Kevin Press
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Editorial Director of Investment Executive and Advisor.ca
Articles by Kevin Press
A new age of economic warfare
Investors who’ve treated geopolitical risk as a relatively short-term threat to capital markets have often been rewarded for their patience. Dario Caldara and Matteo Iacoviello built an index in 2018 that helps illustrate how abruptly tensions can rise and fall. In both the 20th and 21st centuries, markets have often recovered from geopolitical shocks, even as the conflicts continued. Generations of advisors have discouraged clients from making long-term bets based on short-lived crises.
Will Canadians’ faith in mutual funds survive total cost reporting?
A couple of weeks back, Noushin Ziafati reported that Canadian-domiciled mutual funds recorded $298 million in net redemptions in September. The previous month, those same funds recorded $4.7 billion in net sales, marking the 16th consecutive month in which purchases exceeded redemptions, according to the Securities and Investment Management Association (SIMA). Mutual fund assets under management fell $15.6 billion, to $2.8 trillion. That second number matters most.
The ‘Wild West’ of incapacity planning
The Alzheimer Society of Canada has estimated that roughly 772,000 Canadians were living with dementia last year. That figure represents a nearly 30% increase over its 2020 estimate of 597,000. By 2030, the figure is projected to top 990,000. Dementia is not an inevitable consequence of aging, but that is its strongest risk factor. Again, according to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, seniors 80 and older are six times more likely to receive a diagnosis than those 65–79.
Dear Client, fixed income is back
Shifts in the fixed income market can be difficult to explain to clients. Bonds are more complicated than stocks, and changes in yields can be good news for some investors and bad news for others. The selloff we’ve seen this year hasn’t helped. Coverage has been largely negative (including here), which can add to investor anxiety. The reality is more nuanced, of course.
Where will the next generation of advisors come from?
Last week’s column generated discussion both here and on LinkedIn. The need to attract young people to the industry isn’t yet a hot button, but it’s getting warmer as do-it-yourself options gain market share and agentic AI takes hold across the wealth management industry. That second point is increasingly consequential, but not because the new technology threatens to take human beings out of the financial advice business.
Too many financial planners look like me, and that’s not good
It may have taken five hours and change to fly to this month’s Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, but I felt right at home when I got there. White guys this side of 50 aren’t difficult to find at a wealth management conference, here or in the U.S. One of the best conversations I had at the event was with Daniel Fernandes, an adjunct professor of financial planning at York University in Toronto and FP Canada’s director of post-secondary engagement.
Direct indexing slow to catch on in Canada
Better than 5,000 wealth management industry participants arrived in Huntington Beach, California this week for the Future Proof Festival. No word yet on Canadian attendance, but if Q Wealth Partners’ fifth annual Canadian Lounge was any indication, the sun-drenched event topped last year’s estimate of 300. It was good to talk shop (rather than politics) with American friends and colleagues. The event served as a well-timed reminder of how much we share in common.
9/11 + 25 - Investment Executive
We lost 24 Canadians in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Remarkably, 16 of them worked in the financial services industry. Aon Corp. and Cantor Fitzgerald both lost multiple Canadian employees. Everyone has their own story of the day. James Langton was working on an Investment Executive assignment when he caught sight of CNBC’s coverage. Michelle Schriver was at home with her two young children, maintaining their routine no matter how the news weighed on her.
Has Washington broken the bond market?
Government bond yields have been moving higher since the spring, when the Iran conflict restarted inflation concerns. In the last two weeks, we’ve seen an increasingly global selloff that has rattled investors. The latest round of worry intensified August 28. Speaking from Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh stopped short of saying the U.S. central bank would raise interest rates. But he did say that inflation is the Fed’s key concern.
Wealthsimple’s Monthly Millionaire raises the asset consolidation stakes
Fintech giant Wealthsimple found inspiration for its Monthly Millionaire program overseas, in a 70-year-old British savings program that offers prizes to encourage people to save. Premium Bonds don’t pay interest. Instead, every £1 held gets a bond number in a monthly prize draw. Prizes range from £25 to £1 million. Bond holders can withdraw their money without penalty, effectively trading guaranteed interest for a chance to win. Wealthsimple’s version launched in May.
