(An audio version of this letter can be found as Episode 70 of The Unlimited Podcast by Ginsler Wealth. Use the link provided or find us on your favourite podcast app: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube)

 

To Ginsler Wealth’s Clients:

If you have been reading my letters consistently, you may recall back in Q3 2025 I mentioned that we were taking steps to become a U.S. Registered Investment Adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We spent considerable time and money to do so and in November of last year we were granted such registration[i]. Once the license was in hand, we spent a meaningful part of the first half of 2026 ensuring all U.S. compliance requirements were in place – essentially running two compliance functions and defaulting to the “more restrictive” policy of each country. Our operations team dove deep into learning new U.S. systems and learning about all the various U.S. account types and their nuances. Finally, our investment team spent countless hours evaluating the entire universe of investment options in the U.S., and – with the significant assistance of powerful AI tools – conducted “next level” manager and investment research, correlation analysis, and vast Monte-Carlo simulations[ii] – with the goal of offering a spectacular investment portfolio offering for U.S. clients.

And during this past quarter…I killed it all. Shut it down. And gave up our U.S. registration.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

The end of this past quarter marks the five-year anniversary of the official launch of Ginsler Wealth (the anniversary of being granted our Canadian license[iii] from the Ontario Securities Commission). Unlike other advisors who “move a book of business” from one bank or firm to another, Ginsler Wealth officially started with $0.00 assets under management. We earned our first monthly AUM (assets under management) fee of a whopping $165.03 in August 2021.

Since that time, we have grown to help a select group of approximately 100 Canadian families from across the country. Some as their full Personal CFO (also called “family office”), where we look after any and all aspects of their financial lives (because #wealthhard); and the majority where we manage some or all of their investable assets, while also helping with wealth and financial planning matters.

I am particularly proud that in five years, we have generated almost $70 million of investment gains for our collective client base.

I also have a wonderful team of professionals who work tirelessly for you, with a genuine desire to make your life easier – usually specific to finance, wealth, and investing, but often in other areas as well. And our significant adoption of AI – which I believe is ahead of others in our industry – empowers this team to do even more for you. (If you want a brief glimpse into our use of tech and AI, see this clip from my presentation “A View Inside a Tech-Enabled Wealth Firm” to other investment firms at the 2026 d1g1t Client Forum this past May.)

Because we place client service above all other priorities, if there is one area where I have spent little time in the last five years it is on active business development, or “sales”. But what I’ve realized, and what I instill in my team, is that if we do the best job possible for you – and treat your other advisor team (e.g., accountants, lawyers, etc.) similarly – you just might tell your friends about us. And that is exactly what has driven the growth of our firm. So please accept my heartfelt thanks for your kind referrals and introductions – and if you ever come across someone who could use the kind of help we provide, I hope you’ll think of us (again).

If you are still wondering why I shut down our U.S. license, I suppose the simplest answer is: it’s all your fault. You, our existing Canadian clients.

At the beginning of my first client letter I wrote the following:

I didn’t put my name on the door so that I could see my name in lights. I put my name on the door because it ensures that I never forget that I am personally accountable to you.

And at the end of that very same letter I wrote:

I take the responsibility of caring for your wealth seriously and I am unrelentingly dedicated to your success. That is my promise to you. My name is on the door.

So when I saw the time, energy, and talent our team was dedicating to building a potential future U.S. business, I realized something important: that same time, energy, and talent belonged here. With you.

Not because the U.S. opportunity was unattractive. It was attractive. Maybe very attractive. But the more we pursued it, the clearer it became that the best use of our next chapter was not to become a broader firm serving more markets. It was to become an even better firm serving the people and families who already placed their trust in us.

After all, I promised I would.

THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?

Similar to how I started this letter, those that are consistent readers will also know that I have a tendency to remind you that I don’t have a crystal ball and “it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future” (in the immortal words of Yogi Berra).

