Embracing teamwork can lead to better efficiency and higher profitability, says Paul Bourbonniere, co-owner and certified financial planner with Markham, Ont.-based Polson Bourbonniere Finan-cial, which operates under the DundeeWealth Inc. banner.

Along with co-owner Kirk Polson, Bourbonniere has established a uniquely organized financial planning firm that lets him maintain his own client base and an individual revenue stream within a team environment.

The DundeeWealth branch was established in 1997, when Bourbonniere combined his existing practice with that of Polson, also a CFP. Both planners had developed mature retirement planning practices catering to older clientele.

“We decided to get together and build a firm that specialized in looking after the needs of older Canadians,” says Bourbonniere, 54, who teamed up with Susan Desjardins, PBF’s branch operations manager, to give a presentation on running a team practice at the 2009 Top Advisor Summit in Toronto in April.

Since 1997, PBF has grown to serve 1,100 client families with more than $350 million in assets under management. The firm specializes in providing a “worry-free retirement experience” to clients, including business owners, senior executives and other successful individuals approaching retirement. The practice is a model of efficiency and profitability among team financial advisory practices.

One of the challenges of such an arrangement is to achieve the efficiencies of a group practice while maintaining a consistent experience for clients of the individual practices. To that end, the planners decided to maintain their own distinct “silos” within the firm.

“We thought it was important to have accountability and to have familiarity,” says Bourbonniere. “So, that is why we decided to go on a silo format as opposed to an ensemble firm. So far, it seems to be working.”

To achieve this familiarity for clients, the firm’s 14 employees are segmented into three teams: one headed by Bourbonniere, one headed by Polson, and one headed by Allan Kalin, a CFP who brought his book of business to the firm a few years following its establishment. The firm’s expenses are shared among the owners, while their clients and revenue streams are distinct.

The other staff members include three CFPs who manage some of the owners’ clients, five client-service representatives, two administrative assistants and Desjardins, the vice president of operations. The financial planners meet directly with clients and bring the money in, while all the other staff members support them in different ways. For instance, everyday tasks, such as paperwork and scheduling, are conducted by the support staff so that the planners can focus exclusively on working with clients.

Six years ago, Bourbonniere and Polson decided that, despite the firm’s success, it needed someone to oversee and co-ordinate the functioning of all three teams to improve efficiency. They hired Desjardins, 51, who had previously held an officer-level position at a large insurance company, to fill this role.

“The silos have a lot of intersecting and interconnecting pieces,” says Bourbonniere. “Managing those interconnecting pieces is part of Susan’s many functions.”

The system is meant to capitalize on each employee’s strongest skill set.

“It allows people to zero in on what we think are their strengths rather than asking them to spread themselves too thin,” Bourbonniere says. “Employees who do things that they are really good at and that they like to do have more energy, make fewer errors, are more committed and are more pleasant to deal with. And it works.”

Desjardins agrees that the team approach works effectively. “There are defined roles and responsibilities,” she says. “Everybody knows what their jobs are on the team, and what they contribute to the team.”

But while the various roles are distinct, the branch has integrated and standardized many processes to ensure that all the advisors operate in fundamentally the same way — a key factor, says Desjardins, in increasing PBF’s efficiency and profitability.

For instance, the standardized process allows the planners to fill in for each other when someone is absent, using the same process they use with their own clients. Although each advisor has an individual style, all advisors operate using the same planning processes.

“Because we have systemized processes,” says Desjardins, “anybody from any team can slip in and pick up the slack.”

The hectic pace of the past 12 months has clearly demonstrated this efficiency, Bourbonniere says. Adapting to the financial crisis and the introduction of tax-free savings accounts, as well as becoming a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada a year ago, were all managed efficiently -— thanks to the firm’s standardized processes.

@page_break@“When we have to ramp up, it gets done,” says Bourbonniere. “It gets done because it’s systematized across the platform.”

The firm also strives to make the client experience as consistent as possible. Each advisor partners with a customer-service representative so that his clients deal with the same contact regularly. As a result, the reps also know the clients well and are able to update the advisors prior to each client meeting.

“For clients, our group is very easy to deal with and easy to understand,” Bourbonniere says. “Yet, there’s the security of continuity and of backup.”

Bourbonniere and Polson were also careful to establish a consistent set of values when building the team.

“While skills can be taught, values cannot,” Bourbonniere says. “It is very important that each and every individual at PBF has the same values.”

The firm’s values are based on respect for the client, and that respect permeates all the activities at the firm, says Desjardins: “Pretty much everything we do has to do with the clients.”

Desjardins has conducted a number of client surveys, as well as termination surveys to find out why clients leave the firm. In addition, PBF has established a client advisory board to provide feedback. (See also page B10.)

“The board is the clients’ opportunity to say things off the record,” says Bourbonniere. “We’ve had some very frank conversations on a number of issues.”

Maximizing profitability is another important issue for Desjardins. She has developed a system to determine the total cost per hour of dealing with each client, which is measured against the revenue that client generates. The firm has used this system to identify and transfer any unprofitable clients, ensuring the health of the PBF team.

Delegating operational duties for profitability




Part 2 of a series shot on location at the 2009 Top Advisor Summit. Paul Bourbonniere, a managing partner at Polson Bourbonniere Financial, and Susan Desjardins, the firm’s vice president of operations, discuss the value of role sharing and the profitability and efficiency of the firm. They spoke at the Top Advisor Summit at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ont., in April. Polson Bourbonniere Financial is affiliated with Dundee Wealth Inc.

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