How firms involve advisors in software decisions
istock/laddawan punna Advisors want software to be as easy as ordering a ride or meal delivery, industry experts say. To close the gap between advisor expectations and technology limitations, firms need to listen to advisor needs, involve advisors in software decisions and set clear rules for using external AI tools. “They’re not just looking at the tools that IG has versus a Big Six banking application,” Brent Allen, head of sales and distribution at IG said.
Why do so many young investors love alts?
The response to our alternative investments event at Vantage Venues on Tuesday has been strong. In-person attendance is sold out, but registration remains open for the livestream. Participation will earn attendees up to four continuing education credits. I met with Rob Grein, CEO of PMG Intelligence this week to talk about his keynote talk — Even Greater Expectations: Understanding Canadian market engagement with alternative investments. PMG is a market research consultancy Grein launched in 1993.
Treegrove acquires Sprung Investment Management
Treegrove Investment Management, a boutique wealth management firm marking its eight anniversary this month, announced its acquisition of 100% of the outstanding shares in Sprung Investment Management Friday. The deal between the two Toronto-based firms was completed Apr. 30. Financial terms were not released. “It’s a great fit between the two firms,” William Shaw, CEO of Treegrove said.
Welcome to the new Investment Executive
We are delighted to share a revamped, rewired Investment Executive with you today. The same trusted foundation remains, with a cleaner design that better supports graphics and other multimedia content. Since 1989, Investment Executive has distinguished itself as a news platform dedicated to helping Canada’s financial advisors serve their clients more effectively. We cover the industry like no one else.
Exit interview: Dennis Craig
Craig accepted a marketing role at New York Life as it was building its group business in 1986. “My boss asked me to spell group,” he said. “I said G-R-O-U-P. He said, ‘good, you’ve got the job.'” It was an opportunity to learn a part of the business he’d never worked in, from the “ground up,” Craig said. It would be a recurring theme in his career.
A cautiously optimistic Canada still needs CUSMA
iStockphoto Kevin Press Last week marked the first anniversary of U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called Liberation Day. Executive Order 14257 laid out an extensive list of import duties, citing a national trade deficit emergency. Anxieties ran high in capitals around the world. Nowhere more, perhaps, than in Ottawa. A year later, Washington’s trade policy disruption has had a less dramatic effect than many expected, according to a report published Wednesday by RBC Economics.
Canada to see a ‘year of resilience and opportunity’: Vanguard
iStockphoto Kevin Press Tell your clients to rest easy, no matter the news coming out of the World Economic Forum. AI remains the most important investment theme across the developed world. While the outlook for Canada is only moderately positive and 2026 is expected to deliver a risk-off environment, the year ahead will be one of “resilience and opportunity,” according to Dewan and Kevin Khang, Vanguard’s head of global economic research, met with reporters Wednesday in Toronto.
AI is just getting started
Carrick doesn’t believe that this is anything like the dot-com fiasco — an obvious analogy — but there are plenty of smart people taking profits off the table. Price-to-earning ratios are elevated, here and in the U.S. The S&P/TSX composite index sits in the 19–20 range, on a trailing basis. The S&P 500 is between 27 and 30, depending on which source you use. And the NASDAQ is at about 34-times earnings. That last figure is eight points higher than the 10-year average.
Wealth management, AI and defence are sectors to watch in 2026 deal flow
Lower interest rates and pent-up demand is driving significant activity in the Canadian wealth management industry this year. Michael Dobner, a partner and national leader of PwC Canada’s economics & policy practice, said that will continue in 2026, provided capital markets remain robust. “Notwithstanding the market potential, consolidation in the sector could be the trend forward,” he said.
