Insight is Capital™ Podcast

What if the investing rules that protected you for 40 years just stopped working — and the world already moved on without telling you? Host Pierre Daillie sits down with Tony Dong — founder of ETFPortfolioBlueprint.com, lead ETF analyst at ETF Central, and Columbia-trained risk manager — for a no-holds-barred breakdown of defense ETFs, tail risk hedging, the structural collapse of the 60/40 portfolio, and what a genuinely resilient Canadian portfolio looks like in a world defined by geopolitical fracture, regime change, and compounding uncertainty. Recorded April 2026 amid new all-time equity highs and an active Middle East conflict, this episode is essential listening for any advisor or investor still building for a world that no longer exists.

Sponsored by BMO Global Asset Management Half of Canadian financial advisors now offer alternative investments to clients. But access and genuine diversification are not the same thing — and that distinction is the heart of this conversation. We sit down with Alexander Singh, Managing Director and Head of Alternatives Partnerships at BMO Global Asset Management, to unpack what it actually takes to build an institutional-quality alternatives platform for private wealth investors. Singh brings a rare vantage point: former lawyer, hedge fund general counsel, merchant banker, and now the architect of one of Canada's most deliberately designed alternatives platforms in wealth management. Our conversation covers the three defining risks in private markets — manager dispersion, vintage concentration, and illiquidity — and why the performance gap between top and bottom quartile managers can exceed 30 percentage points. Singh explains how BMO GAM's platform was built around four non-negotiables: scalability, fair fees, diversification, and reduced risk — and why perpetual, evergreen structures change the calculus for private wealth investors entirely. From the case for modern infrastructure (data centers, logistics, renewables) as the new portfolio ballast, to why multi-strategy funds are the most in-demand institutional asset class today—this episode is a masterclass in how to think about alternatives investing.

When cash is outranking U.S. equities and gold sells off when it's supposed to rally, the advisors holding up aren't reacting faster — they're working from a better framework. In this episode of Raise Your Average, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Paul Kornfeld, Portfolio Manager and Director of Technology Services at SIA Wealth Management, for a wide-ranging conversation on what the firm's rules-based relative strength system is signalling right now — and why those signals have been readable for over a year. Paul walks through SIA's point-and-figure methodology, explaining how millions of pairwise asset comparisons cut through geopolitical noise and behavioural bias to reveal where money is actually flowing. From the Canada-vs.-U.S. rotation that started in April 2024, to the semiconductor-vs.-software divergence that flagged the SaaS repricing before most advisors saw it coming, to a candid story about a Calgary advisor group with zero energy exposure in an oil boom — this episode is a masterclass in process-driven investing. Paul and Pierre also look ahead to the durable themes likely to define the next 12–18 months: real assets over financial assets, international over U.S. broad indices, AI infrastructure over AI software, and the looming wildcard of North American trade renegotiation in Q3.

The party always ends — and Meb Faber, one of the most data-driven voices in global investing, says the evidence is now undeniable that the decade-long US equity dominance is giving way to something very different. SUMMARY On this episode of Raise Your Average, hosts Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick sit down with Meb Faber — co-founder and CIO of Cambria Investment Management, prolific researcher, and host of The Meb Faber Show — for a wide-ranging conversation about what investors and financial advisors must rethink as the rules of the game quietly change beneath their feet. With US equity concentration at historic extremes, inflation proving stickier than expected, and geopolitical disorder accelerating structural shifts already underway, Meb makes the case that the era of a US-heavy 60/40 portfolio solving everything is in the rearview mirror. He challenges the deeply ingrained recency bias that has left most North American investors dangerously underweight in international equities and real assets — and explains what the data actually says about where opportunity is emerging. The conversation moves from big-picture regime change into highly practical territory: how to build a portfolio that survives behaviorally, not just mathematically; how to think about concentrated, low-basis positions and the tax traps hiding inside the gains of the last 15 years; and why "tax alpha" may be the most overlooked and underutilized edge in wealth management today. Meb also shares how he's deploying AI in his own practice — including a custom-trained GPT built on his entire body of work — and what advisors should be borrowing from that playbook right now.

