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“We help organize, protect and grow your wealth, so you have more time and money to do what you enjoy, what you’re good at, and what is important to you.”    - Stan Clark

An integrated approach to Financial Planning and Investment Management

The Stan Clark Financial Team at CIBC Wood Gundy is a wealth management group specializing in organizing, protecting and growing wealth for professionals, business owners, retirees and their families.

Our services integrate financial planning and investment management.

Based on the principles of behavioral finance, our disciplined, rules-based approach combines proprietary investment strategies and leading-edge technology.

Financial and estate planning – to organize and simplify your life

Financial and estate planning are vital. As part of our comprehensive service, we work with you to develop a roadmap for achieving your life goals.

We customize and tailor your plan to your situation. We break the financial planning process into a four-step cycle. Then, we implement that cycle on a schedule that is realistic and convenient for you.

Discover the 4 steps we use to break down the complexity of financial planning >

Asset Allocation – Your most important investment decision

Your first – and probably your most important – investment decision is how to divide your money into different types of assets. This is called asset allocation. In this white paper, we will discuss: What asset allocation means; the types of assets; and how they differ. Finally, we’ll look at how to decide the best asset allocation for you.

Learn about our approach to asset allocation, your most important investment decision >

Conservative disciplined investing – designed to outperform

Our team’s investing philosophy mirrors our overall focus on protecting and growing wealth. 

Our philosophy has four main points:

1. Use disciplined strategies to reduce errors of human judgement,
2. Always focus on improving safety while striving for higher returns,
3. Only invest where the odds are in your favour and more than offset the risks,
4. Diversify intelligently to reduce the risks of an unknowable future.

Learn about our conservative, disciplined investment strategies, designed to outperform >

Behavioral finance – to help avoid common financial mistakes

Behavioral finance explores the relationship between human psychology and financial decisions. Successful financial planning and investing often require going against the crowd and against some of our most deeply rooted human emotions. At the Stan Clark Financial Team, we have built our approach and philosophy on the lessons of behavioral finance.

Read Stan's story how behavioral finance helps you outperform the crowd >
 

A partnered approach in working with our clients

We consider our relationship as a partnership. We work with each client towards a common goal. 
To reinforce a true sense of partnership:

• We integrate planning with investing to ensure the focus is on achieving your goals 
• We create written financial and investment plans that help guide our work together 
• We report to you regularly, so you always know how you are doing
• We are transparent and open in sharing what we do and why we do it
• Our compensation is structured so our interests are aligned with yours.

In addition to accountability and responsibility, our relationships are based on honesty, mutual respect and trust. Be assured: The Stan Clark Team determines every decision and action based on what is best for you and your family.

The clients we serve

Our clients include a wide range of individuals and families. These clients choose us because they seek to grow, not gamble with, their life savings. Our clients want direct access to educated advisors with solid, proven success in managing money.
In their own words, our clients’ goals include:

• Help me organize and simplify my financial affairs 
• Treat my money as you would your own 
• Understand my needs
• Help increase my financial understanding and knowledge
• Protect and grow my wealth over time
• Provide me with peace of mind.

Our financial planning and investment strategies are designed for individuals with portfolios over $1 million – and, as your wealth increases, so do the benefits of our services. We also commit to serving all family members and close, personal friends of clients, regardless of their individual account sizes.

Case studies >

Testimonials: read what our clients say about us > 

The problems we help solve

When will I be able to retire comfortably? What is my best asset allocation? Do I need insurance? Do I need to update my Will? When should I start withdrawing from my RRSPs? All good questions - just a few of the many we help our clients solve. 

At the Stan Clark Financial Team, we help clients in all areas of:

• Retirement planning, 
• Investment asset allocation, 
• Personal security/insurance, 
• Estate planning,
• Tax planning, 
• Business planning, and
• Legacy planning.

As your needs change and evolve with time, we continually update your financial plan. Our ongoing financial and estate planning adjusts with these changes to keep you on track so you and your family can fully enjoy life.

Learn more about client problems we help solve > 

The team that makes it happen

Stan and his team have developed a unique approach where clients have direct access to all our on-team specialized experts plus a dedicated advisor who ensures financial plans and investments are coordinated and on track. We believe a team approach to decision making produces higher returns, greater consistency, and exceptional service. 

As a knowledgeable and experienced team, we are all working directly for you – to provide you and your family more time and wealth to fully enjoy life.

Meet Our Team > 

What sets us apart?

It’s quite common, when comparing financial advisors, to view them as all the same. At the Stan Clark Financial Team we think otherwise. We believe every advisor is different, as is every client. The challenge is finding a fit that works for both – and that challenge is a goal we take pride in.

There are many things that set apart the Stan Clark Financial Team, Here are 10 >

The Philosophies and Commitments that define our work >

Learning Resources

Building trust through transparency

To have an effective partnership, trust is vital. But trust should not be blindly given away, nor should it need to be asked for. We believe trust must be earned and we do that by being transparent and open in all our actions.
We appreciate that our clients wish to delegate decisions to us so they can simplify their lives. However, there is a difference between delegation and abdication. Delegation requires accountability: providing you with clear information and clear understanding of what is important and what is not. This has the added advantage of helping you stick with your plan.
As part of our best practice of sharing information, we provide you with regular learning resources that set out what and why we do things. In addition to writing our team’s own Perspectives newsletter, we cover many topics important to you, such as:

Why financial planning is important, and well worth it

We plan for vacations, home renovations, weddings, and even shopping trips. Anything that is important to you deserves to be planned, and that includes our finances! Financial planning can help you organize and simplify your life, and it doesn’t need to be complicated. Learn more >

What's your Best Mix

Everyone should have an equities target, which is the mix between equities (stocks) and bonds. It’s probably the most important decision when it comes to investing. Bonds provide stability but the average returns are relatively low. Stocks can provide much higher returns, but also come with volatility. In this white paper, we will discuss our process in determining an equities target that is best suited for your goals and comfort with volatility. Learn more >

153 year returns

Keeping a long-term perspective with the help of analyzing the past 154 years of returns and risk. Learn more >

Financial fundamentals

Three of the most important financial fundamentals – life expectancy, inflation and compound interest. Learn more >

How emotions and biases affect our finances

One of the most fascinating things ever to happen in economics was when an ingenious psychologist, Dr. Daniel Kahneman, decided to study it. In 2002 he won the Nobel Prize in economics for “having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty.” Kahneman actually created a new discipline, Behavioral Finance. Learn more >