The short version

I am looking for the person who will eventually run this firm. I intend to semi-retire in about five years. When I do, I want to hand this business to someone who helped build it — not sell it to a consolidator and watch clients I have known for decades get absorbed into a call centre. That is the actual job on offer. Everything below is detail. It will suit one specific person: an advisor who is already good at finding clients, who is tired of doing it inside an institution that owns the relationships and dictates the product, and who would rather own something than be paid more to rent a seat.

If that isn't you, the rest of this will waste your time — and I would rather say so on the first page.

About Schwaben Capital

Ontario-based, independent, and deliberately small. We manage money for established entrepreneurs, senior executives, and high-net-worth families — people who have built something, ask hard questions, and expect to speak directly to the person making the decisions. We invest in public securities with a long-term, value and GARP-oriented philosophy. We hold positions for years, not quarters. We do not chase themes. Independence is the entire proposition. There is no house product. No proprietary fund to push. No quarterly sales campaign, no internal referral quota, no shelf we are paid to fill. We have never recommended something because the firm earned more on it, and we never will. What we recommend is what we would own — and largely do. That is why clients leave the bank-owned platforms to come to us. It is also what you would be selling, and it is a great deal easier to sell than a fund with a competitor's logo on it. Today the firm is two people: me, and an analyst. That is the opportunity and the constraint in one sentence. There is no marketing department handing you leads and no brand doing the work for you. There is also nobody between you and the client, nobody between you and me, and no committee deciding what you are allowed to do.

Where the firm is going

Two things beyond the existing book, and the person in this seat should know about both. The multi-family office side. Coordinating tax, estate, corporate structuring and next-generation planning for families where the portfolio is only one part of the picture. The demand is already here and we are under-built for it. Growing this is squarely part of the role. A systematic research capability. I am personally developing the application of machine learning — and, on a longer horizon, quantum-computing methods — to security selection and portfolio construction. To be clear about what this is: it is research intended to sharpen a fundamental process, not a black box intended to replace judgment, and it is not something we currently market or sell. I mention it because within five years I expect it to be a second engine alongside private wealth, and because whoever takes this seat is inheriting that direction. If it interests you, say so. If it doesn't, it does not disqualify you.

What you would actually do

• Originate. Real high-net-worth households, sourced by you — through centres of influence, your own network, and direct outreach. This is 60–70% of the role and the part nobody can do for you.
• Own relationships end to end. Discovery, planning, onboarding, review meetings, and the difficult call in year three of a drawdown.
• Build the professional referral network. Accountants, tax and estate lawyers, corporate lawyers, business brokers, insurance specialists. For a boutique this is the most durable channel there is, and it compounds.
• Build the marketing we do not have. Not consume someone else's — build it.
• Help run the business. Pricing, service standards, technology, compliance, hiring. You are being hired to run this eventually, so you start participating early.

What success looks like

Stated plainly, so that both of us can measure it rather than argue about it later.

• Months 1–12: registration current; professional referral network mapped with 8–12 relationships actively developed; 15 net-new households funded.
• Months 13–24: 25 net-new households funded; a marketing channel you built producing measurable inbound; full relationship ownership for your clients.
• Months 25–36: consistent origination without prompting; contributing to firm strategy; first tranche of equity earned and documented.
• Year 5: operating as managing partner in all but name, with a defined path to majority ownership.

Requirements — non-negotiable

• Current Ontario registration in a client-facing category (CIRO Registered Representative, or Dealing / Advising Representative under NI 31-103) — or registered within the last 12 months and immediately re-registerable. Clean registration history; this will be verified on the CSA National Registration Search.
• Five years minimum advising private clients directly. Households. Not institutions, not advisors, not dealer head offices, not issuers.
• Demonstrable self-sourced origination. You will be asked for annual net-new-asset figures, household counts, and where each of your last five clients came from. Firm-supplied leads, inbound desks, and inherited accounts do not count.
• Working fluency in what surrounds HNW money: holding companies and corporate surplus, estate freezes, trusts, insurance as a planning tool, and cross-border where relevant. You need not be the technical expert — you must know when to bring one in.
• Credentials: the CFA charter, or CFA Level II or beyond passed and progressing, or the CIM with a credible path to Advising Representative registration. CFP, TEP or CPA in addition is welcome.
• Toronto, hybrid. In a two-person firm, presence matters. This is not a remote role.
• Financially able to accept a modest base for 24–36 months in exchange for equity. This is a household decision, not an individual one, and I will ask about it in the first conversation.

Strongly preferred

• Named centres of influence — accountants, tax lawyers, business brokers — who have actually referred you business, not merely met you
• Experience at an independent or boutique firm, not solely bank-owned platforms
• Marketing you personally built — newsletter, seminar series, whitepaper, podcast, a real LinkedIn presence — with results you can point to
• French, or another language spoken by a client community you can credibly serve
• Prior P&L responsibility, ownership, or partnership experience
• Genuine interest in systematic and machine-learning approaches to research

Who this role is not for

• Anyone who needs a large base salary in the first two years
• Anyone whose production has come from firm-supplied leads, an inbound desk, or inherited accounts
• Institutional, wholesale, or dealer-facing salespeople — this is a private client seat and the skills do not transfer as cleanly as the résumé suggests
• Anyone who wants to be primarily a portfolio manager or analyst. I run the investment process and the analyst seat is filled.
• Anyone who wants the title now and the ownership later without building the revenue that justifies either

Compensation and equity

Set out plainly, because vagueness here wastes both our time.

• Base: modest, and deliberately so — $50,000. It is not the offer.
• Variable: a defined share of revenue on assets you originate, paid from the first dollar — no house split, no threshold to clear first.
• Equity: a documented earn-in beginning after 24 months and a minimum or $30 million net new assets, with a defined path toward majority ownership over roughly five years. Structure, valuation methodology, and what happens if either of us walks away will be in writing before you start — not promised verbally and settled later.
• On succession: I am not disappearing. I intend to semi-retire, remain involved in the investment process, and hand over the running of the firm. If you want me gone entirely on day one of year five, we are not a fit — and it is better we find that out now. Total compensation for someone who performs should exceed a comparable institutional seat. It will simply arrive later, and it will arrive as ownership.

How to apply

Send a CV and a note of no more than one page answering three questions:

1. Your net new assets and net new households for each of the last three years, and what proportion you sourced yourself.
2. Where your last three clients came from. Specifically — "referrals" is not an answer.
3. Why owning part of a small independent firm is worth more to you than a larger base somewhere established.

Applications without those three answers will not be read. That is not rudeness — it is the first test of the job. Send to aweller@schwaben.ca. Every serious applicant gets a reply.

Schwaben Capital Group Limited is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and provide accommodation on request at any stage of the process.