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2nd Quarter 2025 Newsletter Thumbnail

2nd Quarter 2025 Newsletter


In a beautifully crafted quarter sawn Oak secretary’s desk from the 1940’s is an old polaroid photograph of a boy and his father taken in the North Woods of Wisconsin. In the background is a pristine fresh water lake with pines and hardwoods lining the picturesque shoreline and an aluminum 14 foot V-hulled fishing boat and a small old outboard motor attached to the stern. The kind of boat motor with the gas tank integrated into the top before modern motors became so powerful and heavy as to necessitate the separation of the gas tank and motor.  The photo was taken in the late 60’s or early 70’s.  The boy is smiling ear-to-ear, his father’s arm cradled around his shoulders with that familiar proud “this is my boy” expression that every Dad feels for his young son.  The unknown lake was likely near Phillips, Wisconsin where Dad began fishing after the War, before marriage and kids alter a man’s perspective of what’s important in life.  

Like many families in the 50’s and 60’s we were a fishing family.  Annual vacations to the North Woods would find Mom, Dad and the kids in a small, leaky fishing boat with Zebco rods and reels, night crawlers and minnows for bait.  Like other things in life, I have no recollection of the first time we went fishing, likely because I was too young to remember, but I do recall many of our family trips.  We would stay in a small seasonal cottage at Dad’s friend Vern’s lake house.  I remember Vern being old. Older than Dad and likely in his 50’s.  Age is relative and 50 is an old man to a 10 year-old kid.   Somethings in life never change. When I look at that picture, I can now see my grandkids.  Some things never change.

Our oldest grandson, Nicholas has been asking me to take him fishing.  As a family we spend the July 4th holiday at our lake house in St. Germain, Wisconsin.  Lisa and I will arrive a few days before the kids, grandkids and their dogs to set the place up which includes tidying up, filling the fridge and freezer, and generally making the place hospitable for 8 adults, 5 kids, and 3 dogs.  It’s a tight fit, but everyone makes the best of it and we all look forward to the holiday all year.  Since we would be up earlier than the rest, we decided to bring Nicholas with us.  We could spend some quality time with our oldest grandchild and I could take him fishing.   Before we left town, we bought Nicholas a pair of waders and boots to wear on our adventure.  Just like I did with my kids and Dad did with me.

Knowing that 8 year-olds have short attention spans, I decided on a small trout stream close to the house.  Of course, I could have taken him fishing in the lake at the house, but there aren’t trout in the lake and, well, I’m a bit persnickety when it comes to fishing.  The area around St. Germain is relatively populous for the North Woods with 3000 residents within a 5 mile radius and the July 4th week swells that number 4 or 5 fold.   Access to the stream is easy enough from a gravel road.  When we arrived, a pickup was already parked in my usual spot.   Normally, this would necessitate moving on to a different stream, but since I was with an 8 year old, I decided to fish the river anyway.  We parked, adorned our waders, and made our way down to the stream.  Getting to the stream is making it down a very steep, 60-foot embankment.   Old growth forest lines the embankment and we follow a path made by deer to the stream.  It can be treacherous but not dangerous if done correctly, meaning you lean your body up the embankment so that any fall is on your backside making a slip into a slide.  When we reached the stream, two men were standing in the river.  We engaged in the type of small talk required when meeting others on a stream.  We remarked concerning the weather and I inquired regarding their luck that morning and their intentions.  As it turned out, they were finishing up and were leaving the stream to us.  Some things never change.

I entered the water first and assisted Nicholas into the moving water, then instructed him on the basics of wading moving water.  We made our way up stream to within casting distance of the first hole which could hold trout.  The hole was 3 or 4 feet deep and carved by a large White Pine of 6 feet in circumference that had fallen across and into the stream.   With Nick at my side, I cast the dry fly onto the water at the base of the tree and almost immediately had a strike.  A small, speckled trout, of maybe 4 or 5 inches.  I missed the set and did not hook the fish.  After a few more casts it was clear that this hole had no more trout willing to play.  It was time to move up-stream.  I lifted Nicholas up and over the fallen tree to the up-stream side and began clambering over the tree myself. Before I could make it over the tree, Nicholas fell into the water which was a only foot or so deep.  I got to him fast and pulled him up from the water.  He was a bit unnerved, but not hurt, just wet as the water had gotten into his waders.  I gave him another lesson in wading moving water and we walked up-stream to the next hole.   I made a few casts and noticed Nicholas was getting cold.  It was a mid-70-degree morning, but I did not want his first outing to be poorly remembered, so we made our way back up the embankment to the truck. The outing had ended before we really started.  But that’s fishing with an 8-year-old.  

Some things in life never change and in my family it’s fishing.  Josh started fishing with me at about the same age as Nicholas is now.   He has continued to fish with me although less so in the last few years.  Maybe he views fishing as quality time with Dad and now that we see each other at work most days, unnecessary.  My girls never developed an interest and that’s OK too.  Maybe Nicholas will find he likes to fish, or not. Either way, he has 2 siblings and 2 cousins yet to try.

We are making our way through the transition from our long-time partner, Commonwealth Financial Network to our new partner, Arkadios Capital.  We did a solid job of due diligence in reviewing candidates to fill that role and we believe Arkadios to be the best long-term fit to provide us with the support we need to care for each of you. We would like to thank you for your understanding as we make it through this transition.  Like fishing with kids, we are trying to do this with no change to your experience and interactions with us.  Like Commonwealth, Arkadios clears through National Financial Services, LLC (a Fidelity Investments company) meaning that your monthly account statements will not change in appearance or format.  Similarly, the quarterly statements will contain the same information that you have always received. Unfortunately, Commonwealth has decided to not provide us with the quarterly statements for 2nd Quarter of 2025 and therefore they are not attached to this letter.  We will have 3rd Quarter statements for you in October.  Also, many thanks for your understanding of our efforts to create Online and Mobile access for each of you. Sometimes things just move slower than we (or you) would like.   Every effort is being made to make this transition appear as if things never changed.  Lastly, thank you for being clients, we never take that for granted.

 

We continue to believe that patience and a long-term perspective will allow our clients the best probability of reaching their goals and objectives.

 

As always, we thank you for your business and for your continued trust.

  

Sincerely,

Jack P. Cannata