Four of the firms whose advisors were surveyed for Investment Executive‘s 2012 Brokerage Report Card saw their ratings crash and burn in a staggering number of categories compared with last year, but their executives are extinguishing the flames and picking up the pieces.
At Toronto-based ScotiaMcLeod Inc., long-standing frustrations with technology appear to have seeped into a wide array of categories. The firm saw its ratings drop by half a point or more in 22 categories – as well as in its IE rating and the overall rating by advisors.
The main complaint? Advisors are weary of the repeatedly broken promises of improvements on the technology front.
“It all has to do with technology,” says a ScotiaMcLeod advisor in Ontario. “When we’ve asked them about improvements, they keep saying, ‘Oh, next year, next year.’ And, 10 years later, they still haven’t done anything with it. We’re stuck in 1998.”
Adds a colleague in Alberta: “It’s a disaster. It’s old, inefficient, unresponsive and it takes time away from clients.”
To counter the ever-enduring technology problems, a permanent efficiency consultant was recruited in November, says Hamish Angus, managing director and head of ScotiaMcLeod: “The [consultant’s] role is to look at our processes, look at the advisors’ processes, and try to look for ways that we can be more efficient in the way we do our regular, everyday jobs.”
The firm also plans to solicit advisor feedback on upcoming significant technology investments to ensure advisors and management are on the same page, says Angus: “This year and into 2013, we’re going to focus on the implementation and execution of a new advisor desktop strategy.”
But a disconnection between ScotiaMcLeod advisors and management has only fuelled the fires of disgruntlement, with advisors citing lack of communication as another key reason for their dissatisfaction with their firm.
Although Angus had outlined several levels of communication employed by the firm, including conference calls and weekly emails, he mentioned another new strategy: “We’ve hired a communications person … so we’ll really start to see if we can talk about some of the initiatives that we’re doing more effectively.”
Mississauga, Ont.-based Edward Jones also is facing some disappointment, as its advisors rated the firm lower by half a point or more in nine categories, resulting in an IE rating that also dropped by half a point.
The main cause of concern for Edward Jones advisors regarded the firm’s wealth-management support services, with the largest decline occurring in “support for insurance planning,” which fell to 7.0 from 8.3 in 2011.
“We don’t have tools to help us prepare [insurance] plans,” says an Edward Jones advisor in Ontario. “We have to fax in quotes, and there’s nothing [for] presentation.”
The firm is taking steps to improve, says Craig Hayman, principal, recruiting and development at Edward Jones: “[We] made the decision in December that we will be hiring insurance specialists to make sure every team in Canada that wants to work with one has the opportunity to do so.”
An Edward Jones advisor in Ontario expressed enthusiasm for the new program’s potential: “I have a feeling that now that we have insurance professionals, this rating will hopefully be a 9.0 in a few years.”
And, after seeing some drastic improvements in last year’s Report Card, it appears that advisors’ honeymoon with the new ownership at Toronto-based Macquarie Private Wealth Inc. has run its course.
Although the firm is still doing well – it has an impressive IE rating of 8.6 and an overall rating by its advisors of 9.4 – Macquarie saw its ratings decrease by half a point or more in 12 categories, while rising by the same margin in only three.
Even though Macquarie advisors still value the firm’s senior management highly, some felt there could be more collaboration between the corporate and advisory sides.
In fact, a Macquarie advisor in Ontario says upper management could listen to individual advisors more, while some in Quebec expressed difficulties in accessing upper management – and lamented the lack of francophone representation.
Says Earl Evans, the firm’s CEO and head: “I think, at the end of the day, it’s very much a hard one to get right because if you’re too invasive on people’s styles, they feel you’re being oppressive. If you’re standoffish, then you’re aloof. So, it’s trying to find that balance.”
Lastly, Toronto-based TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice saw its ratings decrease by half a point or more in seven categories, with advisors citing inefficient technology as the main reason for their dissatisfaction.
“Technology needs improving. We enter orders manually – still,” says a TD Waterhouse advisor in Ontario. “We had better tools at [my previous firm] in 1995.”
Mike Reilly, TD Waterhouse’s president and national sales manager, says the firm has “upped the ante substantially in our technology spending over a 36-month period to the largest investment that we have made over the past number of years, which will be completed in 2012-13.”
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