RBC Wealth Management

Scott combines his investment expertise and network with Canada's leading full-service investment firm to provide families, small-medium businesses and foundations with:

* Complete management of their wealth with a customized financial strategy to achieve their goals;
* A focused review of tax saving opportunities and tax efficient investing;
* Superior portfolio construction and management built on Scott's 20yrs+ of investing experience and vast network of investment professionals;
* Peace of Mind = Knowing where you are, where you are going and how you will get there

Investment Advisor

Goldman Sachs

Co-Managed over $600m equity portfolios including launching Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s market neutral Natural Resource Fund

Co-lead the research and selection of over $2bn in natural resource bonds and loans

Developed and lead multi-city North American fund launch effort resulting in over $200m initial raise including tax planning, marketing and structuring

Co Head: Liberty Harbor Natural Resources Fund

Moore Capital / Amaranth Advisors

Invested over $1bn in equity, credit, distressed and event driven situations across multiple industries in Canada

Lead diligence and investment process for primary and secondary market investments

Managing Director / Associate

Bain Capital

Managed valuation modules including: projections, f/x analysis, covenant sensitivity, working capital analysis, management compensation and capitalization

Coordinated deal closing activities, tax structuring, due diligence and marketing for financings

Associate

Credit Suisse First Boston

Analyst

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Building Financial Health & Wealth. Former hedge-fund guy focused on growing & protecting wealth for families & businesses | Keep more, grow smarter, protect your family | Connect to learn about tax & wealth strategies

Scott Zack has over 20 years of investment experience working with some of the most prominent global investors, foundations and institutions.  Now his focus is on offering a platform of investment expertise, financial planning, tax mitigation and estate planning that has traditionally been reserved for only the most affluent.

A giant is falling and it may hurt a lot on the way down.  



Until late 2021, Tesla could do no wrong.   

It had a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion & huge market share. 

The stock had a cult-like following and was one of the most valuable companies.  

Since then the stock is down over 50% despite a booming tech market.  

On Monday it announced disappointing Q1 deliveries which were actually down 8% from last year.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives described the update as an "unmitigated disaster ... that is hard to explain away".

The company blamed production and shipping issues.

Other issues include: general slow down in EV sales, stale product line, competition and consumer concern about Elon Musk’s reputation.  


Giants fall.  Favourites falter.   

Have a plan, don’t chase and stay the course. 

#personalfinance #investing #business

Scott Zack

It’s never too late.  



Now Is Always the Best Time to:

🩺 Get Healthy
💰 Fix your finances
❤️ Tell them you love them
✏️ Learn something new
👩‍🍳 Cook 
✈️ Do something fun 

In finance, health, relationships & development 👉🏽small actions, now = massive growth over time

Compounding is powerful…

So don’t wait - work on your health, finances, relationships…. Now

And you’re not alone.  

There’s help if you don’t know where to start or need support. 

#personalfinance #motivation #success

Please remember 

There will always be someone out there with things you want, but 


✨Nobody has exactly what you have✨


Cherish and protect what you have.  

Make sure you have an estate plan complete with:

⚫️ Wills
⚫️ Powers of Attorney
⚫️ Letters of direction
⚫️ Suitable (and capable) executors 
⚫️ Insurance
⚫️ Gifting plan

Review it all every few years and after major life changes.  

 #insurance #finances #family #happiness

The eclipse was an important reminder. 



Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there…..and can’t hurt you.  

It’s the same with risk.   

👉🏽When your portfolio is moving up, it doesn’t mean there’s no risk 

You still want to understand your downside exposure and positioning.  

🤔Remember, markets tend to have one or two 5-10% corrections every year and a 20%+ correction every 3-4yrs

👉🏽Being overly conservative can also introduce a hidden problem.    Risk to your future. 

You may not have enough when you are older.  It’s a far more subtle risk as you won’t see it until much later. 

Make sure you’ve done some planning and projections to confirm your future is not at risk.  

It’s important to understand the risks you are taking and try to manage them for the downside. 

Don’t be fooled into thinking they aren’t there right now just because they aren’t immediately visible. 

#personalfinance #riskmanagement #finances

I’m sorry, but you are going to pay more.  

See below for the implications of the Capital Gains changes in the budget for Canadians. 


👉🏽Beginning on June 25, 2024, the capital gain inclusion rate will rise from one-half to two-thirds for all Corporations, Trusts and Individuals.   👈🏽

For Individuals ONLY, the current one-half inclusion rate will apply on the first $250,000 of annual gains.
 
