Our approach · 04 / 08
Discretionary management of RRSPs, TFSAs, RESPs, LIRAs, and Individual Pension Plans — treated as components of the household, not as standalone accounts. Where capital sits matters as much as what it owns.
The mandate
Canadian registered accounts are distinct in tax treatment, contribution rules, withdrawal mechanics, and intergenerational implications. Treating them as interchangeable wrappers around the same model portfolio is a common mistake; it costs more than most clients realize.
We manage registered accounts as differentiated instruments within the larger household. The RRSP is designed to do one thing; the TFSA, another; the RESP, another still. The choice of which account holds which asset, and the order in which they are drawn down, are deliberate decisions made years before they are executed.
Registered accounts are not a product line. They are a sequencing problem solved well or solved poorly.
Each account type has a tax personality. Interest-heavy assets belong in tax-sheltered space; long-duration growth often belongs in the TFSA; certain income assets pair naturally with the RRSP. We assign positions across accounts so the household, not any single account, is optimized.
Contribution timing, withdrawal sequencing, and the order in which accounts are drawn in retirement materially affect the after-tax outcome. We plan the choreography years in advance, not in the year of action.
RRSPs become RRIFs. LIRAs become LIFs. TFSAs grow indefinitely. RESPs are drawn down on a beneficiary’s schedule. Each account has a life of its own, and the household plan must respect all of them simultaneously.
What’s distinctive
Individual accounts are easy to optimize in isolation. The household — multiple accounts across multiple family members, each with different tax brackets and time horizons — is where the meaningful work is done.
Each account is managed under its own mandate, suited to the client and the account. Over that, we add a household view — coordinating allocation across accounts and family members so decisions aren’t made in isolation or duplicated account by account.
Registered accounts are one part of a wider structure that includes corporate holdings, family trusts, and personal accounts. We coordinate across all of them, not just the registered slice.
RESPs and TFSAs each have intergenerational implications. We plan their use with the next generation in view, not only the current contributor.
Yes. Discretionary management extends across all registered account types we work with — RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, RESP, LIRA, LIF, and Individual Pension Plans where appropriate. The accounts remain in the client’s name with a Canadian custodian; Enclave holds the investment authority.
Registered accounts are managed as part of a household engagement. We do not engage to manage a standalone registered account; we engage to manage the family balance sheet, of which the registered accounts are a part.
Where appropriate and where the vehicle structure permits, yes. Many private fund allocations are held in non-registered or corporate space, but certain structures are eligible for registered accounts and we use them deliberately.
The answer is specific to the household — the size of each account, the marginal rates of each spouse, the presence of pension income, the trajectory of taxable accounts, and the timing of OAS clawback. We model the sequencing years in advance and adjust as circumstances evolve.
Each account type has its own rules — rollover provisions to a spouse, treatment of the RRSP/RRIF on second death, RESP successor subscribers. Estate-level planning for registered accounts is an explicit part of the mandate.