A Wealth Management Firm Built Around the Whole Picture.
Stark Private Wealth is an independent wealth management practice for people who have built something meaningful and want to make the most of it.
Our clients come from many different backgrounds. Some are successful business owners with strong cash flow and significant wealth tied to their companies. Some are professionals and executives with substantial income, investments and increasingly complex corporate or tax considerations. Others are couples who have spent decades saving, investing, paying down debt and quietly building a comfortable retirement. We also work with farmers and families whose wealth may be spread across land, corporations, investments, equipment and other assets.
What they tend to have in common is that their financial lives have become too important, and often too interconnected, to look at one account or one decision at a time.
That’s where we come in.
I began my career in wealth management in 2007 after graduating from Business Management at Grant MacEwan College. I was recruited into the industry and spent my first several years learning the business from the ground up—investments, financial planning, client relationships, insurance, compliance and the many moving parts that go into managing someone’s financial life.
As I gained experience, I also began to see where the industry didn’t always align with how I believed clients should be served. I wanted greater freedom to recommend what I genuinely believed was best for the client, rather than being limited by proprietary products or compensation structures. That eventually led me to an independent investment dealer in Calgary, where I gained a much deeper understanding of the industry and saw firsthand what a more open architecture and client-focused model could look like.
Today, I work independently through Portfolio Strategies Corporation, an investment dealer based in Calgary. It gives me the independence I was looking for: access to a broad range of investment solutions, strong infrastructure and compliance support, while allowing me to build my own practice around the way I believe clients should be served. I’ve added the planning software, research, tools and professional relationships that allow me to do the kind of work I enjoy most—getting to know a client’s entire financial picture, finding the opportunities and problems that matter, and helping turn that into a practical plan for their future.
I take the responsibility seriously, but I genuinely enjoy what I do. I like markets, I like solving complicated problems, and I especially like working with people who have spent years building something and want to make sure it works as hard for them as they worked for it.
My philosophy is pretty simple: understand the whole picture, tell the truth about what you see, and always put the client’s interests first.
Beverley brings decades of experience in financial services and wealth management to Stark Private Wealth. A former financial advisor and CFP professional, she built her own practice around the same principles that remain important to us today: knowing your clients, understanding their financial lives, managing risk thoughtfully and helping them build and preserve wealth through sound financial planning and disciplined investment management. Her dedication to her clients and their long-term financial success has been a defining part of her career.
Today, Beverley works with Stark Private Wealth on a part-time basis, bringing her experience and knowledge to the day-to-day operation of the practice. She assists with client transactions, KYC updates, account and document administration, new applications, file organization and the many details required to keep client plans moving smoothly. Having previously worked directly with many of the clients we now serve, she also provides valuable continuity and a familiar point of contact. She knows that the little things matter—and that good wealth management is often just as much about getting the details right as it is about getting the strategy right.
Stark Private Wealth provides comprehensive Independend wealth management built around the entire financial picture, not simply an investment account.
We help clients understand what they own, how it is structured, what it is intended to accomplish and where opportunities or risks may exist. Our work can include financial planning, investment management, retirement and income planning, tax strategy, insurance and risk management, corporate and business planning, estate and succession planning, and legacy planning.
We use detailed financial modeling and scenario analysis to explore different outcomes – whether that’s determining how much to save, when to retire, how to structure income, how investments should be positioned, what happens if a business is sold or transferred, or how a family could be affected by an unexpected death. We then prioritize the most important issues and develop practical strategies around them.
Our role doesn’t end when the plan is delivered. We help implement the strategies we develop, manage and monitor client investments, coordinate with accountants, lawyers, insurance professionals and other specialists when needed, and continue to revisit the plan as circumstances change.
Clients can turn to us when they are considering a major financial decision because we understand the broader context behind it. The ultimate objective is financial independence and a prosperous future on your terms—making sure your wealth supports the life you want to live today, provides sustainable income throughout retirement, protects the people and assets that matter to you, and ultimately passes where you intend it to go. We can’t tell you what the future will bring, but we can help you prepare for it.
At Stark Private Wealth, we take a whole-picture approach to wealth management. We start by getting to know you, your family, your business and what you’ve built, then gather and analyze the financial information needed to understand the full picture.
Using financial planning software, detailed projections and scenario analysis, we identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks within your financial life and prioritize the areas that can make the greatest difference. We then work through the relevant pieces—investments, retirement income, insurance, tax, corporate structures, estate and succession planning—looking at how each affects the others rather than making decisions in isolation.
Once the strategy is clear, we work with you to turn it into a practical financial blueprint and help implement it, including coordinating with your other professional advisors when appropriate.
From there, the relationship becomes ongoing: we manage your investments, monitor your plan, revisit assumptions, model new decisions and act as a trusted financial sounding board when important questions arise. We can’t predict the future, but we can plan for it—and we believe good wealth management is about having the right strategy, understanding why it works, and having someone in your corner to keep it working as life changes.
You Won’t Be Handed Off to a Department.
Stark Private Wealth is intentionally personal.
You work directly with the people responsible for your plan and your investments. We keep the practice focused and use a network of trusted professionals and investment specialists when additional expertise is required.
We also believe financial planning works better when it fits into your life.
That’s why we often meet clients at their homes or offices.
Sometimes the best planning conversation happens around a boardroom table.
Sometimes it’s at the kitchen table.
Either way, the conversation is about you—not about filling out another form.
We Get to Know the Person Before We Start Working on the Plan
A good wealth management relationship requires trust, and trust takes a little time.
