Firms getting it right with ongoing training

“The training webinars are easy to click through,” says an advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based TD Canada Trust, “the content is not too heavy and we get them often enough to stay up to date.”

In 2011, there was a disconnection between financial advisors and their firms in this category. Back then, advisors complained their firms were not providing enough content and that there was a lack of local training; at the same time, the firms said their platforms offered a plethora of courses at all levels. Today, advisors are far happier with their firms, which appear to be providing what advisors want.

“They invest a lot of time in training,” says an advisor in Quebec with Montreal-based National Bank of Canada, which saw its overall average performance rating rise to 8.2 from 7.6 year-over-year. “They don’t throw you in the field and say, ‘Swim’.”

Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) also saw its performance rating increase by more than half a point, to 9.0 from 8.3 in 2013. RBC offers a training program that includes in-class sessions, online learning modules, webinars and conference calls.

“We’ve developed a series of video clips,” says Michael Walker, vice president and head of branch investments with RBC, “that demonstrate and profile expert financial planners, role-playing and demonstrating softer skills, such as articulating your value proposition, presenting a financial plan or asking for a referral.”

RBC also has launched enhanced training courses that provide a more in-depth look at specific timely topics, such as clients’ transition toward retirement, income planning for retirement, estate planning or planning for business-owner clients.

“Our ongoing training is a 20 out of 10,” says an RBC advisor in Quebec. “They make sure the staff is qualified and knowledgeable.”

But while National Bank and RBC saw their ratings rise notably this year, the two credit unions in the survey – Edmonton-based Servus Credit Union Ltd. and St. Catharines, Ont.-based Meridian Credit Union – and Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) garnered the most significant increases to their ongoing training ratings.

“The bank sets out a defined career path and is supportive in paying for all courses,” says an advisor in Ontario with CIBC, which saw its rating rise to 8.4 from 7.4 year-over-year. “It’s important for them to have me reach my goals.”

Servus saw the largest improvement in the ongoing training rating, which rose to 8.4 from 7.0 year-over-year. That’s because its partnership with Vancouver-based Credential Financial Inc. allowed Servus to enhance its training platform recently to include more web-based options, including self-study online modules and webinars.

“We have done a better job at providing more relevant content to advisors,” says Randy Biberdorf, Servus’s vice president of wealth management, “as well as making sure we update any changes that occur with technology, products or regulatory issues through a webinar platform.”

Meridian, which saw its rating in the category rise to 8.5 from 7.6 in 2013, also has begun to increase its online offerings to advisors. In fact, the credit union is focused on balancing in-class and online offerings to give advisors more options.

“Obviously, there is a time and a place where face to face is important,” says Bill Whyte, Meridian’s senior vice president and chief of member services. “But we also know that it is important to leverage technology and not have people move around just for the sake of moving around.”

Having training that’s easily accessible and not disruptive is key to advisors, says Linda Mackay, senior vice president, retail savings and investing, with TD: “It’s pretty rare these days to take an advisor out of the branch for a whole day to do training. Most [courses] are now available on demand in a learning library in which advisors are able to complete the courses when it’s convenient for them to do so.”

The majority of TD’s ongoing training is available on demand online. The modules are approximately 20 minutes in length and can be scheduled at an advisor’s convenience. The bank still offers classroom training, says Mackay, usually only once or twice a year.

Although every firm in the Report Card saw its rating in this category rise, advisors with National Bank and Toronto-based Bank of Montreal (BMO) said their firms’ efforts in ongoing training don’t meet their expectations.

To address that, National Bank has been working on improving its training platform to include more webcasts and conference calls after receiving direct feedback from its advisors last year.

“We’ve done quite a bit of analysis,” says Annamaria Testani, National Bank’s vice president, national sales, intermediary business solutions. “And we realize that in order to really improve our training, we have to do it [using] a multi-level approach.”

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