Toronto-based Justwealth Financial Inc. is now offering its ETF portfolios to mutual fund-licensed financial advisors through a new partnership with Toronto-based Vexo Technology Solutions Corp.

“There’s been an increase in demand of exchange-traded funds and some mutual fund advisors could have felt that they were being left behind in not having access to such a popular product,” says Andrew Kirkland, president and co-founder of Justwealth. “Now, [those advisors] can arm [themselves] with more options to retain and attract new clients.”

Through the partnership, advisors at mutual fund dealers’ that have signed up for Vexo’s ETFbahn platform will be able to access Justwealth’s five families of ETF portfolios, including its target-date portfolios for registered education savings plans (RESP).

Vexo’s ETFbahn, which launched earlier this year, offers a “platform-agnostic system” that allows mutual fund dealers’ and their advisors to access ETFs. Through the ETFbahn advisors can select individual ETFs for their clients or entire portfolios managed by Justwealth.

Although Justwealth will manage the portfolios, the advisors and their dealer firms will retain full control of the client relationship.

“The dealer does not lose its client,” says Fotios Saratsiotis, Vexo’s president and founder. “It has full control of its client and the advisor is able to spend more time with the client, building relationships.”

In terms of fees, Vexo will charge dealers on a percentage of assets under administration that use platform. Accounts that include a Justwealth portfolio will be charged a management fee that will be lower than 0.5%.

Justwealth is not the only robo-advisor to form a partnership with the goal of accessing traditional advisors and their firms. For example, Toronto-based Nest Wealth Asset Management Inc. has partnered with Montreal-based National Bank of Canada and Vancouver-based Credential Financial Inc. through its Nest Wealth Pro platform. Toronto-based Smart Money Capital Management Inc. has partnered with Burlington, Ont.-based Mandeville Private Client Inc. while Vancouver-based WealthBar Financial Services Inc. has an agreement with Calgary-based PPI Financial Group Inc. Toronto-based Wealthsimple Inc. also has a business-to-business platform called Wealthsimple For Advisors.

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