Especially when we haven’t been introduced through someone we already know, we spend time getting to know one another before getting into the numbers. We want to understand your family, your work, your business, what you’ve accomplished, what you’re trying to accomplish and what keeps you up at night.
We also want you to understand us.
We’ll explain what we do, how we work, where we can help and where we can’t. We believe that expectations are best established early and that a good client relationship should be comfortable, candid and mutually understood.
Once we’re both comfortable that we’re a good fit, the real work begins.
My reasons for doing this work are personal, but they are also fairly simple.
When I was 12 years old, on my birthday, my father was struck by lightning and died that afternoon. In the days and years that followed, I watched our family’s financial life become almost as difficult to navigate as everything else. I remember hearing the question, “Did he have life insurance?” and watching my mom try to understand businesses, corporate structures, taxes, loans, agreements, assets and financial decisions that had previously been handled by someone else. She was suddenly expected to make enormous financial decisions without really understanding the financial world she had been dropped into.
That experience stayed with me. It taught me that wealth isn’t just about having money or owning investments. To be a proper steward of wealth, It’s also about understanding what you’ve built, knowing why it is structured the way it is, and having a plan that can continue to work when life doesn’t go according to plan. It also showed me what can happen when important financial decisions are left until they’re urgent. Over time, my interest in investing and wealth grew into something much broader. I studied finance and management, developed a deep interest in markets and financial strategy, and eventually found myself doing the work I had always envisioned: helping people make better decisions with their money and the wealth they’ve worked hard to create.
I genuinely enjoy this work. I enjoy investing, planning, analyzing problems and finding opportunities, but most of all, I enjoy being useful. I get to work with interesting people, understand the things they’ve spent years building, solve problems that can have a meaningful financial impact and help give families greater clarity and confidence about their future. Sometimes that means improving an investment portfolio. Sometimes it means finding a better retirement strategy. Sometimes it means uncovering a corporate or estate issue that could have become very expensive later. And sometimes it means simply being the person a client can call before making an important decision.
That’s why I do this. I believe people deserve to understand their financial lives—not just own a collection of accounts—and they deserve someone who is willing to do the work, ask difficult questions, explain things honestly and stay involved over time. If I can help a family build financial independence, protect what they’ve worked for, enjoy it while they’re here, and make sure it ultimately goes where they want it to go, then I consider that a pretty good day’s work.
Your investments are important. But they’re rarely the whole story.
A successful financial life might include investment accounts, a business, real estate, pensions, corporations, insurance, debt, family obligations and eventually a retirement that needs to be funded for decades.
We start by understanding how those pieces fit together.
Our initial planning process helps establish where you are today, where you want to go and where the most important opportunities may be hiding. From there, we can dig deeper into the areas that require more careful thought – sometimes working alongside your accountant, lawyer, insurance professional or other trusted advisors.
Some planning decisions are relatively simple.
Others can have consequences that last for generations.
Our job is to understand the difference.
You’ve Built Something Worth Planning For.
We work primarily with families who have spent years or decades building a meaningful financial foundation – often through business ownership, farming, professional careers, real estate, pensions, or years of disciplined saving and investing. Some are still building their wealth, while others have reached a point where there are simply more financial decisions to coordinate.
Our clients want to understand where they stand, what opportunities they may be overlooking, and how the different pieces of their financial lives can work together – from investments and retirement income to tax, insurance, business and estate planning.
Ultimately, we work with people who want a clear plan, a trusted sounding board, and someone willing to do the homework alongside them.
The Best Advice Doesn’t Always Come From One Person.
But often, the most important decisions overlap.
We help connect those conversations when it makes sense.
Rather than solving a tax problem that creates an estate problem, or restructuring a business without considering retirement income, we try to make sure the major decisions are being viewed together.
The goal isn’t more professionals.
– It’s fewer gaps between them.
You’ve spent years accumulating wealth.
Now it’s time to figure out how to use it.
Retirement planning is about more than determining whether you have “enough.” It involves deciding when and how to draw income, which accounts to use, how much risk to take, how to manage taxes and how to protect against the possibility of living longer—or markets performing poorly—than expected.
The goal isn’t simply to retire.
It’s to retire with confidence and remain financially independent throughout retirement.
You’ve built something meaningful.
Your wealth is likely tied closely to the business you’ve spent years growing, which can make personal financial planning considerably different from simply managing an investment portfolio.
We work with business owners on both sides of that equation—building wealth while the business is growing, and planning what happens when it’s time to step away.
That can involve corporate investments, personal investments, insurance, tax considerations, succession, retirement income and the eventual sale or transfer of the business.
The business may be your greatest asset.
It shouldn’t also be your entire retirement plan.
Some families don’t have one defining source of wealth. Instead, they’ve accumulated it across investments, real estate, businesses, pensions and other assets over many years.
At that point, managing each piece independently can create problems.
We help bring those pieces together and look at the bigger questions: How much is enough? What should your wealth accomplish? How should it support your family? What needs to happen during your lifetime, and what happens afterward?
The more moving parts there are, the more valuable it becomes to have a plan connecting them.
For many farming families, wealth doesn’t sit neatly inside an investment account.
It’s land. Equipment. Corporations. The farm. Investments. Debt. Family members. And often decades of decisions that need to work together.
We help families look beyond the current year and consider how the farm and the rest of the family’s wealth fit into a longer-term plan. That may include retirement income, investment management, tax planning, insurance, succession and the eventual transfer of land or other assets to the next generation.
Agricultural wealth can be incredibly valuable, but it can also be illiquid, concentrated and deeply personal.
Good planning needs to account for all three.