Paul Sinclair

Senior Wealth Advisor

Paul is a seasoned Financial Advisor. He holds a degree from Bishop’s University, where he focused on economics after beginning his academic journey at York University. This educational foundation in economics has equipped him with a deep understanding of financial markets and economic principles, enabling him to provide insightful and effective financial guidance. Throughout his career, Paul has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to professional excellence. He has successfully completed all required securities licensing, ensuring compliance with Canadian regulatory standards and a thorough understanding of investment products and strategies. Additionally, Paul has completed the Personal Financial Planning course at the Canadian Securities Institute. Paul specializes in delivering personalized wealth management services, helping clients navigate complex financial decisions to achieve their long-term goals. His approach is rooted in a client-centric philosophy, leveraging his extensive experience to craft tailored strategies that address individual needs, whether for retirement planning, wealth accumulation, or risk management. His dedication to ongoing professional development ensures that he remains at the forefront of industry trends and best practices. As a trusted advisor, Paul is committed to building lasting relationships with his clients, offering clarity and confidence in their financial futures. His expertise, combined with a passion for helping others succeed, makes him a valuable partner for foundations, high-net-worth individuals and families seeking to secure their financial well-being.

Wealth Management and Investment Philosophy

Our Wealth Management and Investment philosophy is rooted in a holistic, evidence-based approach that integrates comprehensive financial planning with sophisticated investment management. We are committed to understanding each client’s unique financial situation, goals, and risk tolerance to craft personalized strategies that foster long-term financial success.

Strategic Portfolio Construction

Our approach begins with a comprehensive assessment to understand your unique risk profile and long-term objectives. Using tools such as detailed Investment Policy Questionnaires and historical data analysis, we evaluate your capacity to navigate uncertainty and align our strategies with your comfort level and goals. We then design diversified solutions that balance cost efficiency with performance potential. These strategies combine broad market exposure through cost-effective methods with targeted approaches that seek to enhance outcomes, including evidence-based factor techniques and selective active insights. This balanced methodology is designed to optimize results, manage risk, and adapt to changing conditions with resilience and discipline.

Comprehensive Financial Projections

Our process begins with a deep dive into your financial life, encompassing your aspirations, current circumstances, and future objectives. Through advanced financial modeling and projections, we create tailored plans that bring clarity to your financial future. These models incorporate detailed analyses of cash flows, retirement scenarios, tax implications, and estate planning considerations, ensuring that every aspect of your financial well-being is addressed. By leveraging data-driven insights and cutting-edge financial tools, we help you visualize and navigate your path to achieving your goals, whether that involves funding education, planning for retirement, or building a lasting legacy.

Portfolio Oversight and Transparency

To help ensure your portfolio remains aligned with your goals, its progress is reviewed regularly in collaboration with you and our team, where we may reference relevant indices for context on performance and focus on returns after fees. This collaborative review process helps assess portfolio effectiveness and provides clear and timely reporting, keeping you informed on how your investments are progressing. We work closely with our team to identify opportunities for rebalancing and tax-efficient strategies when appropriate, always keeping you informed every step of the way.

Behavioral Coaching and Discipline

A key component of our philosophy is helping clients stay disciplined during market volatility. Research indicates that investors often underperform due to emotional decisions, such as redeeming investments at inopportune times. Our ongoing behavioral coaching, which accounts for a portion of the value we add (approximately 150 basis points, per Vanguard’s analysis), empowers clients to maintain focus on their long-term objectives, avoiding common pitfalls that can derail financial success.

Evidence-Based Decision-Making

Our investment philosophy is grounded in evidence-based decision-making, informed by historical data and industry research. For example, studies like the Trinity Study (1926–2014) highlight the importance of disciplined, long-term investing, while Vanguard’s analysis suggests that professional advice can add approximately 3% to net returns through best practices in asset allocation, cost management, and behavioral coaching (Vanguard Advisor’s Alpha). Vanguard's research on when to rebalance, and how and when to deploy new capital facilitates confident data-driven recommendations. We incorporate these insights to ensure our strategies are robust and aligned with proven methodologies.

