(An audio version of this letter can be found as Episode 63 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:
Back in my investment banking days, I spent a great deal of time working on prospectuses for companies going public or raising additional capital in the public markets. One principle governed that work above all others: “full, true, and plain disclosure,” the standard for communicating clearly with investors.
So when I mentioned in my last quarterly letter that our firm’s main colours are black and yellow because I am partially colourblind, that was “true” and “plain” disclosure — but admittedly, not “full” disclosure.
While no regulator or investor is looking for further disclosure on our firm’s colour palette, here is the full story:
In 1986, I arrived in Algonquin Park for my first summer as a camper at Camp Arowhon, where my uncle Elly was the camp director. Every morning after breakfast in the Main Lodge, with the entire camp gathered together, my uncle would begin the day’s announcements the same way.
“Good morning campers.” And the entire camp, in unison, would respond: “Good morning uncle Ellyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” the “eeee” rising higher and higher until everyone ran out of breath.
At nine years old, on my very first morning at camp, I felt like a real big shot — because uncle Elly was actually my Uncle Elly. (And by the way, Uncle Elly was also partially colourblind.)
And every morning at breakfast, Uncle Elly and many of the campers and staff would wear their iconic golden yellow Camp Arowhon sweatshirts. The same “Arowhon Yellow”[i] painted on every canoe I paddled for hours each day as I trained to become a 1st Class Canoeist and eventual canoe instructor; the same Arowhon Yellow canoes that rest at my favourite place on earth – Arowhon’s canoe dock – that I stare at every day on the large photograph that hangs on the wall directly across from my office desk.
I still have just one of those yellow sweatshirts — carefully stored and protected, the way you’d safeguard something irreplaceable.
And so, when it came time to brand Ginsler Wealth, it felt natural — beyond the fact that black and yellow work well for both mine and my Uncle Elly’s eyes — to choose a colour introduced to me through him, and one that has long been a reminder of what results from discipline, perseverance, and hard work.
So, when Uncle Elly passed away this past September, having pictured him in his yellow Camp Arowhon sweatshirts for all these years, I was surprised — as executor of his estate — to find no evidence of any Arowhon Yellow in his closet. I suppose they are disappearing gems; just like him.
True, plain, and now full, disclosure.
WEALTH IS HARD
Fast forward to the middle of this past quarter — the fourth quarter of 2025 — and I’m on a plane headed to Montreal to see one of our multi-family office clients. At Ginsler Wealth, we work with families holistically, across both investment management and the broader world of wealth management — everything that isn’t just investing. For some families, that means being deeply embedded in their financial lives, coordinating and overseeing virtually everything on a day-to-day basis. This is what we refer to as family office services.
As I settled into my seat, waiting for the plane to take off, I pulled up the latest product reveal presentation by Wealthsimple’s CEO, Michael Katchen. He’s been doing these “Steve Jobs-like” launches a few times a year now, as his firm — a genuinely impressive one — continues to roll out new banking and investing features at low or no cost for millions of Canadians.
As his announcements unfolded, my mind drifted to what we had been doing for families over the past quarter and year…
I had personally been acting as executor for Uncle Elly’s estate, with my team assisting — a complex, time-consuming responsibility that few people are prepared for when they’re suddenly thrust into it. We had also experienced the passing of one of our dear clients and were helping her children navigate the same kinds of complications. At the same time, we were supporting several families going through divorces, particularly spouses who had never been responsible for managing the family’s finances. These are not moments when wealth feels simple.
One of those spouses texted me this past quarter:
“I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help and support. When I say I would have been lost without you, I mean it. Knowing you were – and are – looking out for me – made all the difference. It allowed me to breathe and make an excruciating situation a little easier. You went so beyond the call of duty. I am very well aware of that. And I will never forget that.”
(The quote shown is from a current client. No compensation was provided. We are not aware of any material conflicts of interest. [ii])
There are many more examples like these — too many to list here.
Back on the plane, now taxiing toward the runway, it finally clicked. Watching a firm brilliantly promote how simple wealth can be for many Canadians, while thinking about the real-world complexity we were helping families manage every day, I thought to myself: Wealthsimple? No…Wealthhard. And as the plane lifted off the ground, I clicked “buy” and secured the wealthhard.com domain name.
See me explain the whole story on video here.
To be clear, none of this detracts from the remarkable work Wealthsimple is doing to democratize banking and investing in Canada. They are a great solution for most Canadians; just not for the families we serve.
Wealthhard is our way of naming a reality we see every day. It’s a micro-brand that highlights our family office services — work many of you already experience in part, and some of you experience in full — and a recognition that as success grows, wealth rarely gets simpler. It gets harder.
THE INTERVIEWER BECOMES THE INTERVIEWEE
The Wealthhard site also features several clips from a recent (video) interview I did with Ira Gluskin on The Unlimited Podcast. I’m usually the one asking the questions, but this time the roles were reversed. Ira pressed me on my path through the investment and wealth management industries, my years at Gluskin Sheff, and the founding of Ginsler Wealth and the services we provide today. Having run his own family office alongside his partner Gerry Sheff, Ira has a deep appreciation for the family office model — and, as always, he brings his own thoughtful colour commentary to the conversation.
