OCULUS PRIVATE WEALTH: Providing Clients with Ease of Mind

BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

Oculus Private Wealth provides a variety of services (financial, tax, estate and retirement planning, and insurance analysis) for individuals and families. It also provides portfolio management services through its partnership with Harness Investment Management (Harness) and group plan management for corporations through its Oculus Group Services division.

Grant Stefanowski, CFP, and Clayton Goodwin, CIM, portfolio manager with Harness and financial advisor consultant with Oculus Private Wealth, have one goal in mind: financial freedom and ease of mind for their clients through identifying and managing risks.

“The building and preservation of wealth always starts with risk,” explains Stefanowski. “Our role is to worry on behalf of our clients. We worry less when we have downside protection in place and we can build wealth appropriately for our clients over time.”

Stefanowski has always loved seeing money as a puzzle with a solution.

“You’re not an insurance advisor until you’ve done a claim, and you’re not really an investment advisor until you’ve gone through a significant bear market. For me, that came during the tech wreck of 2001 when I was four years into my practice. My clients’ portfolios and my personal investments were down. From then on, I decided that I would focus on building resilient portfolios that would protect my clients’ money; the money they couldn’t afford to lose because they were relying on it for the future.”

Goodwin enjoys seeing how the interaction between world events and money can be used to anticipate and defray risks.

“I’ve always been interested in world news and how macro changes to the global economy affect us.

Being able to utilize my natural curiosity to help people navigate their own financial path turned out to be a perfect fit,” smiles Goodwin. “Whether it’s a portion of a client’s portfolio or their life savings, my objective is to provide them with asset protection and consistent growth over time that is individually tailored to help meet their long-term goals.”

Stefanowski and Goodwin’s passion to protect their client through long-term, risk-reducing strategies is not the only way Oculus stands out.

“Oculus puts clients first. We act as a fiduciary, disclosing any and all potential conflicts of interest. We know our clients and products well and we personalize our services to each individual’s unique needs,” says Stefanowski.

Goodwin adds, “As a registered portfolio manager, I’m held to a professional standard on behalf of our clients. I believe baseline is not acceptable and I aim to exceed our client’s expectations. My passion for investing and risk management means our commitment is to long-term investments; no fads or hot picks here.

“Knowing that Canada represents only three per cent of global markets, our clients benefit from globally diversified portfolios supported by a broad toolset for risk mitigation. Multi-asset strategies, including currencies and commodities, provide an additional layer of protection while active management allows for participation when markets are trending up and protection when they’re heading down. Furthermore, we utilize ETFs in our portfolios to remain liquid so the makeup of the portfolio can be easily and quickly adapted to challenging market times.”

Both men know that investing can be tricky at the best of times. In today’s rapidly changing world, experienced guidance is more important than ever before.

“Capital markets can be very unpredictable in the shortterm, but they are very predictable in the long-term,” says Stefanowski. “Long-term charts typically show a line that begins low on the left and finishes higher on the right. My job is to help clients stay focused and on track to achieve their financial goals. If you’ve got a process that works, you must trust it and try to ignore the fads. As someone once said, ‘fear is a poor advisor.’”

“It’s important for investors to block out the noise and remember every investor’s goals and appetite for risk are different,” Goodwin adds. “What works for someone else might not work for you. The talking heads on the news get paid to yell at the screen but what they’re yelling about might not actually align with your long-term objectives.”

He continues, “Often, we act as ‘financial therapists’ for our clients, guiding and empowering them through important decisions. We help them maintain perspective and stay on track.”

Both agree, “We are not too concerned if the market is up or down this quarter or next. We are focused on if the train is still on the track and seeing if it is delayed or derailed and whether or not it’s going to pull into the station on time. That’s the most important thing.”

Stefanowski and Goodwin are grateful to their mentors, clients and industry partners that have empowered them to shape Oculus into the proactive firm it is today. They continue to surround themselves with learning opportunities and people with complementary skill sets so they can do what they love – help clients obtain financial freedom through long-range planning and proper risk management.

They conclude, “More and more people want to deal with specialists. We will continue to build up the practice in ways that minimize risk. Our clients want to feel that they’re being looked after and that their money is safe. Nobody likes worrying about their money and we never forget that they’re paying us to worry for them.” just focus on those company killer type of scenarios. They’re comfortable with having skin in the game on those lower severity type of events.

“So, depending on where they fall in that spectrum, that guides our conversation of how much time we spend talking about auto liability and slips trips … versus those catastrophic fires.”

Barker’s advice for business owners looking to mitigate their risk is to be less transactional and more proactive.

“It’s easy to just fall into that trap of just having your broker go out and get you the same insurance product year after year. But you need to keep that discussion alive,” he says.

“It has to be an annual. You just need to talk these things out and reaffirm the assumptions you’ve made. Perhaps your company has grown, and you are able to take on more risk? Or contracted and you’re limited to assuming less risk?”

Adds Wildeman: “Failing to plan is planning to fail. So, if you’re going to set up a business, don’t just focus on getting that location, or getting their manufacturing line running or getting out there with some advertising. Think about what could go wrong.

“It doesn’t matter how big or small you are. You definitely need to manage your risks.”

Also, it’s important to recognize that you can’t buy insurance for every risk. Managing reputational risks, for example, traces back to having the right internal mechanisms in place to handle issues before they hit the headlines.

“When you’re talking about reputational risks, you’re talking about something that’s going to impact your brand –something that is going to show up somewhere in a negative way,” says Melanie Nicholson, principal at MLC & Co., a Calgary-based boutique public relations and communications firm that works with companies in sectors such as non- profits, construction, attractions, Indigenous products and mental health.

Nicholson notes most reputational risks trace back to something small that escalated before a company got it under control – typically, bad customer service.

“Things happen all the time. Yet when they are handled well and handled quickly, you may never hear anything about them,” he says. “At the end of the day, things happen. So, it’s not necessarily about being so terrified of risk that you don’t do anything for your brand. It’s about ensuring that you have good customer service processes in place so that your team has what they need to deal with it.”

For example, Nicholson points to the importance of things such as crisis communications strategies, key message approval structures and social media processes.

“One of the biggest stumbling blocks companies run into is their turnaround time,” she says. “They are unable to respond to something quickly because of their approval structures. So, establish some pre-approved general statements.”

As for what can happen if you don’t properly manage your reputational risks, Nicholson points to Valbella Gourmet Foods as an example of how bad it can get.

Last July, the Canmore food company found itself embroiled in controversy after the company’s president, who is also the owner’s son, penned a transphobic reply to Canmore Pride following a request for donations. In the days after the message was shared with news outlets, numerous companies cut ties with Valbella, including the Banff Centre, Sunterra, Blush Lane Organic Foods and more.

“The impacts were huge,” says Nicholson. “They lost partners, they lost stakeholders, they lost community respect, and they are back to square one.”