Our Management Team

Prior to co-founding Tacita Capital in 2005, Michael was the Chief Operating Officer of Loring Ward Inc., a family office located in New York and Los Angeles. Michael was also the co-founder and Vice Chairman of Assante Corporation, Loring Ward’s original parent company. During his tenure, Assante grew from $1B to over $20B in assets under administration including $8B in leading tax-managed asset allocation programs.

Michael has invested on a quantitative basis for over 30 years. He originally adopted mean-variance optimization in the early 1990s as a tool to improve asset allocation decisions. In 2004, he began using a factor-based framework for equity investing. He was the Chief Investment Strategist and chaired the Investment Committee of a California-based asset management firm with over $4B in assets invested in factor-based equity strategies.

Michael is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society Toronto. He is a Registered Financial Planner (RFP), a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professional, and graduated first in his class in Canada as a Chartered Financial Planner. Michael was the gold medalist in his graduating year from the Honours Commerce Program at the University of Manitoba. He is also a member of the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners. Michael is currently a member of the Finance Committee of the Board of Governors for the Royal Ontario Museum.

Garnet is a both a principal and a director of Tacita Capital and is responsible for the operation of the firm’s portfolio management activities including the Pools. He also oversees the monitoring and regular rebalancing of client portfolios.

Garnet has over 27 years of experience in investment management. Prior to joining Tacita Capital, Garnet spent 14 years at Assante Wealth Management and its asset management arm, United Financial Corporation where he was Portfolio Manager of record and Chief Compliance Officer for the $8B invested in United’s portfolio solutions. His responsibilities included working with an outside consultant on the development of multi-asset class and multi-factor optimized portfolios, investment sub-advisor and fund selection and manager allocations. Garnet also led Assante’s research department which focused on capital market developments, portfolio construction and optimization, investment and other tax considerations as well as quantitative factor and fundamental research. He also has extensive product development and due diligence experience.

Garnet has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from Queen’s University and earned his Chartered Accountant Designation (Ontario Honour Roll) while articling at Price Waterhouse in Toronto. He is a CFA charterholder and member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society Toronto

James is a member of the firm’s Portfolio Management Group and provides wealth advisory and portfolio management services to a number of Family Office clients.  He is also a senior member of the team that undertakes the due diligence and monitoring of private investments. James also liaises with Canadian advisory firms and their representatives on portfolio construction and investment tax planning with TCI Premia Private Pools.

James has nearly 15 years of experience in the investment management industry. Prior to joining Tacita Capital, James worked at a high net worth investment management boutique in Miami, Florida.

James earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Miami School of Business, with concentrations in Finance and Marketing. He also has an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College at the University of Toronto. James holds the Chartered Investment Manager (CIM®) designation.

Laila is a member of the firm’s Portfolio Management Group and works with our portfolio managers to achieve best execution trades across multiple asset classes. She also contributes to the analysis and monitoring of client portfolios, asset class mandates and investment models.

Prior to joining Tacita Capital, Laila spent several years working at other large financial institutions in the wealth management space.

Laila earned an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University with a concentration in Finance. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder, a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) charterholder, and also holds the Chartered Investment Manager (CIM®) designation.