September 16, 2026: Latest thoughts on Nicola
Nicola Wealth was built on illusory risk / return expectations. For a while, they seemed to have a magical formula for steady returns. Clients that were early believers appeared prescient. Word of mouth propelled their growth in the BC business community. There's a pretty good chance that Nicola has now peaked as a business and has started its descent. I heard that last week they let go seven people in the marketing department and then the head of that department left. It's one of many signs of stress at the firm that I am hearing about. Raising capital (and preventing existing assets from fleeing) is critical for them given the liquidity situation in their private real asset funds. So marketing is key.
Sharing the pie
John Nicola has famously talked about how he generously shares equity ownership with employees, such that he owns an ever smaller share of a growing pie. Well, that pie has gotten less tempting in the past couple of years. Apparently, Nicola offers employees the possibility of buying shares every September, using the previous December valuation price. But for the past two years, I am told there have been no takers. When the firm was steadily growing, getting the valuation from 9 months prior was a good deal. But now that the firm is a bit more shaky, it's not such a good deal. Apparently, the valuation dropped by 5% between December 2024 and December 2025. But employees feel a more accurate valuation would see a much steeper drop.
This is a problem for Nicola employees who want to retire - there is no liquidity for the private shares.
A new Chief Investment Officer is in place
As anticipated in the succession plan, one William John has now replaced John Nicola as CIO of Nicola. William John's professional investing experience (per his LinkedIn profile) has been entirely in fixed income. But he now leads a firm with a dizzying array of strategies (though with a heavy focus on real estate). Still, I wouldn't dwell on this, the primary requirement for someone in the CIO post given the predicament Nicola is in is honesty. The willingness to confront reality, bite the bullet on the mistakes of the past. Immediately before joining Nicola, William John was a high school teacher for several years, taking a hiatus from his senior position in fixed income.
September 11, 2026: Danielle Skipp's new role
Danielle Skipp was Nicola Wealth's former Chief Legal Officer and the lieutenant in charge of growing their Ontario business. She left the firm around the same time as the liquidity troubles were brewing. She has been in stealth mode for the past year. In this separate post, I provide details about her plans to build a new national mega wealth management firm, backed by private equity. Her new firm seems to have more of an ETF orientation. So a marked departure from Nicola Wealth. ETFs tend to be liquid, not to put too fine a point on that.
OPM
August 25, 2026: Recent people moves
In July, Darwin Schandor got promoted as Interim Head of Private Wealth. Just a month prior, he had joined as Head of Wealth for Western Canada. He had previously been in wealth management at National Bank for a decade. His move seems related to Nicola's "President of Private Wealth" stepping down, also in July. Yannick only lasted about 10 months at Nicola. He had been touted as a "key executive appointment" as part of the firm's "thoughtful evolution" for its "next phase of growth." But he jumped on the opportunity to be Market Executive for Canada at Citi Private Bank. I don't know what a Market Executive does either. As Nicola gained momentum, it was able to hire higher profile, more credentialed people. With its more recent setbacks, some people might re-consider. Clients aren't the only people who blindly follow momentum.
I also heard a rumour that Mark Hannah, Head of Real Estate is wrapping up his involvement with Nicola Wealth. He's been with Nicola since 2014, so was a key architect of their disproportionate focus on real estate.
John Nicola active on LinkedIn
John Nicola remains Chief Investment Officer. He is also active on LinkedIn, sharing his thought leadership. He has faced some push-back, which he addressed.
It all started with this comment:
Many people say it's sub-optimal to engage with your detractors on social media. I have no advice on that either way.
Here's a more recent instance of Nicola being mentioned on social media:
Fellow money manager Martin Pelletier (part of Wellington-Altus) suggests that regulators should scrutinize Nicola's allocation to private real estate funds. Occasionally, regulators do second-guess such discretionary decisions. Given that real estate is a pretty safe asset class, the questions would be mostly whether the liquidity needs of every client were properly matched with the liquidity features of their investments.