“Do you own what I own?”
At many firms, the person recommending the portfolio holds something quite different themselves. At Enclave, every member of the team invests in the same positions we recommend to clients — the same private funds, the same public equities, the same structures. Co-investment is not a policy here; it is the way the firm is built. What each client holds, and in what proportion, is set to their own circumstances — the convictions behind those holdings are the ones we hold ourselves. When we have conviction, we are in it alongside you.
“What are you unable to offer me?”
Most advisors work from an approved list, and the most consequential constraint on a portfolio is often what the firm is not permitted — or not incented — to offer. Enclave can allocate to institutional-grade private vehicles, in private credit, real assets, and other markets, that sit outside what many firms are able to provide. The honest answer to this question, anywhere, defines the boundary of the advice.
“Who do you answer to?”
Enclave is not affiliated with any bank or fund manufacturer. We have no proprietary products to favour and no parent institution to satisfy. We are compensated in exactly one way — the fees our clients pay us — and registered with the Ontario Securities Commission as a Portfolio Manager. Independence is what makes unconflicted advice possible; regulation is what holds it to account.
“How many families does your team serve?”
The ratio of a team to the families it looks after is one of the more telling numbers in this business — and one of the least often asked. A team carrying hundreds of relationships cannot, arithmetically, attend to each of them proactively; the gap is usually filled by handing the work — the financial plan, the estate conversation — to someone the client has never met. Enclave stays deliberately small for exactly this reason. The people who make the decisions are the people you speak with, and there are few enough clients that the attention is genuine, not rationed.
“How many positions do you actually hold?”
An advisor who buys into each season’s popular fund can accumulate hundreds of positions across a book — far more than anyone can genuinely follow. Any one client might hold thirty or forty; the firm might hold three or four hundred, with no one truly across all of them. Enclave holds a deliberately limited set of positions, chosen with conviction and held in the team’s own capital alongside yours. If we cannot say plainly why we own something, we do not own it.
“Can you act without calling me first?”
Only a Portfolio Manager can manage accounts on a discretionary basis — acting on a considered decision across every client’s portfolio at once, rather than seeking approval trade by trade. An advisor without that authority has to reach each client before making a change: in practice, a single decision lands for some today, others next week, at different prices, and for a few not at all. It is one reason so many default to packaged funds — a portfolio of individual positions is difficult to run any other way. Enclave manages discretionarily. When conviction calls for a change, we make it for everyone we serve at the same time, and account for it in your reporting and reviews.