Healthy relationships create healthy returns

They say the stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. CMI has witnessed the value of effective investor relations firsthand.

As part of a weekly spotlight tracing the emerging success of Ontario-based rising stars, Canadian Mortgages Inc., CREW has been speaking with VP Bryan Jaskolka about what makes this team tick.

"Having a personal relationship with our investors has been one of the key drivers to our success," he says. "Ultimately, we have our own portfolio and the processes we use to manage are exactly the same as the ones we use to manage our clients' money as well. We really do believe that."

As the market continues to fluctuate, CMI's investors do appear to sleep more soundly. No doubt the result of rigorous efforts to keep them involved throughout every step of the investment process. Communication, then, seems to be another driver for maintaining that harmonious balance.

"We have those personal relationships, but we also have experience in managing expectations so investors know exactly what their getting into. Add to that automation and technology that keeps them in them in the know and you have a clear and transparent relationship."

It is this lack of transparency in the industry that Jaskolka believes leads so many high net-worth potential investors to steer clear from investing as an option and precisely why CMI doubles down on communication.

"It still shocks me today when I run into investors who haven't seen appraisals, who haven't seen supporting documentation or they haven't seen disclosure documents. It's shocking to me because we send them absolutely everything we can get our hands on."

In an age of the market complexity, transparency certainly seems to be the last refuge of weary experienced investors as well as hesitant first-timers dipping a first toe in the market pool. Definitely sound thinking on CMI's part to extend the trend to clients, and a promising pattern for the industry at large.