What if you could collect covered call option premium hundreds of times a year instead of once a month — without giving up the upside on your core equity holdings? 📋 EPISODE SUMMARY In this enlightening episode of Insight Is Capital, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Nicolas Piquard, Chief Options Strategist at Hamilton ETFs — a 30-year derivatives veteran who has traded from both sides of the options desk, sell-side and buy-side. Together they unpack the seismic shift in options markets driven by zero days-to-expiry (0DTE) options, which now dominate daily S&P 500 options volume. Piquard demystifies why these instruments are not the speculative instruments many preconceive them to be, and explains how Hamilton's DayMAX™ suite of ETFs harnesses daily covered calls — written only against a modest, leveraged 25% VOO sleeve — to generate frequent, tax-efficient income while leaving the core equity holdings fully intact and participating in the upside. With nearly $750 million in DayMAX™ AUM and growing, the conversation explores how advisors can deploy these strategies as precision income tools in a traditional 60/40 portfolio without sacrificing long-term growth.

The bond market — not equities — is the most fragile and most misunderstood foundation of your entire portfolio, and most investors have no idea what's coming. Episode Summary Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick sit down with Alfonso Peccatiello — former ING bond portfolio manager of $20 billion and founder of macro hedge fund Palinuro Capital — for a masterclass in navigating a world where the old rules no longer apply. With decades of disinflation now behind us, Alfonso makes the case that the classic 60/40 portfolio is structurally ill-equipped for today's macro regime. Drawing from his own eight-quadrant savings portfolio model, he walks through how investors should think about building resilient, all-weather portfolios using risk parity principles, leverage as a diversification tool, and a mix of equities, bonds, gold, CTAs, and the U.S. dollar. The conversation shifts to the current geopolitical shock — a potential disruption in global oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz — and why taking directional risk in a nonlinear, unpredictable event is closer to gambling than investing. Alfonso closes with a bold macro outlook: the most underappreciated story of the next year may not be the U.S. at all, but the rest of the world.

While everyone is arguing about AI disrupting software stocks, WisdomTree's Jeremy Schwartz and Jeff Weniger quietly explain why the most important market story of 2026 has nothing to do with the SaaS selloff — and everything to do with where capital is actually moving. WisdomTree Global CIO Jeremy Schwartz and Head of Equity Strategy Jeff Weniger join Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick on Raise Your Average to cut through the noise of the AI disruption panic and make the case for a broader, more structural story unfolding in global markets. From the defense tech supercycle reshaping international equity allocations, to the gold gap most North American portfolios haven't fixed, to a contrarian call on the US dollar at a moment of record-extreme bearish positioning — this conversation covers the ideas that matter most for advisors and investors navigating 2026. Japan, small caps, monetary policy lag, and the behavioral biases keeping investors anchored to a 15-year-old playbook all come into the discussion. If you manage money for clients — or your own — this episode is essential listening.

If institutional investors have already shifted toward global diversification and private markets, why are most retail portfolios still stuck in the past? In this episode of Insight Is Capital, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Clay Khan, Head of Canada and Managing Director at Neuberger Berman, to explore one of the biggest structural changes in modern portfolio construction: the migration of capital from public markets toward private assets and globally diversified strategies. Drawing from Neuberger Berman’s “Solving for 2026” investment outlook, Khan explains how global macro forces—AI-driven productivity shifts, diverging fiscal and monetary policies, and evolving capital markets—are reshaping the investment landscape for both institutions and private investors. The conversation dives into the growing dominance of private equity and private credit, why institutional portfolios increasingly resemble pension-style allocations, and why Canadian investors may need to rethink traditional 60/40 portfolio structures. Khan also highlights emerging strategies gaining traction among sophisticated investors, including tax-loss harvesting, direct indexing, evergreen private market structures, and secondary markets in private equity. These innovations are gradually bringing institutional-grade investment strategies into the portfolios of high-net-worth investors and advisors. Ultimately, the discussion centers on a crucial shift: moving from wealth accumulation toward wealth preservation and tax-efficient diversification, particularly for families transitioning from concentrated entrepreneurial wealth into multi-generational portfolios.

