PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT · FEE TRANSPARENCY · RISK ENGINEERING
Strengthen Your Portfolio: A Transparency-First Approach
$340 million managed with every fee, every trade rationale, and every mistake published in writing. Since 2006, our six-person team has built portfolios where nothing is hidden — not the costs, not the process, and not the outcomes we'd rather forget. Wondering if your current advisor does the same?
No cost. No obligation. You keep the report either way.
Trusted by institutions, professional corporations, and multi-generational families across Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes since 2006
What Clients Actually Say About Working With Us
We asked permission to share these. Each client reviewed their quote for accuracy — because that's how we operate. You can meet the team members they reference on our team page.
Four Ways We Help Clients Keep More of What They Earn
Curious what we actually do day-to-day? Here are four things clients hire us for most. Each service is built on the same foundation: you see every fee, every trade rationale, and every outcome — good or bad. Explore the full details on our services page, or review the specific investment strategies we deploy.
Discretionary Portfolio Management
A dentist paying 2.77% in layered fees didn't know it until we showed her. We rebuilt her $1.8M portfolio with direct holdings — individual equities, ETFs, and investment-grade bonds — dropped all-in costs to 1.08%, and saved her $30,400 a year. Every client receives a customized Investment Policy Statement, quarterly performance reporting benchmarked against relevant indices, and our signature "What Went Wrong" commentary. Minimum account size: $500,000.
See all services →Corporate Surplus & Treasury Management
Rideau Mechanical had $4.2M in retained earnings sitting in GICs earning 1.3%. We built a corporate Investment Policy Statement tied to a 12-year exit timeline, layered in fixed income and dividend equities calibrated to their tax structure, and coordinated with their accountant on capital dividend account optimization. Annualized return over the first three years: 6.1% net of fees. Tax-free capital dividends unlocked: $387,000. Professional corporations, holding companies, and owner-operator businesses are our specialty.
See all services →Fee & Portfolio Audits
A prospective client brought us their statements from two major bank-owned dealers. We found $61,000 in embedded trailer commissions they'd never been told about, plus a 0.35% currency conversion markup on every U.S. trade. The audit is free — we map every holding, calculate total cost including MERs, trading costs, and advisory fees, and hand you a single-page summary plus a full appendix. You keep the report regardless of whether you become a client. About 60% of people who get the audit don't — and that's fine.
Request your free audit →Reserve & Endowment Fund Management
A faculty strike fund had lost $45,000 in real purchasing power annually for a decade, parked entirely in money market instruments while inflation eroded its value. We built a three-tier liquidity structure: 12 months of immediate access in high-interest savings, 24 months in short-duration bonds, and the balance in a diversified growth allocation. First full year: 3.8% return vs. the previous 0.9%. Maximum drawdown never exceeded 0.6%. We serve municipal reserve funds, union treasuries, endowments, and non-profit foundations across Ontario and Quebec.
See all services →Measure Our Impact: A Two-Decade Record Since 2006
These numbers span 20 years and roughly 400 client relationships. We don't cherry-pick. You can review the methodology and detailed case studies on our performance page.
The 92% retention rate counts every account that's been open five years or more — including accounts that left because of life events, estate distributions, or relocations. If someone fires us, they're in that number too. The fee savings figure comes from audits conducted between 2020 and 2025 — it's the average gap between what clients were paying before and what they pay now, calculated across 147 completed audits.
The 180 securities in active coverage means Priya's research desk maintains current valuation models, earnings estimates, and risk assessments on each one. When something changes — a guidance revision, a management departure, a regulatory shift — we already have a framework for deciding whether it matters.
And yes, we've published 76 consecutive quarterly 'What Went Wrong' reports without skipping one — dating back to Q1 2007, less than a year after we opened. Not because we enjoy admitting mistakes, but because we've noticed we make fewer of them when we know they'll be in writing. Clients who log in through the client portal can read every one.
Ready to See What You're Actually Paying?
Our fee audit is complimentary. We'll review your current holdings, calculate your all-in costs line by line — including MERs, trailer commissions, trading spreads, currency markups, and advisory fees — and hand you a clear, single-page summary with a full appendix showing the math. The typical audit takes 5–7 business days, and the average client discovers $31,000 per year in fees they didn't know they were paying.
About 60% of people who get the audit don't become clients — and that's fine. The report is yours either way. No follow-up calls, no sales pressure. If the numbers speak for themselves, you'll reach out. If they don't, you'll still have a document most advisors would never hand you.
Call us at (807) 876-1862, email contact@burnabillyinvestments.com, or use the form below.
Request Your Fee AuditRefine Your Thinking: Recent Research & Writing
We publish what most firms keep internal — research notes, post-mortems on losing positions, and the analytical frameworks that drive our decisions. Read more on our markets outlook page, or browse the full archive below.
We Lost $220,000 on Bausch Health. Here's What Happened.
November 12, 2025
A full post-mortem on a position that went wrong — from original thesis to the signals we missed, including the Q3 earnings revision we should have acted on faster and the sunk-cost bias that delayed our exit by six weeks. The same documentation we share with clients, shared with everyone. Includes the original research note and Priya's updated valuation model.
The Exact Steps We Follow Before Buying a Single Stock
October 3, 2025
A walkthrough of our security selection process from initial quantitative screen through Priya's discounted cash flow valuation model to investment committee vote. Covers the five mandatory criteria a stock must pass, the peer review step where the team argues against the thesis, and the position-sizing rules that cap concentration risk. Includes a redacted research note so you can see the real format.
What Your Advisor Won't Show You: A Line-by-Line Fee Breakdown
September 18, 2025
A hypothetical $1M portfolio in typical Canadian mutual funds, with every layer of cost calculated — management expense ratios, trailing commissions, trading expense ratios, fund-of-fund sub-advisory fees, and the currency conversion markups most investors never see. Total cost: 2.64%, or $26,400 per year. Includes a downloadable spreadsheet so you can plug in your own numbers and calculate what you're actually paying.
Retiring Into a Bear Market: Stress-Testing Drawdown Plans Against History's Worst Decades
August 7, 2025
Why 'average annual return' is a misleading number for retirees and how sequence-of-returns risk can deplete a portfolio years ahead of schedule. We model five real retirement start dates — 1929, 1966, 1973, 2000, and 2008 — and show what happened to a $2M portfolio drawing $80,000 annually. The results are sobering, but the mitigation strategies are actionable. Relevant to anyone considering our Conservative Income or Balanced Growth strategies.
Why 'Average Returns' Are a Dangerous Fiction for Anyone Over 55
July 22, 2025
Your portfolio doesn't earn averages. It earns a specific sequence of returns, and the order matters enormously when you're withdrawing capital. We run the math on what that means for real withdrawal plans, compare dollar-cost-averaging in accumulation versus dollar-cost-ravaging in decumulation, and explain why the first five years of retirement determine more than the next twenty. If your current advisor is projecting straight-line 7% returns, this article will change how you evaluate that assumption.