THE WEALTHHARD GAME
Just for fun — and to illustrate why wealth (and investing) is hard — I experimented with “vibe-coding” (a term I never expected to apply to myself) and built a simple wealth management game using various AI tools. Conceiving, coding, and publishing a fully functioning web game in just a few weeks was a mind-blowing experience, and a strong validation of the excitement surrounding AI right now (hint: I don’t think it’s hype).
While fun, I did this deliberately to ensure that our team at Ginsler Wealth continues to learn how to use the tools of the future. I’m not aware of any wealth management firm that has ever coded and released an online game — but then again, we’ve never been particularly interested in doing things the way everyone else does.
Test your investing skill and see if you can make the leaderboard. You might discover that investing is much easier with hindsight.
INVESTING IS EASY
I can’t write a year-end letter without addressing the investing environment and how we’ve been positioning portfolios.
As the Wealthhard game illustrates, investing is easy when viewed in hindsight (you’ll see what I mean when you try the game), and 2025 highlighted again that if you just held the leading technology companies – or the U.S. market more broadly – and didn’t flinch when…
- trade wars and tariff threats resurfaced,
- markets sold off on fears of slowing growth,
- inflation data surprised to the upside,
- interest rates stayed “higher for longer,”
- AI valuations were repeatedly called a bubble,
- geopolitical conflicts escalated,
- tech stocks experienced sharp pullbacks,
- headlines warned of recessions, corrections, or crashes,
- investors rotated out of risk assets, and
- sentiment swung from euphoria to fear (and back again) …
…you would have experienced strong results in 2025.
Of course, we know many investors did flinch (particularly around President Trump’s “Liberation Day” in March/April) because investing is easy in hindsight, but very difficult in real time.
Against that backdrop, and both leading into and throughout 2025, we made several deliberate portfolio adjustments. We increased exposure to international and emerging markets; added new Canadian and U.S. equity mandates with a greater “value” orientation; introduced a new quantitative fixed-income strategy; and continued allocating to an alternative options-income strategy. For various reasons, we also fully exited at least two of the strategies we had been allocating to for years. For certain clients, where appropriate, we invested in three venture capital funds focused on either AI, Israeli technology, or both.
As in most years, some core holdings performed very well, while others — particularly some of the value-oriented equity managers — lagged on a relative basis (though all remained positive). We like to remind both ourselves and our clients that if all holdings in your portfolios are moving up at the same time, they can do the same in the other direction. Consistent with that philosophy, as 2025 came to a close — and as we continue into early 2026 — we have been adding to several of the recently underperforming strategies. If and when broader markets and growth-oriented stocks falter, we expect these diversifying strategies to play a more important role.[iii]
That work sits alongside our ongoing effort to identify additional high-quality, durable, and less-correlated investments to add to our lineup. We are close on a few, but as always, our due diligence continues.
As we enter 2026 (and like all previous years that came before it), nobody knows what the future holds (or as Barry Ritholtz put it on The Unlimited Podcast in October: “Nobody knows anything.”), which is precisely why our approach has always been to stay diversified, disciplined, and humble about what markets will do next, because investing is only easy in hindsight.
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Looking back, becoming a camper at Uncle Elly’s camp did more than give me great memories — it shaped how I think about mastery. Learning to become a 1st Class Canoeist in those unmistakable Arowhon Yellow canoes required discipline, hard work, and serious focus and commitment. There were no shortcuts. And it wasn’t simple or easy. Years later, I see the same lessons reflected in our work at Ginsler Wealth. Managing investments is hard in real time. Managing wealth — across families, life events, and generations — is even harder. Both demand clarity, organization, and the ability to remain disciplined when outcomes are uncertain.
So as we welcome 2026, I’ll wish you an easy year ahead, and assure you we will do our best to make your wealth management needs a little less hard.
The view from my desk: Kandy Gallery. Neil Dankoff’s Vintage Boathouse. Canoe dock, Camp Arowhon in Algonquin Park, Ontario.
Perhaps that brings us back to where this letter began. I’ve always known that colour as “Arowhon Yellow”; my team now calls it Ginsler Wealth Yellow — and I like the sound of that. Thank you for your continued trust, support, and confidence. We are available 24/7 should you need us.
Sincerely,
Brian Ginsler
President & CEO
[i] The colour is actually not a custom or proprietary Camp Arowhon colour. According to Joanne Kates, owner and former Director of Camp Arowhon, “It was called Alaska Gold, and from an ordinary paint company.” And the “Ginsler Wealth Yellow” is an approximation and not precisely either Alaska Gold nor “Arowhon Yellow”.
[ii] As a Registered Investment Advisor regulated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) we are required to include prominent disclaimers directly alongside any testimonial or endorsement.
[iii] Of course, investing involves significant uncertainty and nothing detailed herein should be deemed any guarantee of future performance.
