In the independent channel’s fierce race to capture market share, Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management is among the firms blowing past key thresholds and setting lofty goals to blow past more.
With the acquisition last month of a CIBC Wood Gundy team that oversees $1.4 billion in client assets, CG Wealth Management’s assets under administration (AUA) hit $40 billion, up from $10 billion a decade ago.
Hitting that threshold is “a significant milestone in the industry,” said Stuart Raftus, CEO of Canaccord Genuity Corp., in an interview. “It’s the first independent firm in Canada that has ever achieved that level of AUA…. It speaks to what’s happening in independence.”
Raftus attributed the firm’s success, in part, to its culture, as well as its investment in tech.
“We’ve invested heavily … over the last six years in technology,” including in Envestnet and Salesforce, he said.
“Advisors that decide to move are always looking for a better way to serve their existing clients and add on new clients,” he said, and, typically, “technology becomes really important to them.”
Regarding culture, Raftus referenced a lack of bureaucracy. High- and ultra-high-net-worth clients sometimes have particular needs, and decisions must be made quickly, he said. Such clients are “looking for a bespoke solution, as opposed to a sort of a cookie-cutter approach to something,” he said. “And that occasionally will involve management.”
Canaccord is focused on further growing its Canadian wealth management business. “That’s where we’ll be putting the lion’s share of our capital,” he said. “It’s hundreds of millions of dollars that we’ll be investing over the next five years to grow wealth management in Canada.”
When asked if an amount has been set aside for signing bonuses for prospective advisors, he said “significant portions” of the investment would be used to “attract and retain” advisors.
Over that five-year period, the firm expects to double its assets to reach $80 billion, Raftus said.
When looking for investment opportunities, “we have a very broad lens,” he said. However, he noted that growth in wealth management in general over the past few years has come from acquiring individual advisor and team practices, as opposed to firms. “That’s where I tend to think [growth] will continue to be,” he said.
The firm looks for advisory teams based on client assets and the type of business the advisors have developed.
“Financial planning is the foundation of the relationship,” Raftus said. “We’re looking for large-asset-size practices where advisors have very broad relationships with their clients.”
That means a minimum of $150 million in client assets, although that can vary. For example, a relatively new and talented practice may have accumulated an impressive $100 million in assets in a short time, he said.
Typically, new recruits are “a very seasoned group of advisors that have formed a team,” he said. “They’re running a large practice,” with clients assets of $400 million to $1 billion or more.
After management’s failed attempt in 2023 to take Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. private, the firm borrowed funds to loan to senior employees so they could buy a roughly 10% stake in the company.
“One of senior management’s objectives is to get increased share ownership with employees broadly and certainly senior employees at the firm globally,” Raftus said. The share plan was “a mechanism that the board approved to help accomplish that. And I think you could expect to see, going forward, us looking to continually increase employee ownership at the firm.”
Advisors would be among those eligible for that ownership, he confirmed.
Selected independent brokerages’ assets in Canada
| Firm | Assets | Firm’s stated asset goal |
| Raymond James (Canadian division of U.S. firm) | $79.6B AUA (June 30) | $100B in next two or three years |
| Edward Jones (Canadian division of U.S. firm) | $57B AUM (March) | $100B by 2030, the firm said in an email |
| CG Wealth Management | $40B AUA | $80B in five years |
| Richardson Wealth | $37.1B AUA (June 30) | $100B over the next few years |
| Wellington-Altus Private Wealth | $35B AUA | $50B AUA by November 2026 |