Frontwater Capital is an OSC-registered Portfolio Manager offering fully discretionary, fee-only investment management for Toronto-area entrepreneurs, executives, and high-net-worth families.
Discretionary portfolio management means Frontwater Capital manages your investments on your behalf within an agreed mandate. You set the objectives and constraints. We handle the day-to-day decisions — allocation, rebalancing, risk management, and trade execution — without requiring your sign-off on every move.
Most Toronto investors encounter one of two models: a bank advisor who recommends proprietary products and earns commissions, or a robo-advisor that allocates mechanically to a model portfolio. Frontwater operates differently. We are fully independent, fee-only, and OSC-registered as a Portfolio Manager — which means we are legally required to act in your best interest at all times.
What distinguishes Frontwater further is the integration of options strategies into every portfolio we manage. This is not a product overlay or a separate mandate — it is the core of how we manage risk. Options allow us to actively shape a portfolio's return profile, not just allocate passively and hope the market cooperates.
We make investment decisions on your behalf within an agreed mandate — no need to approve every trade. Your portfolio responds to market conditions in real time, not at your next available call.
Unlike long-only managers, we actively manage downside risk using options overlays. This gives your portfolio a structural layer of protection that asset allocation alone cannot provide.
Client assets are held at National Bank Independent Network (NBIN) — a wholly separate institution. Frontwater never takes custody of client funds, and you can see every position any time.
We are compensated solely by the fee you pay us. We earn nothing from product sales, referral arrangements, or trailer commissions — so every recommendation is made in your interest, not ours.
Jeff Kaminker and Dan Richmond manage every account personally. There are no junior portfolio managers, no account representatives, and no hand-offs — you speak directly with the people making decisions.
The same options-informed portfolio construction approach used by pension funds and large institutions — applied to private client portfolios through a boutique structure that keeps costs reasonable.
Frontwater works with a select group of Toronto-area clients who value independence, direct access, and institutional rigour over convenience and brand recognition.
Liquidity events, concentrated positions, tax-efficient wealth accumulation alongside a growing business.
Stock options, deferred compensation, and RSU management integrated with a broader investment plan.
Multi-generational wealth management, estate planning integration, RRSP, TFSA, RESP and corporate account coordination.
Canadian registered and non-registered accounts managed with cross-border tax awareness for Canadians living abroad.
Frontwater Capital Inc. is registered with the Ontario Securities Commission under NRD #29200. Our Portfolio Manager registration is the most demanding regulatory category for independent investment managers in Ontario — it carries a fiduciary obligation to every client, mandatory capital requirements, and annual compliance reporting.
We are also registered as an Exempt Market Dealer, Investment Fund Manager, and Commodity Trading Manager, covering the full scope of our investment activities including options strategies and alternative mandates. You can verify our registration at any time at registrantresearch.osc.ca.
Discretionary portfolio management means you formally authorise a registered Portfolio Manager to make investment decisions and place trades on your behalf, within an agreed written mandate covering your objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon and any constraints you set. You are not called for approval on each trade — which is what allows the manager to act promptly when markets move. In Canada only firms registered as Portfolio Managers with a provincial securities commission may manage money on this basis, and they owe you a fiduciary duty to act in your best interest.
No — you set the terms. Control is exercised through the Investment Policy Statement rather than through trade-by-trade approval: you define the mandate, the risk parameters, any securities or sectors to exclude, and income or withdrawal requirements. The manager operates inside those boundaries and is accountable to them.
The account remains in your name at an independent custodian, you can see every holding and transaction at any time, and the mandate can be changed or ended by you.
A mutual fund pools your money with thousands of other investors into one product with a single, identical strategy. A robo-advisor allocates you to a model portfolio chosen by questionnaire. Discretionary management builds a portfolio specifically for you — your tax situation, your concentrated stock position, your withdrawal timing, your exclusions — and you directly own the underlying securities rather than units of a fund. That direct ownership is what makes tax-loss harvesting and individual position management possible.
Search the National Registration Database at registrantresearch.osc.ca, or the Ontario Securities Commission’s own registrant search. Both show a firm’s registration categories, the provinces it is registered in, and any disciplinary history — and both are free and public. Frontwater Capital is registered under NRD #29200 as a Portfolio Manager, Exempt Market Dealer, Investment Fund Manager and Commodity Trading Manager. Verifying this yourself before engaging any firm is worth the two minutes it takes.
An options overlay uses strategies such as covered calls and protective puts alongside the underlying holdings, typically to generate additional income from positions you already own or to hedge downside risk on a concentrated position. It is not speculation — used properly it is a risk-management and income tool. It does require genuine expertise to run well, which is why most boutique firms do not offer it; Frontwater’s founder managed a $500 million option overlay portfolio before founding the firm.
It tends to suit people whose financial situation has outgrown a simple product — business owners and executives with concentrated or equity-based compensation, families coordinating multiple registered and corporate accounts, retirees managing a tax-efficient drawdown, and anyone who would rather delegate day-to-day investment decisions to a fiduciary than monitor markets themselves. It is generally a poor fit for those who want to approve every trade or actively trade their own account.
Book a no-commitment introductory call with Jeff or Dan. We'll discuss your situation, explain how a discretionary mandate works in practice, and be straightforward about whether we're the right firm for your needs.