Patience and discipline will deliver family prosperity

The Holt-Dunn family has been managing investments and assets for generations

SIR HERBERT HOLT created a business empire that spanned three continents during one of the most turbulent periods in history, including the Great Depression.

Holt also served as president and chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada from 1908 –1941, multiplying its assets 15-fold during his tenure.

Sir Herbert’s legacy and enviable record was carried into what is today Holdun Multi-Family Office, an independent multi-family office providing discretionary wealth management, tax and estate planning and asset protection.

Holdun Family Office
Photograph by Ben Jamieson

This Family Office is owned and controlled by the Dunn and Meier families who provide services for individuals, families, private companies, foundations and endowment funds.
Today, the Dunn and Meier families’ investment focus is multinational, and includes investment banking participation for clients, as well as related personal financial services.

The Family Office was founded to manage and transfer established wealth across generations.

But what is different about Holdun Family Office?

Holdun Family Office is unique in that the team manages and invests their clients’ money, the same way it manages and invest its own money. Experience and objectivity, as well as transparency, is offered to all their clients in the same way as it is offered to their own families.

How many managers can make similar claims?

Holdun Family Office is a discreet private provider of personal financial services and not aligned with any financial institution. The Dunn and Meier families are committed to optimising prudent returns and providing related personal services to their clients.

The ultimate objective of most families is to transfer wealth to future generations in a tax-effective and strategic manner. Holdun is eminently capable of executing these objectives for its clientele, working in partnership with each client’s advisors.

Holdun provides personal services such as bill-paying, revenue collection, assistance with age-care, personal healthcare, education, and property management,.

Its mission is to assist all clients and their families in growing assets, protecting existing wealth and preparing the next generation for the responsibilities they will assume in the future.

Holdun also differs from other independent wealth managers and family offices in the following important ways:

With individual and family clients, Holdun works with the entire family offering counselling on investments, taxes, estate planning and philanthropy from an early age.

Holdun oversees clients’ entire financial universe, in keeping with its family policy.

Holdun assists clients in strategic wealth planning for current and future generations.

Holdun has survived and prospered through many financial crises, constantly proving its ability to generate beneficial returns.

Holdun is a truly independent family office, owned and controlled by the Dunn and Meier families and placing the interests of their clients first. Holdun’s independence frees it from any potential conflicts of interest and allows it to act always in the clients’ best interests.

Holdun suggests only those investments that have been thoroughly researched and that meet its own rigorous evaluation. This, combined with the alignment of interests with their clients, makes for Holdun Family Office a family office one worth considering.

“The single greatest edge an investor can have is a long-term orientation.” – Seth Klarman
LONG-TERM investing is the process of buying and holding investment securities you believe will compound investor wealth indefinitely into the future.

Individuals have the luxury of thinking and acting in terms of decades, an unheard-of time-frame on Wall Street. The ability to be patient and disciplined while extending your time horizon can be a huge advantage.

It’s all about harnessing the power of thinking long-term, cutting down on unforced errors, and having the patience to allow compound interest to work in your favour. The question is, how does one go about this? Here are a few thoughts that may help.

When you approach stock purchases as if you were never going to sell, it forces you to be very selective in which businesses you will invest. Long-term investing puts a spotlight on what really makes the long-term prospects and competitive advantage of the business.

As I have often stressed: ignore the noise. Paying attention to daily stock price fluctuations causes investors to over-react to minor events that have no impact on the long-term earnings prospects of a business.

If you can focus on the underlying business instead of the daily stock price, you will be well on your way to becoming a long-term investor.

Another thought is to take advantage of the Lindy Effect, which states that things that have proven themselves to have staying power are likely to be around longer than things that haven’t.

In other words, a business that has thrived for 50 years will probably be around for another 50.

When you invest for the long run you need to invest in businesses that have staying power, high quality companies with sustainable and competitive advantages.

Having a sustainable, competitive advantage is the only way a company can maintain high returns over a long period of time.