Years of hard work are bound to pay off, and at PFSL Investments Canada Ltd., veteran advisors say they are recognized and “spoiled” with terrific payouts, incentives, bonuses and exotic trips.

Indeed, PFSL advisors would seem to prove the rule: it isn’t just the dollars and cents that win advisors’ approval; it’s the total compensation package. There’s no doubt recognition counts.

As a result, advisors at Missis-sauga, Ont.-based mutual fund dealer PFSL gave their firm 9.7 for compensation, putting the firm at the top of the rankings for the category in Investment Executive’s 2008 Dealers’ Report Card.

Of the 5,511 advisors licensed to sell mutual funds at PFSL, the several hundred who are regional vice presidents are clearly satisfied with the firm’s payout and perks. (The firm’s rank-and-file advisors are not surveyed because they conduct their business out in the field and have no offices at which they can be reached.)

And it is no wonder those VPs are happy. In PFSL’s compensation model, commissions trickle upward from junior advisors, generally to the advisor who recruited the junior. As a result, some senior advisors take home more than 100% of their commissions. New advi-sors keep only 25%, but this payout can climb to 40% within months. Within a few years, the payout can rise higher still.

One senior PFSL advisor in Ontario, who gives the dealer a perfect score of 10 for compensation, says he is treated like royalty: “The rep is king.”

Yet another senior PFSL advisor in Ontario says: “The recognition is absolutely spectacular, from incentive trips to personalized notes.”

But for another senior advisor in Ontario, it is the payout more than anything else that wins kudos. He notes that he is earning “seven times” what he was pulling in at his previous job at a bank.

Overall, says Jeff Dumanski, PFSL’s president and chief marketing officer, the average payout is about 80%. “There is a base payout from a dealer’s allowance,” he says. “And then we have awards.”

One of those awards is equity ownership. Top advisors can get up to a 25% discount on stock in the company’s parent firm, New York-based Citigroup.

Advisors at Montreal-based full-service firm Peak Financial Group gave their firm, on average, a rating of 8.8, second to PFSL. The firm, which has about 300 advisors, offers annual compliance awards and, more important, has a payout in the low 80% range, says Peak’s president and CEO, Robert Frances.

And although many Peak advisors crave trips, one advisor in Quebec, who rates his firm a perfect 10 in compensation, actually likes the fact that trips are not offered: “There aren’t any programs at Peak. No trips; just commission. It’s good like that. Our rewards are our clients. We have more integrity.”

Following PFSL and Peak in the category rankings are Markham, Ont.-based Professional Invest-ment Services (Canada) Inc. with an 8.6 and Ottawa-based Independent Planning Group Inc. with an 8.5.

About 60% of advisors at PIS still pay “desk fees” in exchange for a 100% commission payout, a holdover from predecessor firm Generation Financial Corp., which PIS acquired in late 2006.

Although many PIS advisors seem pleased with the set-up — one advisor in Manitoba calls it “the best in the country” — at least one other advisor is not a fan of the desk-fee model. “I’m on desk fee, not grid,” says a PIS advisor in Alberta. “The more money I make, the more money I pay. It doesn’t make sense.”

Ken Rousselle, PIS’s president and CEO, says those on the grid average about an 85% payout. In return, they get more support.

“If advisors go on the grid, they get the services of our business-development team and work with our centres of influence,” he says. “If they go on the flat fee, they’re going to get just compliance, processing and technology.”

PIS advisors are free to choose their compensation model.

At the lower-scoring dealers, advisors complain about both payouts and the lack of recognition and incentives outside of their paycheques.

Some advisors at Toronto-based DundeeWealth Inc. — which ranked the lowest in the compensation category with a 7.4, dropping a full point from last year’s Report Card — want more rewards. “They compensate us with commissions but not with anything else,” says a DundeeWealth advisor in British Columbia.

@page_break@But it also appears a number of advisors are just plain unhappy with their payouts. Some advisors are still unfavourably comparing payouts at DundeeWealth with those of their previous firm, Cartier Partners Group Ltd., which DundeeWealth acquired in 2003. And a DundeeWealth advisor on the West Coast complains the firm is “adding a lot of fees.”

Advisors at Calgary-based Port-folio Strategies Corp. (7.8) focus on the lack of non-cash incentives. “I do all the work for 85% of the commission,” says a Portfolio Strategies advisor in Alberta, “and there is no recognition whatsoever.”

Adds a colleague: “There are firms that pay more; there is nothing, in terms of rewards, at all.”

From Portfolio Strategies president Mark Kent’s point of view, high payouts may not leave much room for perks: “We have 10% of our advisors on the 100% commission model, and 90% on the traditional grid payout.”

Meanwhile, advisors at Toronto-based Assante Corp. — which comprises the amalgamation of several predecessor firms — have divergent views on their firm’s compensation. Advisor comments ranged from those who say they are “thoroughly happy” with the compensation structure to others who say it is “very below par.” Those comments were no doubt influenced by past history and current production levels.

“We have a very competitive payout grid,” says Bob Dorrell, Assante’s senior vice president of business development. But it is based on higher payouts for those who produce more, he adds: “That is obviously the major component.”

Last year, Assante introduced an equity-matching program for its top 300 advisors. (The firm has 800 advisors.) Advisors who achieve high scores in the Assante Advantage points program — in which points are awarded based on sales, assets under management and professional development activities, such as obtaining a designation — can use those points, which are matched by the firm, to buy the publicly traded units of parent firm CI Financial Income Fund.

In 2007, almost every qualified advisor participated.

“We are about to introduce a voluntary program, as well,” says Dorrell. “There is no matching [component to it], but we have had requests from advisors for a payroll-deduction type of thing.”

Advisors at Waterloo, Ont.-based Manulife Securities International Ltd. also have conflicting views about their firm’s compensation structure, which is undergoing a deep structural change following Manulife’s acquisition of Burlington, Ont.-based Berkshire-TWC Financial Group Inc. in the summer of 2007.

Rick Annaert, Manulife’s president and CEO, says the new harmonized grid now has 12 levels, or tranches; Manulife’s previous grid had 21, while Berkshire’s had seven.

Reviews are mixed. Says a Manulife advisor in B.C.: “I just got a raise, thanks to the upcoming grid remodelling that will unify the compensation between Manulife and Berkshire.”

Another colleague in B.C. is not so pleased: “Manulife is monkeying around with the grid.” He is considering leaving as a result.

Manulife advisors can also choose to be compensated individually or as members of office teams. “We have a grid that’s based on the gross production of all the people in an office,” Annaert says. “We bundle up their production and match it to the grid.” IE