Industry veteran John Wood has jumped out of retirement and back into the saddle. After about two years of “incubation,” Wood is busy marketing pooled funds and investment management services of a new firm, Thompson Wood Page & Co. of Oakville, Ont.

Wood, president of TWP, has teamed up with Chris Page, chief investment officer, and Darcy Thompson, chief financial officer, to launch the firm with an investment approach they’ve labelled as “disciplined growth.” TWP is offering private pools and separately managed accounts to high net-worth investors, foundations and institutional investors.

“We’re offering superior investment returns at a reasonable cost,” Wood says. “I’m in the process of re-engaging and reactivating in the investment-management business, and am feeling very happy about it.”

Although some clients may choose separately managed accounts with customized portfolios of stocks, Wood says, investors with less than $3 million of investible assets would be most suited to TWP’s family of five investment pools, which include Canadian Stock, Canadian Performance, U.S. Stock, Canadian Small Cap Stock and Global Value pools.

The Global Value pool is managed externally through U.S. firm Neosho LLP; the Canadian Small Cap pool is managed by Triasima Portfolio Management Inc. of Montreal; and the other three pools are managed inhouse. The pools require a minimum investment of $150,000 unless investors meet provincial requirements for accredited investors.

Wood is best known as a cofounder of 20/20 Financial Inc., a mutual fund firm that was taken over by AGF Fund Management Ltd. in 1995. He was later instrumental in building Financial Concept Group before it became part of Assante Capital Management Ltd. He went on to develop Maxxum Fund Management Ltd., which was assimilated by IGM Financial Inc. of Winnipeg.

After Wood’s retirement in 2001, he worked as chairman of the investment committee for the Canadian Olympic Committee and, along with Page, a fellow committee member, developed an investment-management process. (Wood won a silver medal for Canada in canoeing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.)

“We’ve learned ways to reduce expenses and add value on the investment side, and are now beginning our sales effort,” says Wood. “Our style is to search for profitable companies that are growing their profits. When companies are increasing their profitability, that leads to profit for shareholders.”

TWP is competing on the basis of lower fees. For advisors with fee-based accounts, it offers F-class pools with management fees of 1%.

It also offers front-end load A-class pools, for which management fees are 1.5% and advisors receive a trailer fee of 75 basis points. IE