Implications (subject to final rules and clarifications):
 
⚫️While principal residences are exempted, secondary/investment properties would be subject to this higher inclusion rate.

⚫️Capital gains taxes within corporations will be materially higher (subject to any changes to refundable taxes/CDA which may reduce this new burden)

⚫️Estate liabilities may be much higher (all your capital gains will be ‘realized’ at once)

⚫️It may incentivize investors/corporations to realize capital gains before June 25, 2024

⚫️There may be more reasons to move corporate funds into tax-free life insurance policies

⚫️It shrinks the upside for new business ventures

⚫️It will reduce the tax rate gap between dividends and capital gains (above $250,000 for individuals)

⚫️It likely makes owning shares more attractive than assets due to the ability to sell in pieces

⚫️It will likely make the use of Family Trusts (and potentially Estate Freezes) more attractive - additional tax planning will be required around large sales

⚫️It will impact postmortem planning to minimize double taxation on the death of a private corporation shareholder

⚫️For corporations, capital gains will increase their passive income faster.  The small business deduction (SBD) is reduced by $5 for every $1 of passive income starting at $50,000.   Now capital gains will eat into this faster.

⚫️It may impact the investment mix within corporations (relative to personal accounts)

In some cases you may want to consider selling assets prior to June 25, 2024

In most cases, more careful (and complicated) annual capital gains planning and structuring will be necessary. 

#personalfinances #entrepreneur #budget #investing

With over 30 million of them, how are are they doing?




Small businesses represent over 95% of businesses in North America & half of all workers, but they get little airtime 


Small business job growth has recently overtaken regular job growth. 

This was after lagging for the past three years.  

Leisure, hospitality and health services have shown the most strength 

Most job openings?  Professional and business services

Labor is critical for small businesses making up 70% of expenses, but how about AI?

……smaller businesses have been much slower to adopt.    

One in five large businesses are active users of AI vs one in twenty small businesses

#business #economy #jobs #finance

Want to double your money?





Use the quick rule of 72. 

Take your after-tax return and divide it into 72.   The result is your doubling time.  

👉🏽 Alex earns 7% and doubles almost every 10 yrs (72 / 7)

👉🏽 Dani earns 10% and doubles every 7 yrs (72 / 10)

See the difference a “few” percent make?

Dani would have just under 8x their money in 20-22yrs (doubles three times); Alex would have 4x (doubles twice)

Now do 40 yrs……..

Get your money doubling - again and again

#finances #investing #money

Time to go small?



The Magnificent Seven and other mega-sized companies have led the market recently.  

They’ve left the smaller (only multi-billion)  companies behind.  

And this outperformance has been going on for years.    

Smaller companies have actually have their worst two decade performance on record relative to larger stocks 

But maybe it’s time for a reversal 👉🏽the small-cap index is trading almost 30% cheaper than the S&P

It also finally outperformed for a couple of weeks…...maybe it’s a start.

Most investors have minimal exposure, so you could see a decent move if they start to gain some traction. 

A hot IPO market or merger activity could kick off a rally.  

 #personalfinances #stockmarket #investing

Hate waiting?  

Ever do something you regret out of boredom? 


“Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it’s how we behave while we’re waiting”

 -Joyce Meyer

Investing (and life) requires a lot of patience.  

With the right approach, time is on your side.  

✅You should have a plan 

✅ Your money should be at work

🚫 You don’t always need to be doing something or chasing excitement 

If you have trouble “behaving” (we all do) - find help to keep you on your path

#investing #personalfinance #success #personaldevelopment

Investing Tip - 

You’re not going to make your money picking the best investments.    


Consistently finding the absolute best stocks is a skill few (if any?) have mastered.  

Here’s the good news - you can have an excellent long-term investment portfolio with:

👉🏽Mostly above-average investments arranged the right way👈🏽

Yes, repeat - the asset classes that you own & the proportions that you own matter the MOST

Think about it this way - you are baking a cake with butter, flour & sugar.  

Grandma Jo says to spend most of your money on “the best” butter, so you are only able to add a little sugar and flour.  

    👉🏽 your cake is a mess

Aunt Isla says to buy ‘good’ ingredients in the right proportion 

   👉🏽 resulting in a proper cake

Lesson: Spend your time on the right mix first…..then the ingredients.   

Before you go out looking for the hottest stock tip or fund - get the recipe set.   

