports and the SIPA report was released, we were busy working on a document that would help elevate our ethical approach to our clients (and show that we hold ourselves to a higher standard than most of the rest of the financial services industry), hence: 

Our Voluntary Code of Conduct for the Stewardship of Your Wealth, 

Which we have posted on the first page of our website http://highrockcapital.ca/index.html

All of our clients will receive this signed document (as an attached pdf) with the quarterly updates that they will be receiving over the course of the next week, but we are excited to share it with you today because it does truly reveal our desire to properly dedicate ourselves to the higher level of client care that we are espousing.

Enjoy!

Questions, Comments?

scott@highrockcapital.ca

Absolute Returns Or Risk-Adjusted Returns?

What stands out the most when you look at the slide above?

1 Year = 15.40%

Now who wouldn't want that return for their portfolio?

That is the absolute return or (total return) of the All Country World Index (ACWI) ETF for the 1 year period (according to Bloomberg TRA, daily basis). A broadly diversified index of global stocks, which is about 50% US equities, 8% Japanese equities, 7% UK equities and 3% each of Canada, China, France, Germany 

The next question you need to ask yourself is: what sort of risk am I prepared to take to get that return?

The 1 year period from March 31, 2015 to March 31, 2016 total return for ACWI was -4.28%.

That gives you a 2 year total return (Bloomberg TRA, March 31, 2015 to March 31, 2017 on a daily basis) of 5.09% and 5.11% on a monthly basis (table below).

The return per unit of risk (risk-adjusted return) over the 2 year period (table below) on a monthly basis was 1.09 times.

A "gambler" might look at the absolute return and say to himself: "I want some of that!!" And of course that is what drove retail investing in the first quarter of this year. "Gambler's" chasing returns, throwing caution to the wind.

A "steward" of his family's wealth, would be more circumspect and approach investing with a longer-term outlook and a more balanced portfolio with a fixed income component for safety (even though bond returns have been a little less than impactful over the last couple of years):

A "steward" of  his family's wealth who came to High Rock 2 years ago when we started our private client division would have experienced a balanced portfolio with a tactical option  that has had significantly less risk, but very strong returns per unit of risk taken:

Even compared to a "buy and hold" 60/40 portfolio over the same period, the actual High Rock private client portfolio (after adjusting for fees) outperformed on an absolute basis and on a risk-adjusted basis (return per unit of risk taken). Making the case for the tactical option in a portfolio.

If you want to gamble with your family's wealth, it is your money, do as you wish. If you want to invest to maximize your long-term growth and minimize the downside risk, you might wish to give our tactical option a thought or two, because it works.

We will discuss comparative returns, the global economy and financial markets on our weekly webinar with our clients today. We will post this webinar on our website at about 5pm EDT:

http://highrockcapital.ca/current-edition-of-the-weekly-webinar.html

An Absolute Must Read For Anyone With A Financial Advisor

http://www.sipa.ca/library/SIPAsubmissions/WEBofDECEPTION_2017.pdf

"This report is meant to provide an overview of some of the deceptive practices with concentration on the sales of investment products. The same practices prevail throughout the financial services from the up-selling of bank services and selling insurance products to the selling of securities that include shares and mutual funds".

It is almost the second anniversary of High Rock Capital Management Inc.'s Private Client Division (High Rock Capital Management was founded in 2010) which we established to provide families with a better alternative to that which was available to them from the mainstream bank and financial industry advice channel, because from our experience so many investors were being taken advantage of. 

I had seen this first-hand! And hence the birth of our Private Client Division as I left the "old-school" to help lead the next, more open and transparent chapter in financial services.

"In SIPA's report "Advisor Tiltle Trickery", there were 121,932 total registrants in Canada as of Sept. 16, 2016 in the investment industry. 4,076 person's or 3% of that total are legally registered in the category of Adviser or Adviser Representative. Only 3% are registered in the category where a true fiduciary professional relationship is legally required to be delivered to you as the investor."  

"All others are registered as Dealing Representative, i.e. salespersons who legally act as an agent of the dealer, and NOT firstly an agent of the investor. Client relationship rules currently allow this to be hidden from your view, and the investor is expected to be responsible for learning this. This bait and switch is a root cause of a great deal of harm being played out on nearly every Canadian investor."

High Rock is licensed by the Ontario (BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan) and as a Portfolio Management Company and an Adviser Representative which holds us to the higher responsibility of Fiduciary.

We do go above and beyond the required regulations with an Independent Review Committee (an outside compliance firm) who polices us as far as reporting back to clients on outstanding complaints (of which there are none) and any possible conflicts of interest as well as to ensure that our partner portfolios hold the exact same securities and same entry and exit points as our clients.  http://highrockcapital.ca/uploads/3/4/2/5/34254660/hrcmi_ircreview_december2016.pdf

To the best of our knowledge, we are the only portfolio manager in Canada, managing client money on an SMA basis who has this.

So my question to any of you who may be reading this:

Why would you choose to settle for the lesser quality advisor? It can't be the fee (our fees are as competitive, if not more so).

Our long-term performance is better than our benchmark average (and we take less risk to do so).

Obviously trust is a huge issue. Are you certain you are not misplacing your trust? Do you really know your advisor?

Ask the questions.

We are the alternative.

Feedback...

scott@highrockcapital.ca

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bianca@highrockcapital.ca