Wealth Management in Scarborough

Integrated financial planning and portfolio management for business owners, professionals and families.

I’m Mike Morgan, a Portfolio Manager & Wealth Advisor and Financial Planner with RBC Dominion Securities. My office is at 111 Grangeway Avenue, 2nd Floor, near Scarborough Town Centre. Since 2009, I’ve helped business owners and families organize the financial side of their lives so their investments, taxes, business and estate plan work together rather than separately.

If you searched for wealth management in Scarborough, you’re probably looking for two things: someone with the experience to handle a more complicated financial picture, and someone close enough to sit across the table from. This page is meant to help you decide whether I’m the right fit before you pick up the phone.

I live in Scarborough (Rouge Hill) as well, so this is my community, not just my branch.

Who I work with

The people I do my best work for usually have more moving parts than a single investment account:

• Business owners, particularly incorporated owners with money building up inside the company that the business does not need.
• Owners who expect to sell the business, or pass it on, within the next several years.
• Families planning how retirement income will actually be paid, and what they will leave behind.
• Professionals and executives who have outgrown managing it all themselves.
• Investors who want access to private markets and other alternative investment strategies.

What they have in common is that the decisions affect each other. A dividend decision is also a tax decision. A share structure is also an estate decision. My job is to see those connections before they become expensive.

How I work

Every relationship follows the same four steps.

1. Discover. It starts with a conversation, with no jargon and no pressure: what matters to you, what keeps you up at night, and what you want your wealth to do.
2. Propose. Once I understand the full picture, including your goals, your assets, your business and your tax position, I build a written plan. The plan comes before any investment recommendation.
3. Implement. When you are ready, we put the plan in place: the portfolio, the risk management, and the changes that need your accountant and lawyer. I coordinate with them directly, or bring in specialists from across RBC where a question needs one.
4. Monitor. Life does not stand still, so the plan does not either. We review it regularly and adjust it as your circumstances, the markets and the tax rules change.

I see my role as the quarterback: coordinating your accountant, lawyer and banker so the advice you receive is connected, not siloed, and everyone is working from the same playbook.

Pension-style investing

Large pension plans don’t rely exclusively on publicly traded stocks and bonds, and neither should every private client portfolio.

Where appropriate, I incorporate carefully selected private market investments alongside traditional public markets. That can include private equity, private credit, infrastructure and other alternative investments that may provide different sources of return, income and diversification.

The emphasis is on selection, not simply access. I spend considerable time evaluating the strategy, underlying investments, management team, track record, structure, fees, liquidity and the role an investment is expected to play within the overall portfolio.

The objective is to build portfolios the way sophisticated institutions do: combining high-quality investments whose returns are driven by different things, so the portfolio isn't dependent on any one market or outcome.

Private investments aren’t appropriate for everyone, and liquidity, risk and time horizon matter. When they are appropriate, I use them deliberately as one component of a broader financial and investment plan.

What that looks like in practice

A few examples of the questions I spend my time on, written up in more detail:

• How to sell your business tax-efficiently using the lifetime capital gains exemption: what it takes for your shares to qualify, and why the planning starts years before a buyer appears.
• Selling your business to your employees through an Employee Ownership Trust: a buyer most owners never consider, with a tax exemption that is now permanent.
• When your RRSP and TFSA are full: how surplus cash sitting in your company can fund your retirement and reach your family tax-free.

Meeting in Scarborough

The office is on the 2nd floor of 111 Grangeway Avenue, Scarborough, a short drive for most of Scarborough, whether you are in Highland Creek, Agincourt, Malvern or Guildwood, and for Markham and Pickering. If coming in is not convenient, I meet by video just as often.

Questions people ask before a first meeting

Do I need to live in Scarborough to work with you?

No. The office is here, but plenty of meetings happen across the GTA and by video. What matters is fit, not postal code.

What happens at a first meeting?

We talk. I want to understand your situation and what you are trying to accomplish before I say anything about what to do. You should leave with a clear sense of whether working together makes sense.

Will you work with my accountant and lawyer?

Yes, and I would prefer to. Most of the value in planning for a business owner comes from the advisors working together rather than in parallel.

Is there a minimum?

My practice is generally best suited to clients with at least $750,000 in investable assets.

How are you paid?

Through a single annual fee, set as a percentage of the assets I manage for you. The rate is based on the size of your total portfolio and comes down as the portfolio grows. That one fee covers more than the portfolio: it includes my team's time and work on your retirement, business, tax, insurance and estate planning. You'll know exactly what it is before you commit to anything. The fee doesn't change with how often we trade, so I'm paid for the advice, not for activity.

Start the conversation

If any of this sounds like your situation, the easiest first step is a conversation. Call me at 416-817-5652 or email mike.morgan@rbc.com, and we will find a time to meet at the office or by video.