EXCELLENCE AWARDEE: The Centurion Asset Management Award for Advisor of the Year – Alternative Investments

Chad Larson

https://www.facebook.com/chadrlarson/mld.wealth

@mld.wealth

@transalta

Chad Larson on alternative investments and advisor accountability Recognized as a 2026 Wealth Professional Awards finalist for Advisor of the Year, Alternative Investments, Chad Larson runs private markets through one vehicle and takes personal responsibility for the results Chad Larson’s nomination this year for the Wealth Professional, Advisor of the Year in Alternative Investments award comes at a point when the category itself has shifted. The pitch for alternatives used to be about access. Today, access alone is no longer enough. Private credit, private equity, real assets, and hedge fund strategies reach private clients through more routes than ever, and nearly every large firm now keeps a version on the shelf. What sets the work Chad does at MLD Wealth apart is not whether a client can get into these strategies but who answers for how they are selected and run once they do. Chad’s solution takes form in the Alterna Private Income Portfolio, a single vehicle he designed to hold all four in one place. It gives clients diversified exposure to private credit, private equity, real assets, and hedge fund strategies, with consolidated reporting and simplified tax documentation that removes the operational friction these investments usually carry. It draws on managers including Blackstone, Apollo, SAF, KKR, and Hamilton Lane. Building the structure is the straightforward part; the harder question is whether a smaller team can run it as well as a large firm would. “I can, and I am,” Chad says. The proof he points to is the record. MLD Core A+, the team’s core strategy, holds first-place rankings across the one-, two-, three-, four-, five-, six-, and seven-year terms, and he treats that as the whole argument. “Institutional-calibre investing without the institution,” he says. “That’s not a pitch. That’s the track record.” From there, he turns the usual logic around. The assumption that a brand-name firm is the safer choice is, in his telling, the thing clients should question most. What the institution often sells, he argues, is “a false sense of safety, wrapped in fees and underperformance,” a logo someone else built and a name a client rents rather than earns. His own model runs the other way. “It’s my name on the work, my reputation on every decision,” and that, for him, is where accountability actually lives. When a large manager underperforms, he notes, “it shrugs and points to a committee,” whereas he owns a wrong call “to your face.” The institution sells comfort, as he puts it. He is there to deliver results. Conviction like that invites scrutiny, and Chad spends a good deal of time inviting it. In 2025 he published Beyond Traditional: Unlocking the Potential of Alternative Investments, a guide to how private markets, real assets, hedge funds, and private credit fit into portfolio construction. He hosts a podcast on investment strategies and alternatives, interviewing fund managers and specialists, and runs fireside chats and briefings that put clients in the room with the managers behind the strategies they hold. He appears as a market commentator on BNN Bloomberg, including on Morning Markets, and has spoken and sat on panels at CAASA, the Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies & Assets, which represents more than 400 members. He holds the client relationships to the same standard. Chad pairs alternatives with each client’s broader goals around income, diversification, and long-term preservation, and keeps people current through regular reviews, market updates, and direct access to managers. Because these strategies carry liquidity and structural risks that public markets do not, accountability also means process: a defined due diligence sequence of manager selection, investment committee review, and ongoing monitoring. The team has the hardware to match. In 2026, MLD Wealth was named Advisory Team of the Year at the Wealth Professional Awards. Recognition like that reflects more than a single good year. It comes from the practice Chad describes, where he makes the call and takes responsibility for how it plays out.

@mldwealthmanagementgroup5617

@blackfishfinance

Robert Frances CEO and Chairman of PEAK Financial Group Robert Frances – Founder, Chairman and CEO, PEAK Financial Group Robert Frances founded PEAK Financial Group in 1992 and has grown it into a leading Canadian firm in independent wealth management, insurance, and financial advice. PEAK supports 1,500 professionals and 150,000 clients, with over $16 billion in assets, operating with no proprietary products or sales quotas. Robert serves on the CIRO board and has held leadership roles at IFIC and Concordia University. He was Global Chair of YPO (2011–2012) and now chairs the board of LANDR, a digital music company. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Quebec’s Business Services category.

Robert Frances

Founder, Chairman and CEO of PEAK Financial Group

Robert Frances founded PEAK Financial Group in 1992 and has grown it into a leading Canadian firm in independent wealth management, insurance, and financial advice. PEAK supports 1,500 professionals and 150,000 clients, with over $16 billion in assets, operating with no proprietary products or sales quotas. Robert serves on the CIRO board and has held leadership roles at IFIC and Concordia University. He was Global Chair of YPO (2011–2012) and now chairs the board of LANDR, a digital music company. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Quebec’s Business Services category.

Robert Frances

Founder, Chairman and CEO, PEAK Financial Group