That is especially true today. The way we deliver wealth management, and conduct investment research, planning, reporting, and client service will almost certainly look different five years from now. When we do imagine the future of serving you, AI runs through all of it. But AI is changing so fast — improving, surprising us, and occasionally humbling us, almost by the day — that I won’t pretend to know exactly what our firm will look like or how we’ll work five years from now. What I can tell you is that we intend to stay on the leading edge of it, the way we’ve tried to be from the start.

So rather than predict what we’ll look like in the next five years, let me tell you what you might expect from us as it relates to your investments, in the next five months or so…

Portfolio Changes, Adjustments, Deletions, and Additions

We have refocused our full efforts around correlation analysis and other analysis (using both AI and RI – “Real” Intelligence) to our Canadian portfolios. Our collective investment team has identified (what we believe to be) ways to further optimize your current portfolios and have already begun taking steps to implement these changes. These changes – always done with each client’s specific goals, objectives, and risk tolerances in mind – may include:

• Redistributing assets among your current strategies by adjusting their weights,
• Selling certain holdings entirely and redistributing the proceeds, and
• Introducing new investment strategies to your portfolio(s).

The above is a multi-month process as it cannot occur “at the snap of a finger”. Our team has a detailed implementation plan that is being followed to thoroughly review each client account and prudently make changes (if applicable).

What’s New?

A few of the new strategies we are implementing and/or reviewing in detail for potential inclusion in our client portfolios include:

U.S. Top 20 Companies

(Not new, but…) we maintain our thesis on investing in the biggest and best companies in the U.S. (the largest 20 S&P 500 companies) and are increasing allocations in many portfolios. Notably absent from the S&P 500 “Top 20” list is recently IPO-ed SpaceX. We are considering a market-weight allocation to SpaceX in client portfolios, but continue to watch its financial and share price performance post-IPO prior to finalizing our decision. In short, we’re happy to let this one orbit a while before we commit.

Global Small Capitalization Equity Strategy

We are looking to broaden our equity portfolios with a legendary value manager’s global small-cap fund. Unlike Canadian-focused small-cap strategies, which often have to choose from very small, relatively illiquid companies, the “small-cap” definition outside of Canada can extend to companies with market capitalizations as large as US$7.5 billion, and thereby allows for meaningful diversification with far fewer potential liquidity issues. The fund under review has an approximate 13% 10-year annualized return track record[iv] and is a likely inclusion in client portfolios in Q3 (following completion of our rigorous due diligence process that has been ongoing for well over a year-and-a-half).

Global Diversified Royalties Strategy

As you know, we love the music royalties fund most of our clients own, and we continuously seek similar, less- or non-correlated asset classes. One of the largest private market investors in the world is bringing its US$2 billion diversified royalties fund (media/music, pharma/life sciences, energy transition, and more) to Canada and so far, we like what we see. But our due diligence is ongoing.

Gold

Our firm has not historically invested directly in gold (admittedly, we missed that “trade” over the past few years), but through our AI-assisted historical analysis and continued discussions with gold experts (including my recent podcast episode featuring Peter Grosskopf – one of Canada’s foremost gold experts), we are seeing the uncorrelated nature of its performance and potential for portfolio inflation protection.

Critical Minerals/Materials

I have previously written about our desire to capture the upside of the AI revolution. It is clear to me that (em)powering the world with AI – whose demand will likely be insatiable – will require an abundance of critical materials the likes of which the world has never seen. For example, according to Dan Dreyfus, CEO of Bornite Capital – a global investment fund with a core focus specifically in commodity related sectors – in his presentation at the All-In Liquidity Summit last month[v] – “We need copper for everything. … Going back in human history, we have mined 700 million tons of copper over the past 10,000 years; over the next 18 years, we are going to need 700 million tons of copper. We’re going to need as much copper as we’ve mined in the last 10,000 years.” And copper is just one of the many critical materials the world is going to need in abundance. We have identified a strategy focused on gaining exposure to some of the most critical materials and may include this in client portfolios – again and as always – where appropriate.

All the above is just part of the picture. Managing your portfolio is continuous work – we’re constantly reviewing your existing holdings and adjusting them, alongside evaluating new strategies – and far more gets reviewed than ever makes it into your account. As always, we only make changes where they make sense for your specific goals, objectives, and risk tolerances.

