HighView Financial Group

HighView Financial Group

HighView Financial Group was formed in 2005 by Mark Barnicutt, Dan Hallett, and a group of experienced financial professionals who sought to build a firm structured entirely around fiduciary counsel rather than product distribution. Based in Oakville, Ontario, the firm serves high-net-worth families and institutional clients across Canada but concentrates its practice in the Greater Toronto Area. The founding principle was explicit: charge for advice, not for transactions. The firm operates as an outsourced chief investment officer and portfolio design consultancy. Its coverage spans traditional public equities and fixed income, alternative assets including private credit and real estate, and structured products. HighView does not manufacture its own investment funds. Instead, it constructs bespoke portfolios using third-party investment managers, individual securities, and pooled funds. The firm runs a formal manager research and due diligence process that evaluates Canadian and global strategies. Public record indicates the team has advised on mandates involving private credit funds, real asset partnerships, and liquid alternatives. HighView's team includes roughly a dozen professionals split between advisory, research, and client service functions. The firm operates from a single office in Oakville. It is not part of a larger financial conglomerate, maintaining independence from banks, insurance companies, and fund manufacturers. The leadership group participates actively in Canadian investment industry committees and regulatory consultations, including the Ontario Securities Commission's advisory panels. In recent years, the firm has expanded its focus to include direct indexing solutions and tax-aware portfolio construction for taxable family accounts. HighView's structural differentiator is its compensation model: the firm accepts no commissions, trailing fees, or product-issuer payments. It is exclusively client-paid, aligning its economics with portfolio outcomes rather than asset gathering. That posture is uncommon among Canadian wealth managers, most of whom operate within bank-owned dealer networks or rely on embedded product fees. The partnership structure — Barnicutt and Hallett remain active principals approaching two decades of leadership — provides governance stability without external shareholder pressure.