If Shaun Humphries, a senior advi-sor with Assante Capital Management Ltd. in Winnipeg, were starting in the financial services industry today, he’d do a few things differently — considering the current business environment.

The first thing he’d do is try to latch onto a larger practice. “You should try to find an advisor who could act as a mentor and who is looking to build a succession plan for their practice,” he says. “Get the mentorship, exposure to a lot of opportunities and just learn.”

Second, Humphries says, the financial services business has become a business of scale, not only for the firms but for individual books: “A lot of practices just aren’t large enough to survive with all the growing compliance requirements. Clients are that much more sophisticated. Their servicing needs are getting higher and, over time, margins are going to shrink. The average advisor will have to manage a bigger asset base.”

Finally, Humphries ensures that all of his client meetings are held in his office. Doing otherwise would create huge inefficiencies with his time.

“The minute you go to your client’s venue, the expectation is you’ll go there all the time,” he says. “You’ll lose some clients; but in the long run, you’re better off.”

— GEOFF KIRBYSON