Our Philosophy
Randy and Darryl are a father son team headquartered in Kingston Ontario. We are a boutique investment management firm with clients spread across Canada. We have structured the business so that our interests are directly aligned with our clients. We hold the same investments you do. Which means if you lose money, we lose money. This gives our clients a great sense of comfort knowing that we are treating their hard earned assets with the same care we treat our own.
Our proactive management approach allows us to shift strategies when required. We try not to give people a lot of industry mumbo-jumbo, just the facts. We are skeptics by nature. We prefer simplicity over complexity. Small is better than big. Never settle.
Our Investments
After years of managing client money on an individual account basis we felt something was missing. We enhanced our offerings to include our own funds offered exclusively through Salute Financial Entrepreneurs of Aligned Capital Partners Inc.
Our funds have been designed so that our compensation is largely tied to performance. Our own money is in the funds so our interests are aligned with yours. The funds are structured to be very flexible and to complement each other. They make it easier to manage tax and currencies. Personally selected investments ensure that we always have current strategies for current opportunities.
The Gilpin Fund was named after Randy's father, who acquired the nickname ‘Gilpin’ as a young boy. The name stems from the popular poem ‘The Diverting History of John Gilpin’. We like this story because it resembles this fund – always looking for a diversion from the norm to find opportunity. It is a growth fund composed of a mix of personally selected stocks and focused ETFs.
The Cactus Fund is a true alternative investment and therefore a great diversifier. It was named after Darryl's grandmother, who was a big collector of cacti. The cactus plant can survive harsh conditions, has no predators, and lives a very long time. Our goal was to create a fund that possesses these qualities. It is a strategic mix of ‘non-market’ investments. Holdings include real estate, mortgages, private debt, infrastructure, business loans, credit strategies, healthcare, and private equity.
Our Consulting
Clients also come to Salute for our ‘dig deeper’ approach to consulting. A good financial plan does not arrive prepackaged. It should not be a tool used to justify the purchase of more insurance. Below are some important places where we find opportunities.
Corporate:
1. Do you have the most tax-effective operating structure?
2. Are you efficiently managing cash flow for best returns?
3. Do you know the value of your business and real estate?
4. Do you have an actual exit strategy that gets updated?
5. Are employees getting the best benefit package for their needs?
Personal & Family:
1. Have you done a ‘real’ retirement analysis?
2. Do you have a beneficial debt mgmt. strategy?
3. Do you have an education plan for everyone?
4. Are you serious about your healthcare?
5. Is all important documentation digitally stored?
*We do not charge any fees for our work in this area.
Our Service
There are many complaints about poor service in our industry. While the institutions continue to cut back in this area we seek to improve. If the phone rings we pick it up. We try to return messages on the same day they are received. Requests for cash are processed immediately. Our birthday cards are home made. Our office has never been closed on a work day in 19 years of operation.
People are beginning to realize that something isn’t right with the way their hard-earned money is being managed. The fees come but the growth does not. Answers to their questions are hard to come by. We know we can do better and strive for continuous improvement. Locally, we were an early adopter of using ETFs instead of mutual funds. We have a meaningful fee-based system to replace outrageous commissions, and pride ourselves on advising clients to the fact that there is a whole world of great opportunities beyond Canada.
Team members are as follows:
Randy Cleary – Founder & Portfolio Manager
Darryl Cleary, CFA – Portfolio Manager, Trading, Tax
Hollie Peterson – Office Manager
Cathy Cleary – Philanthropy Manager
Our Impact
On the international front we are connected with Bridging Post, an online platform giving people from around the world an opportunity to share their stories, advice, and resources https://www.bridgingpost.com/blog. Contributing authors include well known organizations such as Lonely Planet, Make Safe International, and Low Carbon City. Bridges bring us together, cross great divides, and open up a world of possibilities. Bridging Post tells the stories of our Philanthropy Manager, Cathy Cleary’s work in Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo and how she has worked with others to build bridges to learning, wellbeing, empowerment, and inclusivity https://www.bridgingpost.com/projects
TANZANIA:
Salute Financial Entrepreneurs has been supporting Cathy's work in Tanzania with local communities on projects that they decide will be beneficial since 2008. She has been leading medical teams with Canada Africa Community Health Alliance (www.cacha.ca) to Tanzania for many years. Working in partnership with the local medical system, the teams are often able to see 3,000+ patients each medical mission. Without these medical caravans, the rural Tanzanians have no access to basic healthcare. She has worked with many dedicated and generous people in helping to build an elementary school with rainwater catchment system and hand washing stations. Farmers have received agricultural training to improve their crop production. Cathy has partnered with like minded individuals and organizations to create two income generating businesses for women in the village of Kabuhinzi - a maize mill and a retail sewing shop.
Working with Lake Victoria Children on Ukerewe Island, she helped to create a children’s emergency medical fund to support orphans and vulnerable children who would otherwise have no access to medical care.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO:
Looking to ‘dig deeper’, Cathy visited the DRCongo in 2014 and after meeting with ten women who told stories of horrific violence and dire poverty, she worked with them to start a Women’s Training Centre. Here training is provided for sewing, tie dyeing, basket weaving, micro finance, and business operations. Education is a critical component to health, wellbeing and increasing quality of life. The women are then able to use their increased income to feed and educate their children.
In 2021, Cathy was able to raise $20,000, with matching funds from doTERRA Healing Hands https://doterrahealinghands.org/ to start a reusable sanitary pad project for women and girls including training on sewing reusable pads, business training and menstrual health education. This new training and business development is in partnership with the internationally well known Days for Girls https://www.daysforgirls.org/
Our Insights
A regular dilemma for most business owners is determining an accurate value for their business when they start to think about a possible sale...
If you look through your bank’s or your mutual fund’s corporate literature, it’s not hard to find information on asset growth and profits. You may even find a broad arching value statement...
I’m sure you have had many discussions about how your money should be classified. While going through the process of opening an investment account you will have to deal with such...
The young bumble bee was discouraged. She hadn’t yet developed the skills to collect pollen, didn’t have a plan, and didn’t even know where to begin looking. So she had...
The stress-free environment of a train ride provides a wonderful opportunity for observation. Immediately upon boarding, almost all passengers are in a panic to get wired up. There is a...
Long time passing. Years ago all of the small towns featured craftspeople such as coopers, blacksmiths, and cabinet makers. I can clearly recall the quilting bees that Mom held at our...
We continue to be perplexed by the number of investors that have not realized the potential of the tax free saving account. The amount of allowable contribution to these vehicles has...
There’s a picture that hangs in our office of the barbershop in the small village where I grew up. On a hot summer evening there always seemed to be four or five local men having a...
I try to get to one great conference a year and one of the best is a large alternative investment forum in Las Vegas. This is where the ‘who’s who’ of the financial industry gather...
I always encourage people to take a holistic view on any situation. This thinking may apply to your entire life, your career, and of course the management of your wealth. On this topic, a...
I would like to once again touch on one of my favourite topics ‘Investor Return Apathy’. Unfortunately most people do not even know what their returns actually are, but when they...