Savings & Investments
Save Smart, Invest Wisely: The Building Blocks of Financial Returns
The Most Sophisticated Results Start with Simple Building Blocks
Great portfolios — like great music, literature, or art — are crafted from a few essential elements. Understanding these elements is what gives you true clarity over how your wealth grows.
We offer Investment Advisory services across registered accounts and more.
RRSP / RRIF (Registered Retirement Savings Plan / Retirement Income Fund)
TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account)
RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan)
FHSA (First Home Savings Account)
All other investment accounts
How Great Returns are Designed with Purpose & Intention
Simplicity Matters More Than Complexity
At Open Concept, we believe that strong portfolios, like strong decisions, are grounded in first principles.
Before you can appreciate the intricacies of compounding, market cycles, or strategy layers, you need to understand the few forces that quietly shape every return you see.
We break down what really drives your portfolio performance — and offer important insights that even seasoned investors sometimes miss.
If you’ve ever wondered why two portfolios with the same assets perform differently, or why your returns sometimes feel disconnected from market headlines, read on.
Financial Returns are Driven by Two Key Forces
1/ Investment Returns
The growth (or decline) driven by the assets you hold — stocks, bonds, real estate, or others.
2/Taxes
The structure of your investments and accounts plays a major role in how much of your returns stay with you.
Many investors focus on picking the right assets — but overlook how currency movements can quietly add or erode returns, even when the investments themselves perform as expected.
Likewise, while lower fees seem appealing, cost alone doesn’t tell the full story. What matters is whether the portfolio’s design earns its keep — delivering smarter, more resilient outcomes that justify what you pay.
At Open Concept, we design portfolios that consider not just what you own, but how every moving part — returns, currencies, costs — fits together to protect and optimize the growth of your money.
The Critical Considerations Most Investors Overlook — But Shouldn’t
What Shapes Returns
Not all returns are built the same way. Some offer steady income, others capture market momentum, and some are built to preserve value through uncertainty. A well-designed plan blends different tools and market assets so you can act responsively to cycles, momentum shifts, and market trends.
A thoughtful portfolio understands which forces you’re truly exposed to — and why, so you can capture enduring opportunities for long-term wealth while adapting to how markets change over time.
The Right Kind of Growth
When you look at your portfolio’s performance, it’s important to ask two simple but very different questions:
Absolute Return: Did my portfolio grow at all?
Relative Return: Did my portfolio grow more or less than a benchmark, like a stock index?
Both are useful — but neither tells the whole story on their own.
Chasing relative returns, like "beating the market," often distracts from what matters most: whether your portfolio is doing the real job you need it to do. Growing your wealth is important, but it’s not just about outperforming headlines. It’s about supporting your life plans with the right balance of growth, resilience, and flexibility.
And even absolute growth — on paper — isn’t enough if it doesn’t keep up with the rising cost of living. That’s where real return comes in.
Real return measures how much your purchasing power grows after accounting for inflation. Nominal gains can look impressive — but if inflation outpaces your returns, you’re quietly falling behind, even if the numbers seem bigger.
At Open Concept, we design portfolios focused on real-world outcomes that hold their value over time, so the wealth you’re building today still has meaning tomorrow.
Time & Risks Influence Every Decision
1/ Time Horizon affects what types of returns you should prioritize (growth vs preservation).
2/ Risk tolerance affects what kind of volatility you can endure without abandoning the plan.
Clarity and alignment on both dimensions give your plan the strength to hold up — not just in the best seasons, but when real life happens too.
When we look at time horizon, we’re asking a simple but important question: How soon will you need this money? Funds needed in the near future — for a home, education, or major life event — should be invested differently than money set aside for decades. A longer horizon gives you the space to ride through short-term volatility and let compounding do its work. A shorter horizon calls for more stability, more liquidity, and less reliance on timing.
Risk tolerance is just as personal. When we explore it with clients, we’re not measuring fear — we’re understanding your natural posture toward uncertainty. Your comfort with market swings matters, not because emotions should lead your strategy, but because emotional resilience is a core part of any plan designed to last.
Measuring What Actually Matters
It’s easy to focus only on whether the numbers are going up or down. But real progress isn’t just about market movements — it’s about whether you’re moving closer to the life you want.
Most people naturally look to stock indexes, headlines, or what others are doing for a sense of how they’re doing. The challenge is, those benchmarks weren’t built for your goals. They shift constantly and don’t always reflect what matters most to you.
The right measure of success is simple: Are you staying on track for the future you’re building? Is your portfolio supporting the milestones and freedoms you care about most — and adjusting with you as life changes?
At Open Concept, we measure it against your plan — so you have real confidence that you're not just growing wealth, but building the life you set out to create.
Real Stories. Lasting Impact.
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A Family's Promise
A client came to us with a goal: pass their small business to their children without losing a large share to taxes. We designed a plan that protected $300,000 in value and kept ownership within the family. Today, one of the daughters is leading the business into its next chapter.
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Protecting Family. Powering Growth.
When a real estate agent wanted to protect his family without tying up the capital he needed to keep growing his business. With permanent insurance in place and financing structured against it, he kept his cash flowing — and secured his family’s future.
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A Fresh Start
When a client received a severance, they were eager — and anxious — to put it to work wisely. We designed a plan that protected their payout and fueled new growth. Twelve months later, their money was growing harder and faster than it ever had when they were employed.
The goal of investing is not to beat others at the game. It’s to control your own outcomes.
— Benjamin Graham