Bringing Main Street Values to Bay Street
My name is James Maxwell, I am one of the founding partners of The Investment Partners Fund.
My present career began with my last summer job before I graduated from University in May 1985 when our mother kicked my brother and I out of bed and sent us down to the Student Summer Employment agency to get a job. I was studying accounting at university and had planned on becoming a chartered accountant so I chose the temporary bookkeeper’s job at a small automotive store in the east end of Ottawa to get some practical experience for the summer. First week on my new job, I met with the company auditors and was told the company was insolvent and would we would be lucky to make it through August.
This became my first big opportunity – I purchased 50% interest in the company for $10,000 of future profits. Over the years we purchased real estate and more stores… that was 24 years ago.
Today our company distributes automotive products throughout stores in Eastern and Southern Ontario…a boring, unglamorous yet profitable Main Street business.
I wish I had been so lucky with my Bay Street investments.
Throughout my career I’ve invested regularly in mutual funds, stocks, insurance policies and numerous financial instruments to prepare for my family’s education and retirement. So here I am 24 years later and it looks like my children’s education and our retirement are going to be funded by our Main Street investments – real estate and autoparts! It turns out that I am not alone, many people have had poor experiences with their Bay Street Investments.
So we figured out a way to solve the problem.
Being a Main Street entrepreneur has taught me a great deal about building long standing relationships with customers. Our customer relationships were built on trust and ultimately the value we brought to our customers. It also taught me that for mutually beneficial relationships to prosper both our customers and our goals must be aligned… “Win Win”.
So this year, myself, a couple of my Main Street business friends along with two very smart Portfolio Managers got together to figure out a way we could create a “Win Win” Main Street investment strategy. Our goal was to create an Investment product that reflects our Main Street core business values while at the same time operate using the latest technology so we are efficient, easy to do business with, and able to operate in a very low cost environment.
The Investment Partners Fund was developed with our Investor Hat on, as we are all Investors in the Fund!
- Our Portfolio Managers have 100% of their investable net worth in the Fund
- Our Portfolio Managers only get paid if there is a fee generated by their performance
- Our Investors only pay a fee if the Fund makes money
- Our Investors will not pay hidden fees
- Our Investors’ money is held by a third party custodian at CIBC Mellon
Please take sometime to read the small print…there isn’t much!
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