About Us

We describe ourselves as a full service wealth management firm. We design strategies to grow and protect your wealth so you can reach your financial goals and ensure your money goes to the people and causes you care about.

We also find that client relationships are most effective when we also manage the implementation of the strategies, whether that be through investments, collaborating with your other professionals like accountants, lawyers and mortgage broker, or applications for insurance policies.

We like to be proactive and make sure you are taking advantage of registered accounts and other opportunities the tax code allows us.

We are set up to be paperless and to work with you digitally. We also offer in person meetings at several locations and are open to coming to your home. We have found that our clients like the convenience of being able to work with us at their convenience from any location.

You also may have seen us as at one of the many financial literacy events we are asked to host or occasionally in the news. John often gets asked to host workshops, be a speaker at events or contribute to articles in the news discussing financial planning, investing, insurance and a variety of other topics.

Frequently Asked Questions

Designed is an independent investment dealer. In Canada an advisor must be registered with an investment dealer. The dealer is responsible for supervision of the advisor for compliance with securities regulations and for arranging the custodian and providing access to investment markets.
Designed Securities currently has over 130 advisors who manage over 5 Billion in assets. This firm specialises in supervising investment advisors and portfolio managers.
Designed Securities Ltd. is regulated by the Canadian Investment RegulatoryOrganization (Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (ciro.ca).
Designed is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (www.cipf.ca). This is the provider of the insurance coverage your investment account has in the event a member ﬁrm becomes insolvent. Designed is also regulated by CIRO (Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization). Being a member of these organizations is a requirement of all investment dealers.
Aviso is a Custodian or Carrying Broker (Where your accounts will be held).
When a client chooses to work with us an account is opened in their name at a bank or ﬁnancial institution.
Aviso partners with almost all credit unions in Canada. If you were to open an investment account there you would likely be opening it with Aviso. There are currently 150 credit unions and over 2000 credit union advisors on the platform. They also are the back office for advisors from Desjardins, Co-Operators along with 123 other wealth management service providers and portfolio management ﬁrms.
Aviso has over 600,000 client accounts and over $120 billion in assets under administration.
Aviso is owned by Desjardins, Co-operators and several credit unions. Their total worth is over 750 billion.
The underlying trust company is CWT which is subsidiary of National Bank
(Numbers provided from 2023 ﬁnancial statements)
The investment accounts are held at Aviso and are supervised by Aviso and Designed Securities.
No we are not restricted to use products or funds from any company or bank.
Our firm does not have any proprietary investment products and neither does our investment dealer.
John Baynham, CIM, CFP is a Registered Representative and has the full securities license. He can design strategies with stocks, bonds, ETFS, mutual funds, GICs and more.
Retirement Income Group has an insurance license to provide Life, Health, Critical Illness and Disability insurance.
We have contracts with most of the major insurance companies in Canada, so we can help you find the best policy at a great rate.
Insurance services offered by Retirement Income Group, through Carte Risk Management Inc and Gryphin Advantage Inc, are separate from the securities business offered by Retirement Income Group, through Designed Securities Ltd. Insurance services are regulated by Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA). Designed Securities Ltd. is regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).
We submit a Request For Proposal (RFP) for your group and get quotes from several carriers. This allows us to help you secure the best rates and coverage for your employees
We also help you design and customize your benefit plans to ensure you get the most value for the money you spend on premium.
We also are able to set up RRSP matching programs and Pensions for your employees
We facilitate financial literacy workshops and other great add on services for companies that set up benefit plans through us.
Currently we meet clients virtually, at several shared office locations around the GTA and Durham Region or at our client’s homes. We can meet outside the GTA or Durham Region if scheduled far enough in advance.
Since Covid, we became set up to serve clients virtually and most of our clients liked the experience. We also ended up getting clients all over Ontario, Nova Scotia and Alberta.
Since our clients are fairly spread out geographically we either meet virtually or find a location that is close to them. Depending on where you live we may not offer an in person experience
Designed is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (www.cipf.ca). This is the provider of the insurance coverage your investment account has in the event a member ﬁrm becomes insolvent. Being a member of the CIPF is a requirement of all investment dealers. Below is a summary of the coverage limits provided for in the CIPF Coverage Policy based on both the type of client and the type of account(s) the client has with a member ﬁrm. For complete details, please refer to the CIPF Coverage Policy on the website.
For an individual holding an account or accounts with a member ﬁrm, the limits on CIPF protection are generally as follows:
1. $1 million for all general accounts combined (such as cash accounts, margin accounts, TFSAs and FHSAs),
plus
2: $1 million for all registered retirement accounts combined (such as RRSPs, RRIFs and LIFs), plus
3. $1 million for all registered education savings plans (RESPs) combined where the client is the subscriber of the plan
Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) is the national self-regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on Canada’s debt and equity marketplaces.
CIRO is carrying on the regulatory functions of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada, and is committed to the protection of investors, providing efficient and consistent regulation, and building Canadians’ trust in financial regulation and the people managing their investments.
All members of our team that handle sensitive data use computers secured by NPC DataGuard. The computers are fully encrypted and backed up regularly.
SideDrawer is Soc 2 Type II certified and uses strong AES 256 Encryption. It uses industry leading TLS 1.2 and 1.3 protocols for the transfer of sensitive information.
Our CRM has SOC 2 Type II certification and uses strong AES 256 Encryption. It also has ISO 27001, ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 certifications.