Four dealer firms have seen their fortunes change dramatically year-over-year in this year’s Dealers’ Report Card.

Two firms saw their performance ratings rise significantly in several categories vs last year, with both buoyed in large part by what their advisors said are their respective firms’ stronger delivery in support services. Meanwhile, two firms saw their scores decrease significantly in several categories, with one troubled in part by communication woes and the other by the decline in the quality of its back-office services.

Most notably, Toronto-based Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd.‘s ratings stood out in this year’s survey in terms of the breadth of the improved ratings it received from its advisors. Assante posted better ratings than it did last year in all but one of the 34 categories in which it was rated, posting significantly higher ratings in 22 categories. (The list of rated categories excludes the “IE rating” and the “overall rating by advisors. “Significant” increases or declines occur when a firm’s rating rises or drops by half a point or more vs the previous year.)

Assante advisors praised their firm for its wide variety of support services, including: “support for helping clients accumulate assets for retirement”; “support for helping clients plan for post-retirement income”; “support for tax planning”; “support for wills and estate planning”; “support for developing a financial plan for clients”; “support for developing an investment plan for clients”; and “support for the overall wealth-management process.”

“They believe very strongly in the focus on wealth planning; they are on the leading edge on that front,” says an Assante advisor in British Columbia. “That focus meets up well with what I’m aiming to do with my clients.”

The firm received a 9.2 rating, up 1.3 points from last year, in the “products and support for high net-worth (HNW) clients” category, with many advisors pointing to this support service as a particular company strength.

Assante continues to invest in the development of HNW-related products and services, says Steve Donald, the firm’s president and CEO. The firm recently launched Assante Toolbox 360, which provides advisors with a framework to identify the needs and opportunities in relation to their HNW client base. (See story on page C11.)

Assante also continues to make sure it has a strong team of specialists in areas such as tax and estate planning to support its advisors’ businesses, Donald says: “Our goal is to continue to differentiate Assante from the rest of the field, in terms of actually being able to execute on providing wealth-planning services to our clients.”

Finally, Assante advisors gave their firm a much improved rating in the “firm’s consumer advertising” category – 7.2, up from 5.0 in 2012 – that is due, in large part, to advisors’ favourable reaction to the firm’s recent television-based advertising campaign.

“A firm’s brand matters,” says an Assante advisor in Ontario, “even if most new clients do come from referrals.”

Advisors with Markham, Ont.-based Worldsource Financial Management Inc., for their part, gave their firm significantly higher ratings in nine of the 34 categories in which it was rated. Categories with significantly improved ratings for Worldsource include “firm’s strategic focus” and “firm’s succession program for advisors,” as well as a variety of support service categories.

“They let us run our own ship,” says a Worldsource advisor in Ontario, “but the support is there when we need it.”

Worldsource continues to bolster delivery of support services to its advisors, primarily by increasing access to training – in particular, says Andy Mitchell, the firm’s president and chief operating officer, for wills and estate planning and succession planning for business-owner clients.

“We spend a lot of time and resources,” Mitchell says, “on a big education platform to make sure our advisors are serving their clients really well.”

On the other side of the ledger, Lévis, Que.-based Desjardins Financial Security Independent Network saw its ratings drop significantly in 15 of the 34 categories in which it received a rating, including: “firm’s corporate culture”; “firm’s strategic focus”; “firm’s image with the public”; consumer advertising; “firm’s marketing support for advisor’s practice”; “firm’s effectiveness in keeping advisors informed”; and “firm’s receptiveness to advisor feedback.”

Some Desjardins advisors said that although the firm says it values advisor feedback, there is a disconnection between the firm’s stated position and actions on that front. Yet, other advisors said that they received so much communication from the firm that the messages cause overloaded inboxes. Says a Desjardins advisor in Ontario: “They need to filter what they send.”

Desjardins advisors also gave their firm a significantly lower rating in “back office and administrative support.” Some advisors said that they’ve struggled with slow response times, errors or simply the language barrier when dealing with the back office in Quebec.

Desjardins management, for its part, acknowledges that the firm has experienced recent challenges with delivery of back-office services, saying that problem issues may have been the result of trying to integrate new advisors onto the firm’s back-office platform. Management contends that problems in the back office are transitional and that it’s trying to smooth out systems as efficiently as possible.

“There is a quality action team reviewing processes at the back office and making sure the support is there,” says Nancy Schafer, Desjardins’ regional vice president, distribution, for Western Canada.

Meanwhile, advisors with Toronto-based DundeeWealth Inc. gave their firm significantly lower scores in eight of the 36 categories in which it was rated, including: “client account statements”; support for marketing an advisor’s practice; and back office support” – a particularly sore spot for DundeeWealth advisors, who complained of staff turnover, slow response times and inadequate training.

“It used to be a lot better before [Bank of Nova] Scotia took us over,” says a DundeeWealth advisor in British Columbia, referring to Scotiabank’s acquisition of the firm in 2010. “Now, there’s a new face in there every week.”

In response, DundeeWealth executives say their advisors recognize the value of working for a firm that respects the independent nature of their businesses but also can provide access to the resources and implied stability of one of the major Canadian banks.

“Advisors see the opportunity here,” says John Bai, senior vice president of wealth-management strategy with DundeeWealth.

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