For years, global real estate has been overlooked while mega-cap tech and passive flows dominated investor attention. But with equity markets increasingly concentrated and trading at elevated multiples, Dennis Mitchell, CEO & Chief Investment Officer at Starlight Capital, argues the real risk may be not diversifying. In this episode, we unpack why supply-demand fundamentals, demographic tailwinds, and valuation gaps could make global real estate one of the most compelling opportunities hiding in plain sight.

Private markets are quietly being rewritten in real time—and in this conversation, Ash Lawrence explains why AI, private credit, and defence could define who wins and who gets left behind in 2026. In this episode of Insight is Capital, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Ash Lawrence, Head of AGF Capital Partners, to unpack AGF Capital Partners’ 2026 - The Annual - Private Markets Outlook. Against a backdrop of geopolitical volatility, AI acceleration, shifting credit dynamics, and renewed defence spending, Lawrence lays out five structural themes reshaping private equity, private credit, and alternative investments. The conversation explores how allocators can separate signal from noise, manage emerging concentration risks, navigate liquidity mismatches in retail private markets, and position portfolios for a world where traditional assumptions no longer apply. From AI infrastructure and mid-market private credit to defence, security, and the evolving role of private capital in public objectives, this episode offers a clear-eyed, practitioner’s view of where private markets are headed—and what investors need to understand to participate intelligently.

In this episode of Insight Is Capital, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Mélanie Valcin, President and CEO of United for Literacy, and Matthew Latimer, Executive Director of the Federation of Independent Dealers, for a powerful conversation at the intersection of literacy, financial advice, and economic inclusion. Together, they unpack a sobering reality: one in five working-age Canadians struggles with basic literacy, a barrier that quietly cascades into poor financial outcomes, limited access to advice, workforce stagnation, and rising social costs. Valcin shares on-the-ground stories from communities across Canada—food banks, mining towns, and correctional facilities—illustrating how targeted, trust-based literacy programs can rapidly transform lives. Latimer brings the financial lens, explaining how low financial literacy leaves Canadians vulnerable to costly mistakes, scams, and long-term retirement risk, while also constraining the reach and effectiveness of professional financial advice. The conversation makes a compelling case that literacy—reading, digital, and financial—is not a “soft” social issue, but core economic infrastructure, and argues for a coordinated national strategy that brings together government, educators, industry, and financial advisors themselves.

In this episode of Insight Is Capital, host Pierre Daillie sits down with David Stonehouse, Interim CIO and Head of North American Specialty Investments at AGF Investments, for a wide-ranging but grounded discussion on what lies ahead for investors as the cycle matures. Stonehouse frames 2026 as a constructive but narrower environment—one supported by global monetary easing, rising fiscal stimulus, and resilient earnings growth, yet constrained by elevated valuations, softer labor markets, and geopolitical uncertainty. The conversation carefully unpacks how tariffs have shifted from an economic “earthquake” to a lingering aftershock, why inflation fears may be overstated near-term, and how investors can think about regional diversification beyond a heavily concentrated U.S. market. Rather than offering bold predictions, the discussion emphasizes flexibility, balance, and readiness—highlighting why equal-weight equity exposure, selective credit, emerging markets, and a strategic cash buffer may matter more than ever as uncertainty rises but opportunity persists.

In this wide-ranging and human conversation, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Tim Nash, Founder & CEO of Good Investing, to explore what it really means to invest with intention in an era of political polarization, ESG backlash, and growing client skepticism toward traditional finance. Drawing on more than 15 years of experience in sustainable investing, Tim reframes the debate around ESG, impact investing, and responsible capital allocation. Rather than positioning sustainability as a trade-off against returns, he argues that money is best understood as a means—a tool to support security, freedom, stability, and well-being—rather than an end in itself. The discussion moves well beyond product labels. Tim clearly maps the spectrum of sustainable investing approaches, from divestment and ESG integration to shareholder stewardship, thematic investing, and deep impact investments such as community bonds. Along the way, Pierre and Tim unpack why many advisors struggle with these conversations, how values alignment drives trust and client retention, and why listening—not judgment—is the most critical advisory skill in today’s environment. This episode is essential listening for advisors navigating generational wealth transfer, evolving client values, and the widening gap between what investors want and what the industry often delivers.