 

—————–

Looking back on our first five years, I am grateful for many things: the trust you have placed in us, the team we have built, the investment gains we have helped generate, the problems we have helped solve, and the relationships we have formed along the way. But I am also grateful for something else: the clarity that came from making a hard decision.

Walking away from the U.S. opportunity was not a retreat from ambition. It was a recommitment to purpose. We do not need to be everything to everyone, everywhere. We need to be exceptional for the Canadian families we serve — and for the Canadian families we may be fortunate enough to serve in the future.

You’ve come first for the last five years. You’ll come first for the next five, too. My name is still on the door. I promise.

Thank you for your continued trust, support, and confidence. We are available 24/7 should you need us.

Sincerely,

Brian Ginsler
President & CEO

 

 

 

 

[i] Throughout this letter, I use the term “registration” and “license” to essentially refer to the same thing: a registration with a securities regulator.

[ii] A Monte Carlo simulation is a way to estimate a range of possible outcomes by running many trials using different assumptions. Instead of relying on a single forecast, it tests thousands of scenarios to show what could happen under varying conditions, helping investors understand both the likely results and the risks around them.

[iii] Ginsler Wealth Management Inc. was granted registration by the Ontario Securities Commission as a Portfolio Manager and Exempt Market Dealer on July 2, 2021.

[iv] As of May 31, 2026.

[v] Dan Dreyfus: America’s Critical Minerals Crisis is Here. Liquidity Summit 2026. Presented by All-In. June 9, 2026.

 

(An audio version of this letter can now be found as Episode 56 of The Unlimited Podcast by Ginsler Wealth. Use the link provided or find us on your favourite podcast app: Apple Podcasts / Spotify)

 

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
But the waiting is the hardest part
                                                                       –The Waiting, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

To Ginsler Wealth’s Clients:

In mid-2018, while I was at a previous investment firm, I met with a prospective client referred by one of my favourite accountants. For context, the markets—using the U.S. S&P 500 as a proxy for equities—had staged a dramatic recovery since the 2009 lows following the Global Financial Crisis that spanned from late 2007 through 2009. From its folkloric low of 666.79 in March 2009, the index had climbed to around 2,700 by mid-2018—an increase of more than 300%, or over 16% annualized (and that excludes dividends by the way).

After I explained why it was a good time to invest with us, I will never forget his response: “I’m waiting until there is blood in the streets.” – so sure was he that the end was nigh.

I have not been in touch with that prospect since, but I think about him often.

Just a few months after that meeting, the index started to fall, and by December 24, 2018 was down almost 20% from its high (see left chart below), but ended the year down only about 6%. Hardly “blood in the streets”. Barely five months later, the index was back at all-time highs (see right chart below).

 The market continued to hit all-time highs through February 2020 when a global pandemic completely shocked the markets. The S&P 500 fell 34% in 23 trading days (see left chart below). Now that was a “blood in the streets” moment. But was he bold enough to dive in when we were all locked in our houses worrying how we were going to get our next roll of toilet paper? I doubt it. Three days later, the market was up 18% and – yet again – barely 5 months later (still in the depths of COVID), the markets hit another all-time high! (see right chart below)

You get the point. Since then, we have seen more market drama: a tough 2022 with a gradual 25% decline, followed by a recovery to new all-time highs in late 2023. Just this past quarter, we experienced the Trump-induced market shock, when the S&P 500 fell 18% in a few days, and culminated with the U.S. dropping 30,000-pound bombs on Iran. This led to – you guessed it – the market reaching yet another all-time high on June 30.

The island of doubt, it’s like the taste of medicine
Working by hindsight, got the message from the oxygen
Making a list, find the cost of opportunity
Doing it right, facts are useful in emergencies

I’m still waiting… (repeat 13x…fade out)
                                                                 –Crosseyed and Painless, Talking Heads

When we zoom out on this story, it becomes clear: while waiting for “blood in the streets,” the market rose 156% (including dividends)—delivering 14.4% per year (see chart below). By waiting for the perfect entry point, he missed a powerful eight years of compounding.

Tom Petty was right…the waiting is the hardest part.

