From the Editor: “Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste”

In addition to the onset of the worst pandemic in more than a century, 2020 also saw the killing of George Floyd – another catalyst for recognizing racial inequality around the world; one of the most acrimonious and deeply divided U.S. presidential campaigns in history; and wildfires in Australia and the U.S. that caused destruction on a massive scale.

Moments of crisis also present opportunity, and perhaps no company took advantage better than Zoom, which has become both a household name and a verb. But even more amazing than Zoom’s meteoric rise was the development of a vaccine less than 12 months after COVID was first reported. Traditionally vaccines take 10-15 years to develop. The fastest it ever happened before was the four years it took to develop the mumps vaccine, which was first approved in 1967.

A crisis also highlights what is truly necessary versus what is nice to have. Not to mention, life goes on, crisis or not. In our business investment decisions need to be made, financial plans need updating and employees need to be hired. We couldn’t be more proud of our employees for their efforts since the start of the pandemic. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and dug in. We added two new members to our team this year, despite the challenges presented by Zoom-based hiring. Preethi Khatri Chetri joined us this summer as our pooled fund administrator. She has extensive experience in this field, having worked with a large global competitor. Now Nexus is fortunate to have her talents and positive attitude – she will be managing the operations of our growing pooled funds. More recently Tom Wilson joined us. No, not the hockey player. Our Tom has research, as well as client service, experience. He’s been hired to deepen our bench in the client-facing aspect of our business. While we introduced Preethi in our last edition of Nexus Notes, you can read more about Tom in this edition’s Inside Nexus article. Also in this edition of Nexus Notes, we have an article that takes a deeper dive into investing during the time of COVID and a recap of the Q&A from our fireside chat on estate planning.

We recently held our annual client event, this year conducted by way of… you guessed it… a webinar. “2020 Vision: From Abnormal to the New Normal” revisits some of the shocking facts about the COVID pandemic, the surprising human resilience and ingenuity that have enabled us all to cope with the challenges, and what the new normal may look like for investors. If you missed the presentation, it is available on-line, including the client questions about the impact of the Biden presidency, Bitcoin and the future of office space in Toronto.

This edition will be my last as Editor. I have been at it for 20 years and it is time to pass the baton on to another member of our Nexus team – Brad Weber. He, like me, provides wealth planning services to our clients. He’s also an excellent writer. As editor, he is looking forward to sharing his insights with you, starting with the Q1 2021 edition.

Finally, ‘tis the season to be grateful. We are grateful for our health and the ongoing support of our clients. On behalf of the partners and staff here at Nexus, we wish you a healthy and peaceful holiday season.