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COVER STORY: HOT LIST Nader Hamid Total Wealth Management Group HollisWealth In this weird world of near-zero interest rates, generating return is tougher than ever. Cutting-edge advisors like Nader Hamid are going beyond the old prescriptions to deliver on the client promise. According to Hamid, the old standby principle that markets are efficient is flawed. Buy and hold is not a strategy, neither is the idea that an investment portfolio should be based in only the three asset classes of cash, fixed income and equity. Total Wealth Management manages funds on a discretionary basis. There are three scenarios for the firm’s holdings: all in during a bullish streak, all out when markets are sliding, and average back in when things look flat. The firm also introduces asset classes outside of the standard three as a way to create a low level of correlation between portfolios and the market.
Elie Nour Manulife Securities Top 50 advisor Elie Nour is an elite performer at Manulife, this offering the quintessential blueprint for moving your practice from one city to the next. From Montreal to Toronto, he brought much of his team with him. He has been splitting his time between the two cities as he makes the move. But he felt he could not pass up the opportunity to tap into the old and deep wealth along the shores of Lake Ontario in that bastion of Ontario wealth, Oakville.
Rob Jones Horizon Partners HollisWealth Jones is one of the HollisWealth’s top investment professionals. A consultant with HollisWealth Insurance Agency, he is also a financial advisor. He has been in the financial services industry for 12 years, focusing on generating stable returns. “My investment focus is on absolute returns rather than trying to outperform the markets,” he says. “I look for stable rates of return year over year, and maintain a plan that clearly identifies my clients’ goals and organizes their estates. The biggest trend is creating value for your clients above and beyond just investing their money. On the investment side alone, I am seeing more and more companies offering products that focus on risk reduction through the use of options, as Baby Boomers today are much less inclined to be fully exposed to the stock markets as they were before the recession.”
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Michael Holden HPC Wealth Management HollisWealth Holden’s journey as a financial advisor began when he joined Great Pacific Management in 1991. He’s now with HollisWealth. Based in Vancouver, and he’s developed a sophisticated discretionary practice that’s on the vanguard of that model’s move upward. “Less than 3% of our industry has achieved this,” Holden says. “We do not believe that a buy-and-hold strategy works for most people, and we feel that a discretionary approach is the only way we can proactively manage client portfolios in a timely manner. The practice also employs a team-based approach, which is another evolved strategy. “Most of us know that two heads are better than one when it comes to planning,” Holden says. “We do not use the typical hierarchical structure for our team. We have a team of eight people. Each person in our team has responsibility for a few specific aspects of our overall business. Our industry is becoming increasingly complex, and one person cannot do it all. We believe that a team of specialists that are all working together to find the best solutions for each client is the best way to achieve this.” That team is just as bullish on social giving, having started its own charitable foundation, providing capital for micro financing through Kiva and, for Christmas last year, helping build a school in Cambodia.