EXCELLENCE AWARDEE: Young Entrepreneur of the Year

Joshua Kalyta

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How Joshua Kalyta is closing the financial planning gap for Canadian veterans A 2026 Wealth Professional Awards Excellence Award nominee, Joshua Kalyta turned a medical release from the CAF into a growing Ontario practice Joshua Kalyta was 15 the first time a financial planner sat him down and showed him what his savings could look like at 60. He had spent his summers working part-time jobs and put together $8,000; watching the projections take shape, he remembers turning to his father and asking why this information wasn’t something everyone had. That question was the impetus for a career. In 2022, Kalyta founded Kalyta Financial Solutions. Today the practice serves young professionals and business owners working through complex, fast-changing financial circumstances, alongside the veterans and first responders it was initially built to help. That work has been recognized by the 2026 Wealth Professional Awards, where Joshua was named an Excellence Awardee in the Young Entrepreneur of the Year category. The firm, which now operates three offices across Ontario, was built on a fairly simple approach: adoption of strategies tailored to each client’s circumstances rather than a standard template applied across the board, whether that client is a young professional building a plan from scratch or a business owner weighing decisions about their company’s future. Joshua has said he takes pride in that philosophy and considers himself fortunate to spend his days doing something he genuinely enjoys. The path there wasn’t the one he first set out on. Like much of his family before him, Joshua enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces. He graduated first in his class and was on track for a promising military career when he was diagnosed with a rare metabolic disease, one that ruled out further service. The diagnosis forced a sudden change in direction, and Joshua returned to the conversation he’d had at 15. As he worked through his own medical release from the CAF, he saw a gap that had nothing to do with ambition and everything to do with access. Members leaving the military for civilian life were stepping into financial circumstances that most civilian institutions weren’t equipped to handle, shaped by service-related complexities and a loss of the financial supports available to those still in uniform. He built his firm to close that gap, and its focus has grown outward from there. Joshua now works with clients who are often left to figure out complicated financial decisions largely on their own, whether that means a young professional building a plan from the ground up or a business owner making decisions about what comes next for their company. Outside the office, he supports charitable causes and spends his downtime on sporting clays and trap shooting. From a teenager asking why more people didn’t know about investing to a founder of a firm built around clients the industry tends to underserve, Joshua Kalyta’s journey led to his recognition as an Excellence Awardee for Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

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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