The first wave of retiring baby boomers has arrived, setting in motion an era that will make serving the special financial needs of seniors a major issue for the financial services sector. Thus, it’s no surprise that financial advisors surveyed for this year’s Brokerage Report Card are placing greater importance on support services catering to this clientele – although they have concerns that related changes are coming too slow.

“I don’t think the industry gets it yet,” says an advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., who notes that planning retirement income for clients is completely different than helping working clients grow their assets. Simply put: “The math is different when de-accumulating.”

Adds a colleague in Quebec: “It’s a growing segment of our clients, and financial planning tools are more geared for pre- retirement planning.”

An advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based Raymond James Ltd. shares a similar sentiment: “The focus isn’t on the de-accumulation phase. Most firms don’t want to pay attention to that area.”

It’s for these very reasons that the overall importance ratings for two categories focused on the needs of the aging clientele – “support for wills and estate planning” and “support for helping clients plan for their post-retirement income” – both rose by half a point – to 8.4 from 7.9 and to 8.7 from 8.2, respectively – year-over-year.

Although advisors reported little change in the quality of the support they receive in these areas (the overall performance averages remained static in both categories), closer inspection reveals that some firms are delivering the needed support – and others soon will be doing so as well. That’s because executives with almost all the firms in the Report Card say they have either recently expanded their support offerings to advisors in these categories or have plans to do so.

In particular, this support includes building out in-house wealth-management departments with lawyers, accountants, financial planners and specialists whom advisors can work with when preparing wills and estate plans or planning income for retirement.

An advisor in British Columbia with Toronto-based TD Wealth Private Investment Advice (TD Wealth PIA), which saw its performance rating in the wills and estate planning category rise to 8.4 from 7.8 last year, sang the praises of this approach: “I don’t have to be an expert in every field, because we’ve got a guy who will do that.”

This past year, TD Wealth PIA invested $3 million into having more “high net-worth planning, wills and estate planning, insurance advisors and business succession advisors” by putting field teams in place across the country, says Dave Kelly, the firm’s president and national sales manager.

Toronto-based ScotiaMcLeod Inc. also is expanding its offerings in these areas. In fact, Zaheer Merali, the firm’s managing director, sales management, says ScotiaMcLeod has been “almost doubling” its financial planning capabilities across Canada, and has plans both to put 10 new specialists in the field and give advisors greater access to estate specialists with ScotiaTrust.

Although several ScotiaMcLeod advisors said they like having an in-house trust firm with such capabilities, others noted that it can be difficult to get wills and estate work prepared for clients who are younger than 65 years old or who are not high net-worth.

In fact, access to services was an oft-cited frustration by advisors across the board. At many firms, client accounts must hit a minimum level of net worth in order to get complementary or prompt service.

“We have a great team and they’re there when you need them – as long as the account size is big,” says a Nesbitt advisor in Ontario. “Their performance is weaker for smaller accounts.”

When advisors, regardless of the firm, did obtain this type of support from in-house specialists, they sometimes spoke of unwelcome pressure put on their clients.

“They provide the service, but it’s insurance sales and not truly wills and estate planning – like it would be if you saw a lawyer,” says an advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based CIBC Wood Gundy. “Not every client needs a $200 whole-life policy.”

Thus, it’s not surprising that the firms that received the highest ratings in these areas from their advisors have invested both to build capacity and to remove sales pressure in receiving such support.

For example, Toronto-based RBC Dominion Securities Inc.‘s (DS) wealth-management services department expanded to 200 experts from 190 over the past year – and the services they provide are complimentary for high net-worth clients, says David Agnew, the firm’s CEO and national director: “We don’t create revenue from this area, which is important.”

Similarly, Toronto-based Richardson GMP Ltd. has a robust tax and estate group with experts to help advisors and their clients. Andrew Marsh, the firm’s president and CEO, says Richardson GMP has made a point, much like DS has, of having a salary and bonus structure for these experts to avoid potential conflicts.

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