Barry McInerney’s reset
Barry McInerney went from being “a very good actuary,” to a globe-trotting executive and now an author, teacher and consultant. Photo courtesy of Audria Abney Kevin Press Actuaries are not known for their soft skills. They can crunch numbers with the best of them. If you need someone to assess a set of risks and recommend a strategy, they’ve got you. The difficulty — one that has dogged firms like Mercer and Eckler Ltd. for decades — is who do you put in charge of these Math Olympians.
Barry McInerney’s reset
Barry McInerney went from being “a very good actuary,” to a globe-trotting executive and now an author, teacher and consultant. Photo courtesy of Audria Abney Kevin Press Actuaries are not known for their soft skills. They can crunch numbers with the best of them. If you need someone to assess a set of risks and recommend a strategy, they’ve got you. The difficulty — one that has dogged firms like Mercer and Eckler Ltd. for decades — is who do you put in charge of these Math Olympians.
Rob Carrick is on Canadian Advisor.cast
“I felt I needed to pull back a little bit, and have more time to think,” Carrick said during our podcast interview. “I’m doing what I was doing before, but on a more selective, measured basis.” Carrick has been a respected voice on personal finance and investment matters since the mid-1990s. He and I talked about his 27-year run, covering the dot-com bubble, the credit crisis and, more recently, U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade war.
Not stagflation, but 'stagflationary, potentially': FTSE Russell
This week’s policy rate cut by the Fed sends a clear signal about where its priority lies. “Inflation is higher than where they would like,” said Indrani De, head of global investment research at FTSE Russell, in an interview this week. “But given that it has come down so significantly, it is not the burning crisis it was two years back, or immediately post-Covid.
ETFs keep setting records, making careers
They’ve gone from a niche Toronto Stock Exchange innovation known best for tracking indices to a juggernaut that includes both active and passive strategies across virtually every asset class. “It speaks to the value that investors extract from leveraging ETFs for their investments,” said Pat Chiefalo, Invesco Canada’s senior vice-president and head of product, in an interview on Tuesday.
Here comes the F-word
“When you combine attendance, the number of people hours, just in terms of attending [SIMA] meetings, is in the thousands,” said Arnie Hochman, senior vice-president and general counsel at the association. And that was the easy part. The actual IT work was “enormous,” Hochman said.
A healthy take on retirement readiness
Kevin Press Speaking at the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners Symposium in Nanaimo, B.C. on Thursday, Tanya Staples delivered an overview of her research on how prepared Canadian men and women are for retirement. Staples is a professor of financial planning & research at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning’s School of Business. She holds a Ph.D. (ABD) in personal financial planning at Kansas State University. She will deliver her dissertation next month.
Russell Investments aiming for 'personalized services'
“When you saw interest rates go to zero, alts became an option to generate consistent income — more income than you could get from money markets,” Needham told me. Canadian investors experienced that following the global financial crisis, to a lesser extent after the eurozone debt crisis and then again post-Covid. “That drove interest initially,” he said. “Why do I think there’s still interest in alts?
Bakish Wealth joins Manulife with $350M in assets
Kevin Press Bakish Wealth has signed on with Manulife Wealth, adding more than $350 million in assets under management to the insurance giant’s platform. Joseph Bakish was a 10-year Richardson Wealth veteran prior to Monday’s announcement. He became a senior wealth advisor, portfolio manager in January 2022, according to LinkedIn. Bakish’s practice serves healthcare professionals, lawyers, academics, business owners and other segments. Bakish is taking six team members with him.
Investment dealers should get out of the content business
Advisor feedback on most of the firms held steady relative to our 2024 Report Card. That’s good news in categories like “support for remote system access & transactions,” “quality of product shelf” and “freedom to make product choices,” all of which received high performance and importance ratings from advisors. Consistency is less welcome at the other end of the spectrum.
