Of all the questions asked in this year’s Brokerage Report Card, none generated the level of confusion that support services did. When Investment Executive asked advisors to rate their firm’s support for tax, insurance, and wills and estate planning, there appeared to be little agreement on quality or availability.

In fact, rating the services drew a spectrum of responses from within individual firms — from advisors who thought these services were the greatest on the Street to those who didn’t even know these services existed at their firms.

Tax, insurance, and wills and estate planning serve different purposes in each advisor’s business — and the matching fluctuation in individual importance ratings confirm that not all advisors are concerned that they may not know what’s really being offered. But those who depend on these areas to meet their clients’ needs have reasons why they find their firm’s support services, well, unsupportive.

The lack of structured support services was a point of annoyance for some. For instance, Vancouver-based Leede Financial Markets Inc. does not formally provide support services.

“I’d like to see in-house support. They aren’t making this a priority,” says a Leede Financial advisor in Western Canada. “I do it on my own. It’s frustrating.”

Robert Harrison, Leede Fi-nan-cial’s president and CEO, says that advisors seek out support in these areas from fellow advisors at the firm “rather than anything formal or a formal department” or from experts outside the office because the services offered by the firm are minimal.

Outsourcing support services also removes the issue from advi-sors’ minds. And that’s exactly what has happened at Vancouver-based Canaccord Capital Inc. , admits Bob Larose, executive vice president of private client services.

“We are probably guilty, as a lot of firms are,” he says. “We communicated it when we did our road shows about nine or 10 months ago, but we haven’t done much since.”

And even though Canaccord advisors are told about the firm’s support services, Larose questions whether everybody knows about them: “We’re probably lagging in this area because it’s outsourced.”

Firms do try to make what they offer available to advisors. Winnipeg-based Wellington West Capital Inc. , for example, flies in-house experts to advisors across the country who request their support. “Airfare is cheap, but great advice is hard to find,” says Charlie Spiring, chairman and CEO.

Nevertheless, many advisors want more experts to be available for their clients. “I can never get hold of anyone when the client needs them,” says a CIBC Wood Gundy advisor on the East Coast.

Adds a BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. advisor in Ontario: “The area expert will not talk to me unless the client account is big enough to warrant his attention.”

Despite advisors’ frustration, just knowing what their firms offer puts these advisors ahead in the game. Many others confessed to not knowing about such services at all, revealing that executive communication on the topic isn’t resonating with all advisors.

Even firms at which support services ranked relatively well didn’t escape a smattering of contradictions across the support services spectrum. Toronto-based RBC Dominion Securities Inc. fared well overall for support services among bank-owned firms, but some of its advisors believe otherwise.

“Where I live, they come once a year,” says a DS advisor in rural Ontario who complains about the lack of wills and estate planning support available to him.

“There is absolutely no support in this department, but I would love to see it,” adds another DS advisor in Ontario, regarding the firm’s tax planning support.

It appears that despite the newsletters, conference calls and annual general meetings, advisors are saying there is a disconnect in what support they are told is available and what is actually available.

DS managing director David Agnew is just as confused as most other executives about why advi-sors remain unaware of what the firms offer.

“We talk about it all the time,” Agnew says. “Whenever I’m out talking to branches, I mention it — and I’m in branches a lot. I communicate with the sales force every month through a program called the DS Exchange, and I focus on the products and tools and services that we have within DS to help advisors with their clientele.”

In an ideal world, advisors would make it their business to know what support services a firm offers and how they can help to meet their clients’ needs, says Gordon Gibson, senior vice president and managing director at Montreal-based National Bank Financial Ltd.However, he recognizes that not all advisors are interested in these services.

@page_break@”The thing about planning is that you’re either interested in it and make it your business to find out, or you’re not interested and your eyes glaze over and you go on to another workshop rather than the workshop on planning,” says Gibson.

But whether or not advisors are interested in tax, insurance, or wills and estates planning, it’s important to the future of the investment business, he says.

Advisors agree, saying their demand for support will only increase as clients demand more sophisticated services.

“This is extremely important, especially for my clients,” sums up an Edward Jones advisor in Ontario. “A lot of them are older and heading in the direction where this is becoming important. So, I think it should be better.” IE