The Freedom to be Unique

Patrick:

Hi, I’m Patrick Keeley. I’m the President of Inukshuk Capital Management, and today we’re going to talk about three things you should know about going independent. 

If we can deliver things in the format the clients are looking for, we have the flexibility to do that. I think that’s the most important thing about being independent. We want to challenge the status quo. I mean, the status quo has been around for some time, it hasn’t really changed dramatically. I mean, what has changed in the investment industry? Compensation hasn’t changed. Parameters for success to some degree are basically the same as they’ve always been, so we feel there’s a different way of looking at things, that there are other metrics that matter to people. So, we can… we can customize the way we do things, we can customize solutions for people, we can customize operating models, and relationship models, really allowing us to tailor things to what’s being asked of us, and to be consistent to who we are as people. 

I think a business model can reflect the way you want to be an investor, or the platform you want to use for investing people’s money. It can be around the type of relationships you want to have with people. So, there’s any number of ways to be specific about what your value proposition is. We’re very specific about who we are and who we’re not, so we might not suit everybody, but there will be some people that see us as something new, refreshing, and ideally, aligned to their core values as well. 

The whole point of health is wealth for us was to begin by making that statement, so that people understood we think integrated living means being healthy and having healthy finances. So, longevity is the key to what we’re doing. We’re trying to give people the longevity to outlive their money, and to leave a legacy for themselves, but also we want them to live a long life. So, by having a review meeting with a client about their finances, we want to have discussions with them about personal goals they might have that enable their own longevity, and, to the extent that we can, help them with that. 

To truly own, and create a legacy of your own, you need to be independent in my opinion. We see limitless upside in the ability to align ourselves with people who think like us, who we want to do business with, and obviously have a greater impact on the economics of the business. It was a challenging decision to make to be independent, having come from established jobs where income was a little bit more predictable, but we would do it all over again for sure, and definitely with National Bank.