by Scott Ronalds

At Steadyhand, investing alongside our clients—or eating our own cooking—is one of our key business tenets. We believe there’s no better way to prove a commitment to our investment philosophy and business approach, and ultimately our clients, than to put our money where our mouth is.

We take it a step further by publishing every year the firm’s co-investment levels, which show how much of our personal assets we have invested in our funds. To the best of our knowledge, we’re the only firm in Canada that does this.

The latest figures are in and we can report that every employee continues to have a significant portion of their financial assets invested alongside our clients: on average, the team has 91% of our financial assets invested in the Steadyhand funds (as of June 30th). In dollar terms, our employees and families have $37.3 million invested in our funds.

These numbers are worth highlighting because they mean our interests are well aligned—we’re experiencing the same fund performance, client reporting, and fees that you are. Yes, we receive no “insider perks” when it comes to costs. We pay the same fees you pay and enjoy the same discount program.

In other industries, the practice of using one’s own products or services to live the client experience firsthand has come to be known as dogfooding (slang for eating your own dog food, or cooking). Not exactly an endearing term. Nonetheless, if the phrase were to catch on in our business, you can be sure there will always be a big bag of Purina in the office kitchen.

Note: For a more thorough overview of co-investment and why it’s important, see our piece Showing you the money.