AND - above all…..make sure you are at least keeping the oven on.

#investing #food #personalfinances

Time to consider all your options.    You are missing some.  




The options market is over $600 trillion and they are used extensively by large investors…………so why don’t you have any?

Well, it seems complicated, scary and risky, right? 

Let’s simplify.    It’s insurance (seems less risky already) on outcomes. 

Like regular insurance, you can buy it BUT you can also sell it and make money.  

There are many options strategies that actually reduce risk and make you money.  

👉🏽For example, we used options to turn Treasuries into a 10%+ tax-efficient yield. 

And yes, you can also ‘turbo’ charge your returns for a ‘fee’

👉🏽 We created a note that provides 2x the market index with the same price downside (no dividends)

The options are endless.  There are many funds, notes and strategies that utilize options.  

Be sure to explore your options 

#personalfinance #investing #stockmarket

They’re moving higher and they may take inflation with them. 

Got any?


Commodities.   

It’s been a strong year for most commodities.   

Broad based commodities such as copper and oil have surged higher.  

Copper recently hit the highest level since  June 2022 and oil is up almost 20%

Cocoa is up almost 2x.  Gold is also on the move. 

There are a couple of reasons for you to own them:

1️⃣ Diversification

2️⃣ Inflation protection - if they go higher, you pay more (it’s different from a stock or bond)

Consider commodities as part of your portfolio

#energy #investing #personalfinance

It’s all about momentum right now.  


Do you have it?



Momentum stocks are leading the charge this year.  

📈 S&P +9.5%

💥 S&P Momentum Index +23.5%

There’s a huge gap, and even bigger if you stripped out momentum stocks from the S&P Index.  

👉🏽The Dow Jones index (‘less’ Momentum) is only up 4% for example 

So the ‘winners’ keep winning….for now.  

The market has great MOjo now.   Just be prepared for when it doesn’t as well. 

#stockmarket #investing #personalfinance

It’s collapsing, and that may be a good thing.   




The earnings growth gap between the biggest companies and the rest of the market is shrinking.  

The Magnificient Seven* led the market rally in 2023. 

It was largely due to interest in AI and much higher near-term earnings expectations.  

Going forward the earnings outlook is much more consistent across all companies.  

The larger stocks are still outperforming, but the others have started to catch up.  

#investing #personalfinance #stockmarket

*Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, Apple

Not so fast.  

We may have to wait a little longer.  


For interest rate cuts.  

Yesterday’s U.S. inflation data came in at 3.5%.   Auto repair, auto insurance, medical services and shelter costs were the biggest culprits. 

Inflation remains higher than expectations and the Fed’s 2% target

Now the market expects only two rate cuts in 2024 from as high as six a few months ago. 

Canada may cut in June, but the odds of a U.S. cut in June are diminishing.

The stock market sold off and Treasury yields moved much higher on the news. 

The economy is still running fairly hot, so interest rate relief may be a little more tempered.   

#personalfinance #finances #investing

It is the best in the world.    It has been for over 20 years.   





The S&P500, the most widely tracked U.S. stock index, has massively outperformed it’s global peers. 

👉🏽Over a 20 year period it’s outperformed by almost 3% per year 

👉🏽The past 5 years have been even better at +5% per year

Why?

⚫️Over a quarter of the index is made up of mega-sized, higher growth technology companies 

⚫️ The revenue stream of S&P is actually more “international” than other indices as most of the companies have broad global reach

⚫️ Overall strength / safety of the U.S. economy 

⚫️ Size / liquidity of the stocks included


Japan had a nice rally last year and Europe is ahead this year - so maybe some markets will make up some ground. 

In all likelihood, the U.S. will continue to lead, but it’s worth having other exposure as well. 

#personalfinance #investing #stockmarket

Still going strong.   Are you?


Consumer spending is still on the rise. 

⚫️Americans increased spending in March, surpassing expectations despite inflation challenges.

⚫️Retail sales surged by 0.7% in March, almost double the forecasted amount, following a 0.9% rise in February.

⚫️General merchandise and online sales increased, but department stores, furniture, and electronics saw declines.

⚫️Despite inflation and high borrowing costs, a strong job market and rising wages are supporting consumer spending.

⚫️ Goldman Sachs boosted their gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate for the first quarter to a 3.1% annualized rate from a 2.5%

⚫️ Some consumers are shifting away from pricier goods and lower income families are disproportionately impacted by inflation. 

#retail #personalfinance #economy

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