Investment counselling firm aims to help professional practices serving high-net-worth individuals and their families
Harness Investment Management, a technology-driven investment counsel firm, has established its presence in British Columbia with a new office and strategic partnership.
Launched in October, Harness is focused on partnering with professional planning and accounting firms that want to offer or enhance their wealth-management services to families, corporations, and trusts across Canada. It leverages Purpose Investments’ award-winning portfolio management capabilities to develop robust investment solutions for its clients while operating on Purpose Advisor Solutions’ turnkey wealth platform.
“We have seen that professionals with different expertise, whether it be in accounting, tax, insurance, or investments, do not always work together effectively nor do they understand the whole financial picture of the client,” Harness CEO Gary Hsu said during the launch. “[A]ffluent families have concerns or challenges that often touch more than one of those areas, so it leaves the client to evaluate advice from different sources and try to put it all together in a comprehensible way.”
Aside from opening an office in Vancouver, Harness has announced VELA Wealth as its first strategic partner in BC. Based in the Lower Lonsdale area of North Vancouver, VELA offers a full spectrum of wealth advisory services to high-net-worth families across Canada.
VELA’s clients will have full access to well-diversified and sophisticated low-cost investment products from Harness. The firm has also worked with Purpose Investments, using Purpose’s award-winning funds to develop model portfolios that aim to deliver a unique, best-in-class solution for VELA’s clients.
“We hear regularly from people … [who] feel like their investment questions have never been answered, their current portfolio manager does not have their best interest at heart, and they are paying far too much in fees for little or no value added,” said Harness Portfolio Manager Keith Allan. “Our goal is to provide the best possible investment experience for our clients.”
The partnership between Harness and VELA is said to create one key relationship that addresses the clients’ complete needs through the integration of Harness’ portfolio management capabilities and VELA’s advanced financial, estate and risk management services.
“VELA has always been dedicated to consistently delivering thoughtful, best-in-class solutions for our clients,” said VELA Founder and Principal Jason Boudreau. “[O]ur partnership with Harness allows us to both ‘round-out’ and elevate our offering to the families we are fortunate to serve.”
Boudreau said the partnership falls in line with VELA’s vision of the financial industry’s future, wherein “an ecosystem of advisors, collateral professionals and institutions” will be built with a requirement to put the client’s interests first.
