With a little prodding, most financial advisors will concede that they are not the only advisors serving their clients.

A recent survey of consumers by Toronto-based polling firm Ipsos-Reid Corp.
confirms that sharing the turf with other advisors is the rule, not the exception. The survey found that a typical investor has 1.6 advisors. And the more assets investors have, the more likely they are to use more than one advisor. Ipsos-Reid found that those with $1 million in assets used twice as many advisors as those with less than $100,000.

(“Advisors” is widely defined to include stockbrokers, financial planners, licensed mutual fund representatives and insurance brokers.)

Julie Littlechild, president of Advisor Impact Inc. in Toronto, has also seen a connection between the amount of assets clients have and the use of more than one advisor. In a study of 6,300 North American investors, Littlechild’s firm found that only 17% with more than $500,000 in assets parked their holdings with one advisor.

“At the end of the day, there are clearly a number of clients using multiple advisors,” Littlechild says.

Therein lies the problem. Although advisors may be well aware they are sharing clients, clients themselves often keep their asset cards close to their chests. They won’t divulge their full wealth picture to their advisors or even disclose that they are using another advisor — which can make it difficult to provide advice.

And it’s a challenge to share the turf with an advisor who is probably in a competitive position. It raises the question of who is in
charge. Who is giving the primary advice?
What exactly are you advising on?

But there are things advisors can do to make the most of an awkward situation and still do the best for their clients.

Hal Spelliscy, an advisor with Edward Jones in Kelowna, B.C., is a proponent of biding his time. He agrees that sharing a client is “incredibly common,” particularly so in the case of high net-worth clients. They prefer to work with teams of professionals. In some cases, he is the first advisor on the scene; in others, he says, it’s a case of “playing second string and trying to earn a starting position.”

He bides his time in building trust. “The best and strongest client/ advisor relationships take a lot of time. Eventually one advisor will be the primary advisor on that team,” he says.

Ross Young, a chartered accountant and certified financial planner with Secure Capital Management Ltd. in Calgary, thinks financial planners have a natural advantage.
“If you’re controlling the financial planning process,” he says, “by default, you will see all the assets clients have under administration. I try to drive as many clients as I can through the financial planning process.”

Young adds that having another advisor on the scene can be beneficial: “It helps keep you on your toes, making sure you’re doing the job you need to be doing.”

Here are some basic tenets advisors need to follow if they find themselves in sharing clients:

> Watch what you say. Communication with the client is key in a dual-advisor relationship, says James Kraft, a CA, CFP and vice president of marketing at Manulife Financial Corp. “Ask the right questions.” Advisors need to understand from the beginning what role the client expects them to play.

“The biggest issue is a possible breakdown in communications,” says Kraft, whose job includes working with top agents to improve their businesses. “One advisor has to take the lead.” If each advisor is managing half the portfolio, and “you are not co-ordinated, you are not to going to have the proper mix [of assets].”

That doesn’t mean competing advisors have to work with one another. “The client can be the go-between guy,” Kraft says.

Charles Tinling, a CFP with Tinling Financial Group in Winnipeg, adds: “Generally, I don’t have joint meetings with other advisors. I don’t find them productive.”

> Keep it civil. Clients want a dual-advisor relationship, not duelling advisors.
Bad-mouthing the competition is a poor business practice. “No one advisor wins by knocking another advisor,” Spelliscy says.
“Usually criticism bounces back,” Kraft adds.

If there is conflicting advice or the other advisor’s methods raise concerns, Kraft suggests bringing it up with the client in the context of how that advice impacts the plan that has been put in place. That way, the client understands the downside or possible conflict.