The U.S. needs a 50-basis-point rate cut: BlackRock CIO
“To say to low-income people, ‘I know you’re getting hurt by higher goods prices. We’re going to charge you more for interest rates too. It’ll be good for you in the long run.’ I think that’s crazy,” Rieder said. He cited jobs data issued earlier in the day by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to support the call. It revised nonfarm payrolls data for the year ended in March 2025 down by 911,000 jobs, relative to its original estimate. That put total jobs added during the year at roughly 880,000.
The kids are not alright
Kevin Press In the months and years that followed the great financial crisis, young Canadians struggled to gain stable full-time employment. Many turned to gig work, underemployment and even unpaid internships to make ends meet. At the time, economists warned us that this would have profound effects on their future wellbeing — professional, financial and even personal. We’ve entered a comparable period since the end of the Covid pandemic.
CARP calls for extension of 10% OAS boost
Advocacy group says the increase shouldn’t be limited to seniors 75 and over By: Kevin Press September 3, 2025 12:03 Kevin Press The Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) is calling on Ottawa to increase the Old Age Security (OAS) benefit by 10% for seniors aged 65 to 74. It’s one of seven recommendations the group submitted ahead of the federal government’s fall budget.
CI Financial sub to become world's largest independent wealth manager
Kevin Press Corient, the U.S. subsidiary of CI Financial Corp., announced the purchase of two European money managers on Tuesday, making it the world’s largest non-bank wealth manager. Stonehage Fleming — a family office and fiduciary services provider — and Stanhope Capital Group — a wealth management and advisory firm — together will push Corient’s assets under management to roughly US$430 billion.
Book value: Writing can still be good for business
Kevin Press When Lucas Wennersten and his young family moved to Etobicoke, Ont., in 2019, the Phoenix native was already a successful financial advisor specializing in cross-border planning for both American and Canadian clients. Not long after arriving, the Covid pandemic locked them down in a neighbourhood that barely felt like home. His wife had just given birth to their fourth child. “We didn’t really have a circle of friends or anything yet,” Wennersten said.
Desjardins has purchased Guardian Capital
Kevin Press Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. announced its purchase of Guardian Capital Group Limited Thursday, in an all-cash $1.67 billion deal. That figure values Guardian shares at $68 per. The share price is a premium of 66% relative to yesterday’s Class A share closing price, and a 48% premium on common shares. Based on the firm’s 30-day volume-weighted average trading place, the premium is 65% and 54% respectively.
Éric Lauzon joining Raymond James Ltd.
Kevin Press Éric Lauzon has left CI Assante Wealth Management, after almost 20 years with the firm, to join Raymond James Ltd. as senior vice-president, growth and development. He starts Sept. 2. According to a media release issued Monday afternoon, Lauzon will head a recruitment effort out of the firm’s Montreal office.
A real estate dip
“We’re kind of a new kid on the block,” Will said. The firm bought its first property in October 2020. “Our niche is to be the opportunistic buyer of real estate. We want to build our portfolio based solely on cash flow.” Virtus is not to be confused with VirtusCapital, an unregistered outfit flagged by the Ontario Securities Commission. “We’re seeing a lot of opportunity to take advantage of a dip in the market, and we can be very opportunistic by buying some of these properties” Will said.
Canadian banks in 'a position of strength': Fitch
Kevin Press Two months after downgrading its outlook for the Canadian banking sector from “neutral” to “deteriorating,” Fitch Ratings says solid fundamentals will see the sector through a soft economic forecast. The report, issued Tuesday, covers the Big Six and Desjardins Group. “Fitch believes the banks enter this period of economic weakness, caused by tariff uncertainty, from a position of strength in terms of credit fundamentals and financial performance indicators,” according to the report.
OSFI issues revised policy plan
Changes are aligned with Ottawa’s Red Tape review By: Kevin Press August 18, 2025 16:29 Kevin Press The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has released a revised policy plan on its guidance for and supervision of federally regulated banks, life insurance companies and not-for-profits offering insurance products. OSFI superintendent Peter Routledge issued an open letter on Monday.