Why Our Approach Matters

Our philosophy is designed to deliver measurable value through a combination of personalized planning, evidence-based investing, and disciplined execution. By integrating low-cost, diversified investments with strategic alpha-seeking opportunities, we aim to maximize returns while managing risk. Our holistic approach considers not only your investments but also your broader financial picture, including tax strategies, estate planning, and legacy goals. With a team of experienced professionals and a commitment to ongoing education, we strive to empower you with the confidence and clarity needed to achieve your financial aspirations.

At CI Assante Wealth Management, ensuring the security of assets entrusted to us by clients is a key priority. It goes hand in hand with our mission – to help create wealth and prosperity for Canadian families.

In partnership with our professional advisors, who are among the most highly respected and accredited in the country, we are pleased to outline here four key safeguards that are in place to protect your assets: our strong corporate backing, the security safekeeping measures we follow, our adherence to strict industry standards and industry-wide investor protection.

Sincerely,

Sean Etherington
President
CI Assante Wealth Management

Strong corporate backing

The first level of client protection is provided by our comprehensive governance processes and the substantial financial resources of CI Assante Wealth Management’s parent company, CI Financial Corp. Assante’s legal and compliance personnel keep senior management, as well as CI Financial’s board of directors, aware of legal, regulatory and compliance matters on a continuous basis. In addition, CI Financial’s Internal Audit Department plays an integral role by reviewing and testing the processes and internal controls of Assante to ensure they are meeting regulatory requirements.

CI Financial is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “CIX” and is a component of the S&P/TSX Composite Index. CI Financial’s status as a publicly traded company provides additional transparency and accountability through continuous financial disclosure obligations.

CI Financial, Canada’s third largest investment fund company, is financially strong. See CI Financial’s most recent annual and quarterly reports and other related investor information.

Security safekeeping measures

Assante is required by regulators to maintain adequate capital to cover our business risks, keep comprehensive and accurate records and employ appropriate securities handling procedures. Most securities owned by our clients are held through central industry-wide electronic or book-based systems. In this approach, investments are tracked using independent service providers, including FundSERV in the case of mutual funds, and the Canadian Depository for Securities for most equity securities. In situations where fully paid up securities are physically held by us, they are kept separate from any securities related to our corporate investing activities and are subject to regulatory audit on an annual basis. This safeguard helps to ensure that clients’ investments are not subject to any risks related to their dealer’s business activities and are adequately segregated for the benefit of clients. Custodial services for all securities, other than mutual funds, held in client nominee accounts are provided through CI Investment Services Inc., and National Bank Independent Network for client margin accounts. The provision of security recordkeeping and custody by independent service providers results in multiple parties being involved in transactions within our clients' accounts. The benefit to clients is additional oversight of the firm's procedures to ensure all assets are accounted for accurately.

Strict industry standards

Assante’s dealer subsidiaries, Assante Capital Management Ltd., a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), and Assante Financial Management Ltd., a member of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA), are subject to the oversight of the provincial securities commissions. Both Assante Capital Management and Assante Financial Management are required to adhere to regulations governing investor protection, financial market integrity, and stringent recordkeeping. These requirements are monitored by IIROC and the MFDA, respectively, through independent audits conducted regularly by external auditors and by examiners or the regulators. IIROC and MFDA undertake business conduct examinations that include the assessment of marketing materials, trades, disclosures on client statements, and branch operations, as well as financial compliance audits that include a detailed review of the firm’s financial and custodial procedures and adherence with regulatory policies. In addition, every financial advisor at Assante is subject to regulatory oversight. For every relationship you have, we would encourage you to check with the applicable regulator to ensure the firm is registered and in good standing.

Industry-wide protection

Although Assante clients’ assets are segregated from the dealer’s assets, additional security is provided to our clients through industry investor protection plans that will reimburse investors, within predefined limits, if their dealer becomes insolvent or bankrupt and their assets are missing as a result. The Canadian Investor Protection Fund reimburses clients of securities dealers up to a maximum loss of $1 million by account type (i.e. separate coverage for open accounts and registered accounts). The MFDA Investor Protection Corporation provides similar protection for clients of mutual fund dealers.

For more information

To find out more about how your assets are protected, we encourage you to visit these online sources:

Office Address

3380 South Service Rd Suite 209
Burlington, Ontario
L7N 3J5 Canada