 

YOU DON’T NEED MORE TIME. YOU JUST NEED TO INVEST.

If you’ve been reading my letters, this theme should sound familiar. I touched on it in my last quarterly letter (Warren Buffett Edition) where I described markets climbing the ever-present “Wall of Worry.” So why revisit it again, just three months later?

Because this quarter’s letter is a reminder: our investment approach—and what we do for you every day—is designed to get capital working quickly and to stay invested through inevitable market turbulence. Your Ginsler Wealth portfolios aren’t just invested in the market—they’re built across multiple geographies (Canada, U.S., international, emerging markets), a variety of investment styles (value, growth, concentrated, and more), and a broad range of asset classes (fixed income, alternatives, real estate, private equity, venture capital, etc.).[i]

While keeping your portfolios essentially fully invested, we tactically shift to asset classes and/or strategies that we believe have the opportunity to protect capital or perform strongly (often, both!) based on the prevailing market environment.

During the past quarter, we added a unique quantitative-based fixed income strategy to our roster, with a strong historical track record of accomplishing both goals mentioned above.[ii] We have also committed to investing in the latest venture fund from one of the world’s best[iii] AI-focused venture capital investors (more on AI later).

As my former canoe instructor—now world-renowned leadership and marketing guru—Seth Godin says:

You don’t need more time. You just need to decide.

For investors who may be…still waiting, I would adapt that to: You don’t need more time. You just need to invest.

 

—————–

WHAT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR…HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

I usually save the housekeeping items for the end of these letters—but this quarter, a few updates are important enough that I didn’t want to keep you waiting.

Ginsler.ai

While others are just realizing the power of AI, we’ve been focused on it for years. For a refresher, I recommend my January 2023 interview with Jordan Jacobs, Founder & Managing Partner at Radical Ventures. We believe AI is not just another trend—it’s likely the most transformative force of our lifetimes.

This summer, The Unlimited Podcast will feature a series of interviews with an AI theme, including my recent interview with entrepreneur Michael Hyatt, and a follow-up interview with Jordan 2.5 years after the original. You don’t want to miss these.

At Ginsler Wealth, we’re already using AI in our day-to-day operations. In my view, if a business is still waiting to engage with AI, they’re already behind. And to take it a step further: I’ve personally spent considerable time building and training a conversational AI version of myself—complete with memory of everything we’ve published since Day 1. We call it (me?) Ginsler.ai. Try it out—it’s a quick way to tap into how we think and what we do—no scrolling required.

 

Client Portal is Live

Our Ginsler Wealth client portal, including mobile app, is now being rolled out to clients in waves. If you have not already received your activation email, please look out for it in the next week or so. Going forward, we will deliver your monthly and quarterly reports via this secure portal.

 

Family Office Associate Wanted

As our firm continues to grow, we are looking to add a key team member: a Family Office Associate to work with our clients and provide holistic wealth, financial, planning and investment services.

The ideal candidate will likely have an accounting (CPA) or financial planning (CFP) designation. Most importantly, we need someone with a huge passion for helping families with their financial affairs. If that passion is there – I can train them in the “Ginsler Wealth Way”. We have had some great interest but I am still searching for the best fit. So I’m enlisting your help. Full details of the opportunity can be found here. I would really appreciate you sharing with your own networks. I may be biased, but I genuinely believe there’s no better place to build a meaningful career—and make a real difference—than here at Ginsler Wealth.

 

Reminder: Private X Account for Clients

Earlier in 2024, we launched @ginslerwealthx, a private X (formerly Twitter) account exclusively for clients and close friends of the firm.

While we remain active on public social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, our public X account, and The Unlimited Podcast, this private channel lets us share more candid thoughts, ideas, and firm updates—without overloading your inbox. If you’re not yet following…what are you waiting for? Request access and we’ll let you in (Note: followers can see one another).

Think of it as the only thing “limited” about your Ginsler Wealth experience.

 

—————–

 

With all this emphasis on action, you might think that we’ve tossed patience aside. But actually, in investing, patience is what matters most, after you act. More on that in a future letter.