Consumer spending in China to slow in H2: Fitch
Kevin Press Consumer confidence is expected to soften in the second half of 2025, despite efforts by Chinese policy makers to support spending. That’s according to a new report by Fitch Ratings, which forecasts a slowdown in Q3 and Q4 consumption. “Consumer spending growth picked up in 1H25 on the stimulus from a consumer goods trade-in program,” Fitch said in a media release.
David Rosenberg says you can still bet on Trump
Kevin Press There’s more than a little connective tissue between U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to axe Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Erika McEntarfer and his criticisms of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Both are political in the worst way. By calling into question the independence of the two agencies, the White House is signalling to global investors that its lack of respect for democratic norms extends to economic policy and governance.
Fort Capital Partners and Acquatio join forces
Kevin Press Investment banking advisory Fort Capital Partners is acquiring Acquatio, an advisor that specializes in M&A dealmaking in the wealth management industry. The new company will advise wealth and asset management firms, according to a release shared first with Investment Executive. “The launch of Fort Capital FS reflects our belief that independent firms deserve independent advice,” said Dave Bustos, founder of Fort Capital Partners, in a release.
A private equity caution flag
Kevin Press The thing we’re told most often about alternative investments is the importance of due diligence. The complexity of these products is such that advisors put themselves and their clients in a vulnerable position if they make poorly researched recommendations. This is somewhat counterintuitive, given the value many of these products offer from a risk management perspective. But their complexity — and in some cases their lack of transparency — makes them a poor fit for many investors.
Business leaders are worrying about two things, a lot
Kevin Press Canadian business executives are an anxious lot, according to the latest findings of the Conference Board of Canada’s Index of Business Confidence. Only once in the study’s 11-year history has the result been this poor — the first quarter of 2020, as Covid took hold. The index fell 1.5 points to 63, relative to the 2014 baseline score of 100. It has been on the wrong side of 80 for more than three years now. The most recent survey was in field June 23 to July 11.
It's time for an adult conversation about inflation
The paper blames fiscal policy for post-pandemic inflation, specifically that Ottawa had no plan to fund the measures it took during the pandemic. “[C]riticism that the Bank of Canada was slow to react to inflationary pressures may be off the mark,” Andolfatto and Martin wrote. “Given the nature of the crisis and the fiscal response, discouraging the inflation surge would have inhibited economic recovery and worsened the fiscal burden.” It would have made the recovery slower and more painful.
Three ways to help DIY investors help themselves
Too often, these would-be Max Verstappens are looking to finfluencers and other social media figures for guidance. Some work with financial advisors, but that’s not where they’re going for direction. Increasingly, investors are opening DIY accounts without telling their advisor. “Nearly half of advised investors keep a self-directed sleeve nowadays,” said Raghav Mehta, vice-president, ETF strategist at Global X Investments Canada Inc. in Toronto.
Canadians missing out on late-stage life sciences investments
Kevin Press While early-stage life sciences companies attract Canadian investment dollars, those in the later stages of development have to rely more on global investors with deeper pockets. That’s according to a new white paper posted Wednesday by adMare BioInnovations, a Montreal-based life sciences innovation hub. “We’re building high-value companies here in Canada, but too often, the economic returns and control over intellectual property end up elsewhere.
Canadians need a pension dashboard: C.D. Howe
Kevin Press Kathryn Bush, a senior fellow with the C.D. Howe Institute and a member of the C.D. Howe Institute Pension Policy Council, is calling for the development of an online retirement savings dashboard that pulls together Canadians’ various sources of retirement income into a single view. “How can Canadians make optimal decisions if they don’t have a straightforward way to see how savings and entitlements translate into monthly income?” asked Bush, in a media release.
Kevin Press It’s been three months since bond yields soared, as investors sold off U.S. government debt in response to President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs. The 90-day pause he announced afterward expires July 9, with potentially significant implications for the second half of the year. Investors have prepared for 10% global tariffs, according to Robin Marshall and Sandrine Soubeyran, both directors of global investment research at FTSE Russell.
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