FAQs

Professional portfolio management is important if you:

• Worry or feel uncomfortable about managing investments,
• Lack the experience or skill needed to evaluate investment opportunities,
• Have no interest in managing investments,
• Are employed full time in a profession other than investment management,
• Travel extensively,
• Wish to spend quality time with your family rather than focusing on investing, or
• Have a fiduciary responsibility to seek professional investment advice.

Our clients – successful entrepreneurs, professionals, executives, and retirees – all recognize that smart investing requires the full-time dedication that Pacific Spirit Investment Management provides. We have the skills and expertise to manage your portfolio safely, wisely, and profitably by investing in proven companies with strong management.

At Pacific Spirit Investment Management, we can help you invest wisely, pay less income tax, save money, pay down a mortgage early, and fund your children’s education. Our firm offers a unique range of services including portfolio management and personal financial planning. We provide management of equity and fixed income investments and real estate. We also provide financial planning including retirement planning, estate planning, pension evaluations and insurance reviews. There is no other firm in Vancouver that offers all of the services we offer, or the same quality of services.

We are registered with the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC). We are licensed to provide portfolio management services in British Columbia and Ontario. John S Clark, Dennis Wan, Iris Tang, and Anne-Marie Fuller are members of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC (CPA BC). John and Dennis are also members of the CFA Institute and they both hold the Certified Financial Planner designation. These professional bodies have codes of ethics and member discipline procedures.

We invest for the long term in proven, successful companies. We do not formally attempt to time the stock market. Our investment philosophy naturally reduces our exposure to stocks when the market is expensive and encourages investment into the market when the stocks are competitive. At market peaks we have difficulty finding stocks that meet our investment criteria, so our holdings of bonds and cash tend to increase in advance of market declines.

Our equity selections emphasize companies with a history of consistent earnings, operations in industries we understand, low debt levels, stock that is trading at historically low levels relative to earnings or cash flow, and strong management with integrity. Our fixed income selections emphasize quality and tax efficiency. Tax considerations are integrated with each decision.

Pacific Spirit provides high quality financial planning by experienced professionals. Our team includes experts with Chartered Professional Accountant (CA), Chartered Professional Accountant (CGA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designations.

At Pacific Spirit, the most important investment criterion is to base the investment selections on a customized retirement or financial plan. Matching the investments to the long-term plan ensures that there is a foundation to the process and that the long-term is always foremost in decision making. Another very important consideration in making investment selections is your risk tolerance. Taken as a whole, your investment portfolios must be consistent with your risk tolerance. Your investment time horizon, need for access to cash, tax position, and other factors that are unique to you are also important factors in making investments.

Your tailored investment accounts will be managed by one of our experienced portfolio managers. John Clark has over 20 years of portfolio management experience with Pacific Spirit and Dennis Wan has been with our firm for 15 years.

A tailored portfolio reflects the specific considerations unique to a particular client such as risk preferences, investment time horizon, tax position, need for liquidity and/or income, legal constraints, market outlook, and market conditions. At Pacific Spirit, each account is managed separately to fulfill the requirements of each client. Every account is unique – we do not pool accounts together as no two clients are the same.

Each client determines who will be the custodian of his or her investment assets. We generally recommend that a client’s assets be held in safekeeping at a discount brokerage firm such as NBIN Independent Network. Pacific Spirit does not take physical possession of client marketable securities. We are Portfolio Managers, not custodians. Clients provide us with trading authorization on the accounts.

At the inception of a client relationship we review all of our client’s existing holdings and assess their suitability and attractiveness. Investments that are unsuitable or do not meet the desired return/risk profile will be sold in a managed process.

We also discuss custody of assets with each new client. If as a result of this discussion a client wishes to move their assets to a new custodian we will assist with the preparation of the new account documents and the necessary transfer forms. We will then monitor the transfer process to ensure that the transfer is completed on a timely basis.

Yes. Thanks to our size, we are still able to grow while staying personal and unique among wealth management firms. Our clients can always reach our portfolio managers via phone or email.

We contact our clients on regular basis; however, the corner stone of our communication is our client review sessions. We meet with our clients on a regular basis (as frequently as our clients desire) to discuss their portfolio and the rationale behind individual security selections. Our clients are fully aware of the activity in their account at all times.

As our client, you’ll know exactly what is happening in your account on a timely basis. You will receive trade confirmations for every trade in your account – these are sent directly to you from the discount broker/custodian. You will also receive a monthly portfolio summary from the independent custodian and this will show the month end holdings, valuation, and all of the transactions in the account during the month.

We are a fee only Wealth Management firm. Our fee is a percentage of assets under management. We receive no hidden fees, commissions, or back-end loads. We receive no referral fees. Pacific Spirit’s management fee structure is clearly stated and is documented in our Investment Management Agreement.

Our financial planning fees are based on the time worked on the plan and are based on a fee per hour. We are able to provide written estimates for our work before starting a project.

If for any reason you wish to terminate your Investment Agreement, you are free to do so at any time. You do not have to provide any notice, and we do not charge any penalties or termination fees. We are always fully aware that the investment portfolios we manage represent someone’s life savings. We respect the effort and sacrifice made by our clients to accumulate these funds. We manage conservatively and for the long-term. Most of our clients choose to stay with us for the long term.

Yes, our Client Disclosure Document can be found here.

Yes, our Privacy Policy can be found here.

We have adopted the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct of the CFA Institute.

Pacific Spirit Investment Management Inc. has always committed to protecting the privacy of clients and has long-standing procedures and security measures to preserve the confidentiality of sensitive financial and personal information. At Pacific Spirit, we never lose sight of the fact that the funds we manage belong to our clients, and investments are made on their behalf and for their benefit. At each client review meeting, we review compliance with the agreed upon investment policy and the progress towards the client’s objectives.

It is important that Wealth Managers maintain the highest level of professional conduct. The Statement of Investor Rights “reflects the fundamental ethical principles that are crucial to achieving confidence in any professional relationship.” We proudly subscribe to these rights.

We recommend contacting our office to set up a complimentary consultation. The main purpose of our initial face-to-face meeting is to provide you with the opportunity to learn more about our firm and for us to learn more about you. We will discuss your goals and specific circumstances with you, and assess your risk tolerance. We will work with you to develop a long-term plan and an Investment Policy Statement. The Investment Policy Statement will serve as a guide to the selection of investments for your account(s). Once you have made the decision to become a client of Pacific Spirit, we prepare an Investment Management Agreement for your review and signature, the new account documents, and any transfer forms that are required.

Pacific Spirit Investment Management Inc. does not solicit business in the United States of America.