Update on Our Company

About 4 years ago, we got the thumbs up from the Ontario Securities Commission (“OSC”) to start a business on February 1, 2022, in what is called the “portfolio manager category”.

Unlike a doctor or lawyer – who can practice medicine or law – managing money is a bit more complicated.

It’s somewhat like a staircase where some people can stand on the bottom of the stairs while others are a bit closer to the top. On the first step is someone that can sell you mutual funds. A few steps higher is someone that can buy and sell stocks, but only after talking to you and attaining approval. At the top of the staircase is a “discretionary portfolio manager”.  This is someone that has the highest credentials in the industry, and Schneider & Pollock Wealth Management Inc. is happy to say we have that credential. (If you have money with someone else, click here to see if they are a discretionary portfolio manager, which the regulators call an “Advising Representative”.)

After hearing from the OSC that our registration was approved, we then needed some clients. Both Sunni and I hit the phones, and our family and friends were our initial investors.

We measure our success by one single metric, which is how many clients we have. By the end of 2022, we had 31 clients. In 2023, it was 42; then 55 in 2024; and 61 in 2025. As of today, we have 66 clients.

We’ve become good friends with many of our clients along the way. We didn’t expect to get invited to a comedy show at Yuk Yuk’s the same day one person signed the forms, nor did we anticipate attending an “ugly Christmas sweater” evening last December (photos were taken but are unfortunately unavailable for distribution).

We also didn’t expect to manage the entire family tree (literally) of one family, whom we have helped with extensive estate planning as of late. Their future generations will benefit a lot from our work that has nothing to do with buying/selling stocks.

We did, however, anticipate our growth.

And here are 3 reasons why.

#1 Respond immediately

Last Saturday morning, I received a slew of messages from a client that transferred money to the wrong account.

She realized right away it was a problem, and obviously panicked because there are significant fines by CRA for the error.

Nevertheless, I replied to her about 15 minutes later, and we got the issue resolved.

I wrote that this was Saturday morning, right?

Before the resolution, though, I asked her to phone the bank for reasons we don’t need to get into.

She told me that after dialing the number, the recording said to call during “business hours”.

All of our clients have our personal cell phone numbers, so there’s no barrier to getting a hold of us 7 days a week. Whether it’s an evening, weekend, or holiday, we respond to people as soon as they reach out, and clients have noticed.

#2 Send regular updates on someone’s life savings

We’re required by law to send a statement to clients every three months showing their investment holdings and any transactions that took place over the previous 90 days.

This is to let the person know what trades we made and how much money they have.

We think 3 months isn’t timely enough; people want to know how their finances are doing more regularly, so we send a statement out to every client on a monthly basis.

On Monday, March 2, we sent everyone their February 28 month-end statement.

We got 4 replies, which said:

Client #1:

Good afternoon Sunni & Jeff

Great Job!!

Thank you for your intuition in reading the market and all your hard work.

Have a Great Day!!

Client #2:

Thank you, Sunni. That’s good news! Well done.

Best regards to you and Jeff.

Client #3 and #4:

Thank you! and Thank you!!

#3 Clients First

Our honorary founder, Nuge Schneider, was very well liked by his clients and friends.

Nuge once told me during a heated market selloff that he built his career on service, not trying to be one step ahead of the next market theme.

It was great advice.

Years later, a newspaper asked me about Nuge and I shared my opinions.

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We are so grateful to our 66 clients for their trust in our management and will continue to work hard on your behalf.

-written by Jeff Pollock & Sunni Schneider