Skeptical Investors: Ask Us Anything Before You Decide

Robo-advisors use risk-tolerance questionnaires to slot clients into pre-built portfolio templates — typically 5 to 10 models. Our AI models are custom-built for each engagement, incorporating business cash flow data, multi-account tax optimization, family governance dynamics, and asset-specific inputs that no robo-advisor handles. A trucking company owner whose income swings $400,000 between quarters needs a fundamentally different analytical framework than a salaried professional contributing monthly. We build that framework.

For example, when we onboarded Pacific Prairie Grain Corp., Dr. Elaine Cheung's team trained a recurrent neural network on 11 years of actual transaction history — learning the cash flow cadence so precisely that the portfolio dynamically shifts allocation month-by-month around procurement and settlement cycles. That level of specificity is impossible with a questionnaire. It requires custom model development, ongoing refinement, and a team that understands both the AI and the industry. Our AI-Powered Portfolio Construction service explains the full methodology.

Humans make every final decision. Our AI generates recommendations, surfaces risks, and simulates scenarios — but a CFA or CIM charterholder reviews every output before it reaches a client. AI accelerates research and catches patterns humans miss. The judgment remains human. We treat artificial intelligence as an analytical engine — not an autonomous agent. The distinction matters, and we insist on it.

In practice, this means Marcus Redfield, CIM or Naveen Kaur, CFA reviews every model output, cross-references it against qualitative factors the data can't capture — family dynamics, business transitions, regulatory shifts — and only then formulates a recommendation. Dr. Elaine Cheung puts it bluntly: "Most vendor AI products are a logistic regression wearing a trench coat." We hold our own models to a higher standard, and human oversight is non-negotiable. You can read more about our philosophy on the about page.

Managed portfolio clients: 0.65%–1.10% of assets under advisement annually, depending on portfolio size and account complexity. The rate is tiered — the more you bring, the lower the percentage. Project-based work (consolidation audits, succession modeling, CapEx optimization): flat fees scoped during initial consultation, typically ranging from $1,500 to $12,000 depending on complexity. No commissions. No referral fees. Fee schedule provided in writing before any engagement.

We refuse to earn revenue from product sales — that structural independence eliminates the conflicts embedded in most advisory relationships in Canada. When we recommend an investment, there is no financial incentive pulling us toward one product over another. Our services page breaks down the fee structure in more detail, including what's included at each tier. For context: across our client base, we've identified $2.3M in fee savings since 2018 — often more than enough to offset our advisory fees entirely.

You won't need to understand neural networks any more than you need to understand an MRI to benefit from a diagnostic scan. Every report includes a "So What?" section in ordinary English that explains what the model found, what we recommend, and why. Every recommendation identifies where human judgment overrode the algorithm and why. We also tell you where the model is confident and — critically — where it isn't.

Priya Dhaliwal and Marcus Redfield have built their careers on making complex analysis accessible. Priya is fluent in Punjabi, Hindi, and English — and in plain-language finance, which may be the hardest language of all. Marcus spent 14 years at Raymond James translating institutional-grade analysis into advice business owners actually understand. If you leave a meeting confused, we've failed — and we want to know about it. Our plain-language glossary also defines every technical term you might encounter in our reports.

Yes. IA Investments Inc. is registered as a Portfolio Manager and Exempt Market Dealer in British Columbia under the BC Securities Commission. Registration No. PM-2013-07842 and EMD-2013-07843. Licence No. BC-FIN-2013-4417. Member of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) — Membership No. 91562.

Angela Forsythe, our Operations & Compliance Manager, maintains our registration and compliance program. She holds the PDO compliance designation through the Canadian Securities Institute, and she brought 15 years of operations experience from Richardson Wealth and Canaccord Genuity when she joined in 2021. You can verify our registration through the CSA's National Registration Database at any time. We encourage it — trust should be verifiable, not assumed.

We prefer it. We routinely coordinate with clients' CPAs on tax-loss harvesting timing, CCA schedules, and restructuring implications. We share model outputs with estate lawyers on succession plans. We add an analytical layer your existing team typically doesn't have — AI-driven scenario modeling, multi-account mapping, and quantitative due diligence that complements the legal and tax expertise your advisors already provide.

Investment decisions for business owners are inseparable from tax planning and legal structuring — siloing them is a mistake the industry makes too often. When we worked with Gill Demolition & Recycling, for instance, coordinating tax-loss harvesting timing with their CPA recovered $28,500 in year one alone. That kind of outcome requires professionals talking to each other, not working in isolation. Our Multi-Account Consolidation service is designed around this collaborative approach from the ground up.

For ongoing portfolio management, $500,000 or more in investable assets across all accounts. That includes RRSPs, TFSAs, corporate investment accounts, holding company portfolios, and any other registered or non-registered investment vehicles. We count everything — it doesn't need to be in one place.

For project-based engagements — consolidation audits, CapEx timing, due diligence reviews — there's no asset minimum. If you're below our portfolio minimum but have a specific analytical question, a project engagement may make sense. One-time AI Due Diligence reviews on alternative investment offerings typically run $1,500–$4,000 and have no asset requirement. We'd rather scope the right service than turn someone away who has a genuine need.

Typically 4–6 weeks for standard engagements. Here's how the phases break down:

• Weeks 1–2 (Discovery): Gathering account statements, tax returns, and business records. We listen to your operating context and map the stakeholder landscape.
• Week 3 (Analysis): Analytical phase — initial models built, feature engineering applied to your specific data, custom framework developed.
• Weeks 4–6 (Presentation & Implementation): Plain-language report delivered with a "So What?" section. We present, revise based on your feedback, and implement approved changes.

Complex multi-account or multi-family engagements: 8–10 weeks. We never rush this — model quality depends on data thoroughness. Cutting corners during onboarding produces a portfolio that doesn't actually fit your business. Our How an Engagement Works section has the full breakdown of each phase.