A new Vancouver-based wealth-management firm is looking to do away with bricks-and-mortar offices and piles of paper for its financial advisors as it puts a focus on leveraging technology.
Tridus Wealth Management, which launched on Monday, offers advisors a fully digital back office platform through which all of the daily paperwork of an advisor’s business, such as filling out the know-your-client documentation, can be done via a tablet or laptop.
Furthermore, Tridus advisors can create customized portfolios for clients through an institutional-grade portfolio-and risk management system developed by Tridus’ partner, Vancouver-based Cassia Research.
The idea behind this fully digitized wealth-management platform, says Harry McLaughlin, founder and CEO of Tridus, is to allow advisors to focus on their client relationships and the services they offer, from financial planning to estate planning.
“It really frees up the advisor to be at the right place at the right time instead of literally chained to a desk,” McLaughlin says.
In fact, advisors do not have desks at all under Tridus’ business model. Instead, McLaughlin expects his advisors to meet with clients where it’s convenient for them.
“Our advisors are entirely mobile, entirely paperless,” says McLaughlin. “So, you still have that human interaction but you take them out of the office environment and back into places where clients currently reside and where the potential prospects also reside.”
McLaughlin also hopes that the new platform will reduce paperwork for clients and give them greater access to their accounts. “Basically our vision is that anything the advisor can see the client can see as well through their client portal,” he says.
Tridus is currently looking to hire portfolio managers across Canada who are licensed with the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC). Advisors with the firm will operate a fee-based practice.