CHRISTIAN GENDRON Gendron Team, BMO Nesbitt Burns
It’s a family affair at the Gendron Team at BMO Nesbitt Burns. Founded by patriarch Jérôme Gendron in the 1960s, with son Christian and daughter Isabelle later joining the fray, the team has consistently been one of Nesbitt Burns’ best performers, currently boasting an AUM of more than $300 million. Gendron oversees discretionary accounts and manages the team’s model portfolio, and he outlines how using the right research is key to staying ahead of the game. “We use our own research at Nesbitt Burns, but also research from the Street,” he says. “Every Thursday I check the AMF Insider Report bulletin; that is a great tool to find gems. The most significant transactions are when a bunch of insiders buy shares in their own company. We saw this with Canam Group and Héroux-Devtek, which are smaller-cap but can make a big difference to a portfolio.” As for his portfolio, he explains that diversification is key. “We have a bunch of ETFs. Canada is underweight on technology, and when we don’t want to make a specific company call, we use ETFs. We use lots of ETFs for fixed income. We also like good-paying stocks that go to dividend, as well as special situation small-cap stocks and convertible debentures, which is a market that is being ignored.” The up-and-down course of the Canadian dollar over the past year is another area that has provided plenty of headaches, but also potential returns. “There has been a big fluctuation on oil and with the exchange rate,” Gendron says. The exchange rate has defined a trading range that will be reduced over the next few quarters. I don’t think the US dollar will go back to $1.46. I think that will be good for
“We also like good-paying stocks that go to dividend, as well as special situation small-cap stocks and convertible debentures” companies wondering whether to hedge or not.” The investment industry is also in a state of flux, but Gendron says his team is well prepared to meet the coming changes. “The system is not perfect, but it is enabling us to be more efficient – and really, we needed to be with all the new regulations,” he says. “The industry will continue to change a lot; it is getting more organized. The biggest challenge now is not going into overkill territory with the new regulations.”
ISABELLE GENDRON Gendron Team, BMO Nesbitt Burns
The other lynchpin of the Gendron Team at BMO Nesbitt Burns, Isabelle Gendron joined the family business in 2006 after a stint at Merrill Lynch Canada as an investment banking analyst. Working alongside her father, Jérôme, and her brother, Christian, she has helped develop the team into one of BMO Nesbitt Burns’ best performers. As she explains, the close familial bond has allowed them to succeed in the workplace. “I’m more involved with trading and managing the financial plans for the clients,” she says. “I will do the analysis for clients, but we really work as a team here and share clients.”
“We have recently started to focus more on gold” Building an AUM of more than $300 million hasn’t come overnight. Rather, careful analysis of the markets and anticipation of its peaks and valleys has allowed the Gendron Team to excel – and Isabelle Gendron has been at the forefront of that success. “We have mainly Canadian exposure,” she says, “but in sectors that are weak here – healthcare, technology, consumer discretionary – we look at US companies or international. We like to have a diversified portfolio. We have about 20% financials, but we don’t want to be overweight in a particular industry.” As more and more people move into the discretionary management space, clients have never had greater choice when it comes to seeking expert advice for their money. What information managers must supply to them is another major change, one that Gendron acknowledges can be very time-consuming. “We are ahead of the wave, I think,” she says. “We started as discretionary portfolio managers in 2010, and now it is becoming very popular. The main change has been administrative and with regulation. Paperwork takes up a lot more of our time now.” Despite the extra regulatory burdens, the ability provided by discretionary management to make moves in a timely fashion is critical to staying one step ahead. “We have recently started to focus more on gold,” Gendron says. “We can take a position in the market really rapidly and do well that way. Recently we have added some Canadian names in the portfolio because we think Canada will do a bit better in 2016. Are we selling our US stocks, though? No, it’s just a marginal move.”
www.wealthprofessional.ca
35