Speaking of patience, now that Canada Day has passed, the long wait for the Canadian summer is over. Wishing you a wonderful summer filled with life’s most important investments: your family, your friends, and experiences that create lasting memories. Those definitely can’t wait!

Thank you for your continued trust, support, and confidence. The AI hasn’t replaced the real humans at Ginsler Wealth (yet); we are still available 24/7 should you need us.

Sincerely,

Brian Ginsler
President & CEO

 

 

 

 

[i] Reminder that every client has different risk tolerances, goals, objectives, time horizons, etc. and each portfolio at Ginsler Wealth is tailored for each individual client’s circumstances.

[ii] Past performance may not be indicative of future performance.

[iii] Given the large investment minimum and high risk associated with early-stage venture capital, this opportunity is only appropriate for certain clients. The claim of “one of the world’s best” is based on comparable return histories prepared by Cambridge Associates and shared with Ginsler Wealth by the manager, specific details of which are kept in Ginsler Wealth’s files on a confidential basis due to a non-disclosure agreement in place.

(An audio version of this letter can now be found as Episode 45 of The Unlimited Podcast by Ginsler Wealth. Use the link provided or find us on your favourite podcast app.)

To Ginsler Wealth’s Clients:

This past August, in the middle of this past calendar quarter, equity markets around the world experienced significant declines. This was particularly evident in the U.S., driven by several of the Magnificent Seven[i]. Contributing factors included a slowing economy, job creation not meeting expectations, Buffett selling half of his favourite stock (Apple), and companies investing billions in NVIDIA processors and chips not seeing the anticipated returns.

Coincidentally, I chose the August long weekend to visit a resort in my favourite place on earth, Algonquin Park, where there is no cell reception.

Or so I thought.

In the very early hours of Monday (August 4) morning, a faint, single bar of service must have magically appeared, and a few errant texts slipped through, along with a single Wall Street Journal news alert notification…

“Oh shoot,” I said to my wife. “Japan’s stock index fell 12.4% last night!” (Full disclosure: I didn’t actually use the word “shoot”).

Despite my excitement about being disconnected for a few days, I felt this news warranted driving out of the resort until we found reliable cell reception. We were like characters from the movie Twister, but instead of chasing tornadoes, we were chasing cellular service.

When I saw two bars of reception on my screen, we pulled the car over to the side of the dirt road, and I quickly caught up on what was happening in the world and markets.

It wasn’t pretty.

 

DO SOMETHING!?!

During those ugly days in early August, the Japanese stock market was actually down about 25% from its July high and the U.S. stock market was down about 8.5% from its July high. See chart below…

With 2022 now far behind us, investors may have forgotten what it feels like to have a big down day (or a few days). This is normal for equity markets. For investors, this is the required cost of striving for solid long-term returns. But history has shown that the “Average Investor” often reacts impulsively or out of fear when markets suddenly decline—with a feeling that they must do something. As the table below shows, historically, this has resulted in the Average Investor significantly underperforming relative to almost any relevant asset class or benchmark. While the data below is a few years old, I am confident its conclusion has not changed materially in the last few years.

So what happened following August’s sudden declines? As is often the case, the markets’ steepest declines are quickly followed by steep increases (as you can see in the chart below). By the last day of the quarter, the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high, and Japan’s Nikkei index had recovered much of its decline.

When viewed on a longer-term basis, these market blips become irrelevant (see chart below); but in the moment can feel like they are the beginning of the end! Over the past ten years we have experienced numerous events that have shaken the markets. Here are ten big ones as summarized by ChatGPT:

1. 2014 Oil Price Crash: A sharp decline in oil prices, beginning in mid-2014, impacted global markets, particularly energy stocks and economies reliant on oil exports.
2. 2015-2016 Chinese Stock Market Turbulence: A selloff in Chinese equities and a devaluation of China’s currency led to global market volatility and declines.
3. Brexit Referendum, 2016: The United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union on June 23, 2016, caused immediate market uncertainty and declines, particularly in European stocks and the British pound.
4. 2018 Trade Tensions: Ongoing trade disputes, especially between the United States and China, led to market volatility and corrections throughout the year.
5. COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020: The onset of the coronavirus pandemic led to one of the most severe market crashes in history, culminating in significant declines in March 2020 as global economies went into lockdown.
6. 2020 U.S. Election Uncertainty: The uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential election results and associated political tensions contributed to market turbulence in late 2020.
7. Supply Chain Disruptions, 2021: Global supply chain issues, exacerbated by the pandemic, led to inflation concerns and subsequent market volatility.
8. Ukraine-Russia Conflict, 2022: The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in geopolitical instability, rising energy prices, and global economic uncertainty, affecting global markets.
9. 2022 Inflation and Interest Rate Hikes: Rising inflation rates and subsequent aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks, particularly the U.S. Federal Reserve, led to market corrections and increased volatility throughout the year.
10. Banking Sector Concerns, 2023: Issues within the banking sector, including the collapse of several regional banks, triggered market declines and fears of financial instability.

Interestingly, ChatGPT neglected to include the horrific events that occurred one year ago on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent unbelievable events that continue to this day. I feel it is important to acknowledge this sad anniversary. I continue to pray for the return of innocent hostages taken into Gaza, for peace in the Middle East, and for an end to the abhorrent antisemitism we have seen all over the world.

The events above, along with countless others, profoundly influenced global stock markets, each causing varying levels of uncertainty, fear, and shifts in investor sentiment. And yet, simply holding the S&P 500 index through those last ten years of market blips, would have generated an approximate annualized 11% price return (or 13% total return, when including dividends).

On the topic of doing nothing, the latest episode of The Unlimited Podcast featured award winning author and my first finance professor at Ivey Business School, Stephen Foerster. We discussed his latest book, Trailblazers, Heroes, & Crooks: Stories to Make You a Smarter Investor. Professor Foerster specifically recounts a few stories of trailblazers and heroes who were masters of the art of doing nothing – or as Steve labels it: Masterly Inactivity. Rather than repeat those stories here, I encourage you to listen to the episode if you haven’t already.

 

SO WHAT DID I DO? (TAKE A GUESS…)

Back to the side of the road…

With my pulse initially racing, my mind worked quickly to calculate what my next moves should be:

• Are our client portfolios overly exposed to the “Mag 7”? No.
• Are our client portfolios sufficiently diversified to handle an equity market pullback? Yes.
• In our actively managed equity and hedge strategies, will the underlying managers take steps to maximize opportunity or minimize loss? Yes.
• With a long-term lens, did that morning’s market action change anything we have implemented in client portfolios? No.

I very quickly concluded that the best course of action was to do nothing.

Having done the necessary work in advance, and knowing that we had carefully and diligently constructed our clients’ portfolios to handle market volatility[iii], the only thing left for my wife and me to do was to turn around, drive back to the lake, and hit the water…where things were much calmer…

—————–

All that being said, there’s actually a lot of activity – investment and other – going on at Ginsler Wealth, and I look forward to sharing it with you in next quarter’s letter. Maybe I’ll call it the “Do Something Edition”.

Thank you for your trust, support, and confidence. We are available 24/7 should you need us.

Sincerely,

Brian Ginsler
President & CEO

 

 

—————–

[i] The term “Magnificent Seven” in the context of the stock market refers to the seven leading technology or tech-related companies in the United States, known for their significant impact on the market due to their large market capitalizations and influence. The Magnificent Seven typically includes: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META): formerly Facebook, and Tesla (TSLA). These companies are noted for driving substantial market trends and innovation, often serving as a barometer for the technology sector and broader stock market performance.

[ii] Source: J.P. Morgan Guide to the Markets 2021-03-31. Average asset allocation investor return is based on an analysis by Dalbar Inc., which utilizes the net of aggregate mutual fund sales, redemptions and exchanges each month as a measure of investor behavior. Returns are annualized (and total return where applicable) and represent the
20-year period ending 2019-12-31 to match Dalbar’s most recent analysis.

[iii] As always, each client’s portfolio is constructed for their particular needs, goals, and objectives, and as such, may react differently under varying market conditions.