If bryan snelson seems perky for someone who rose at 5 a.m., that’s because he’s familiar with an early-morning routine. For the past six years, the 41-year-old advisor at the Mississauga, Ont., branch of Raymond James Ltd. has started his days before sunrise to deliver live financial and market reports that reach more than 400,000 JAZZ.FM91 listeners.

It’s not every day that a busy financial advisor lands a plum radio spot, but it seems a natural fit for Snelson. In 1998, when he was working as an advisor at what was then Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., the long-time jazz fan and former drummer approached the radio station with the idea of providing listeners with daily market snapshots. The producers asked him to audition with a week’s worth of taped reports, liked what they heard and gave him the gig.

Today, Snelson juggles his twice-a-weekday radio reports with a bustling practice serving 350 households with almost $100 million in assets. With the help of administrative assistant Linda Stragliotto and associate Carrie Hathaway, Snelson manages his largely retired client base with the same attention to detail he gives his radio broadcasts.

“Every morning, I have to be prepared to talk about the markets and know what’s going on,” he says. “It’s part of my daily routine now, and it focuses me. The show has done wonders for my professionalism.”

Being a financial professional wasn’t necessarily in the cards for Snelson 15 years ago.
After building and owning a small chain of gas stations in Stoney Creek, Ont., and
Mississauga with now-defunct RAF Petroleums, his own financial advisor urged him to give financial planning a try. He joined Investors Group Inc. in 1990, subsequently moving to Midland Walwyn Capital Inc., which was acquired by Merrill, which then sold its retail operations to CIBC Wood Gundy. In May 2005, he moved to Raymond James.

Each move has tested his entrepreneurialism. “Leaving a company is like calling an election because clients are free to do business with whomever they choose,” he says.
“You have to start all over again.” This last move, he managed to keep at least 80% of clients from his previous firm and expects more to trickle in in the fall.

With about two-thirds of his clients retired and the other third approaching the end of their careers, mature individuals with about $200,000 in investible assets have become his target market. It’s a market segment with which he gained experience in the mid-1990s at Midland Walwyn, at which he worked with retired federal civil servants, from
Mounties to tax auditors.

It also describes the kind of audience he reaches every day with his shows, which can be heard around 6:50 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays at 91.1 FM in southern Ontario. The station’s demographic is evenly split between men and women, aged 45 and older, with above-average household income and education — a prime client market.

“My goal is to give listeners a sense of what’s happening in the world, to give people a sense of direction,” Snelson says. “It’s like getting a good shot of caffeine.”

Live radio isn’t as glamourous as many people think. The early mornings can be onerous, and Snelson spends little time in the studio. Instead, he phones the show’s host from wherever he happens to be at the time — his kitchen table, his office desk — and goes live to air for five to seven minutes, discussing everything from bank mergers or rate hikes to the importance of having a power of attorney.

Each Friday, he delivers “portfolio first aid,” a snippet of financial planning advice that has formed the basis of a book by the same title that Snelson has scheduled for publication in October. Despite the serious topics, he manages to keep the show chatty and informal. It’s so relaxed, in fact, that Snelson’s barking dog has made it on the airwaves.

“Listeners who may be shopping for an advisor get a sense of who I am and what I stand for, so when they meet me they know what they will get,” he says. “The radio show is like taking me for a test drive.”

As a referral tool, Snelson’s on-air spot has garnered a fair bit of attention. The station receives 15 to 20 calls a week from listeners who want to learn more about a particular topic or seek investment advice, although not all become his clients.

@page_break@“Sometimes it’s a long process,” he says. One of his biggest clients was on the mailing list for his bi-monthly newsletter for five years before hiring Snelson to manage his finances. “Some people will become clients; some won’t,” Snelson says.

That doesn’t stop Snelson from trying to deliver information that listeners will find useful. On most mornings, he doesn’t know what he will cover until just before he goes to air. He wakes up at five, scans the headlines of the national dailies and tunes into television news programs to see what market trends are developing. Whatever seems relevant and timely to listeners, he’ll use.

On one particular morning in early August, the price of oil had spiked at almost US$64 a barrel and Nortel Networks Corp. reported better than expected second-quarter results, sending its stock price up by 12%. Both topics were fair game for the show.
“I try to keep in mind who is listening when I choose my topics,” he says. “I want to give people information they can use and in which they’re interested.”

Snelson’s practice has seen a shift from a commission- to fee-based payment structure in recent years as the DSC charges on his clients’ mutual funds expire. Despite the shift, he’s happy to accommodate both structures after walking clients through the implications of each.

He also emphasizes the importance of being available to clients. Although he doesn’t arrive in the office until 9:30 a.m. most days (he stays until after 6 p.m.), he takes pride in serving clients well. “When you call my office, the phone rings on three desks,” he says.
“You’ll generally reach a human being.”

As for Snelson’s past interest in making music, his wife Cathy, a teacher, and two daughters — Laura, 15, and Sydney, 10 — keep him too busy to play regularly. He says the girls are “pretty blasé” about his radio career, although both were thrilled to go on air during the station’s fundraising campaign last year.

But he hasn’t entirely abandoned music. This spring, he played the drums at his first gig in 18 years in a Battle of the Media Bands fundraiser for the Children’s Aid Foundation. It was a great experience, he says, but today he mostly limits himself to listening. His favourite performers include bluesman Jeff Healey and jazz greats Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, of course. IE