Our Philosophy

Our equity investment philosophy is rooted in a disciplined, patient investment approach that incorporates elements of value and growth investing. Our goal is to participate in up markets and protect capital when markets decline. Capital preservation is our overriding investment priority.

Ours is a patient investment approach with a long-term perspective. We invest in businesses, focusing on the fundamentals and valuations of these businesses rather than the daily ups and downs of the stock market. We look for great businesses that are good investments considering the economic cycle, and make meaningful investments in each of them.

Our Investment Approach:

  • We look for companies with a sustainable competitive advantage, a good balance sheet, and strong competent management.

  • We adhere to a rigorous research driven investment process. New investment ideas are primarily developed in house, formed by our own perspective on the capital markets and global economy. We look for investments that stand to benefit based on the current and future outlook on the global economy. 

    We focus on indicators of financial strength, various balance sheet considerations and intrinsic value calculations. The key indicator we focus on for our security selections is a combination of value and growth at a reasonable price.

  • Buy criteria: As a general principle, we want the share value of the businesses we own for our clients to be valued at a discount of their intrinsic value (what the company is actually worth). This criteria gives us a “margin of safety”, which is critical for a superior return on investment and to protect against downside risk.

    Sell criteria: The decision to sell a business is based on a number of factors, including: we believe the company is now fairly valued and no longer discounted to the market, or there has been a substantial change in the company’s business, or fundamental change in the company’s management philosophy.

  • We make investment decisions based on the long term prospects for specific businesses, not the short term fluctuations of the stock market.

Our Fixed Income Investments Philosophy

Our philosophy for managing fixed income is to generate income while preserving capital. We take a disciplined investment approach in order to add positive incremental gains over time. We begin by developing an overall view of the economy and the state of the capital markets, and then determine how this view is reflected in the bond market. We continually monitor the risk in the portfolio, and adjust our holdings in line with the changing investment outlook.

In our view fixed income (bonds, or preferred shares) is a key component to a well diversified portfolio.

The three key reasons to own Fixed Income:

  1. To provide a stable stream of income. 

    Fixed Income contributes to an investor’s cash flow requirement.

  2. To reduce portfolio volatility

    Fixed Income helps to offset the price fluctuations in the equity component of an investment portfolio. Generally, fixed income provides stability and lower overall volatility in an investor’s portfolio.

  3. To preserve capital

    Fixed Income often performs well when equities experience a downturn. Owning fixed income therefore helps to stabilize returns and protect capital during periods of weakness in the market.

Our Investment Approach:

  • Rising interest rates adversely affect the price of fixed income, and lowering interest rates will enhance the value of fixed income. Where the state of the economy is in relation to rising or lowering interest rates will determine the length of period (duration) of the fixed income we purchase for our clients, thus decreasing the exposure to interest rate risk.

  • We can invest in corporate issued preferred shares. And we also invest in federal, provincial and corporate bonds.

  • We focus on high quality issuers of investment grade debt.