Advisor satisfaction across most of Canada’s full-service and mutual fund dealers has held steady or improved compared with last year, according to Investment Executive’s 2024 Dealers’ Report Card.
Among the 11 firms assessed, there were no significant changes (by half a point or more) in any of the dealers’ IE ratings (the average of all a company’s category ratings). But the majority of those ratings climbed slightly, pushing the average of all firms’ IE ratings up to 8.3 from 8.1 a year ago.
The only category with significant improvement to its performance average in 2024 was “products & support for high-net-worth clients,” rated 8.1 and up from 7.6 a year ago. The importance average for the category rose to 8.6 from 8.2.
Within the seven dealers assessed in that category, not all advisors worked with wealthier clients. But planning support and resources for those catering to the high-end market were important: “You don’t want to lose these clients,” said an advisor with Carte Wealth Management Inc., which was rated 8.5 in the category, with no comparable rating in 2023.
Another Carte Wealth advisor said the firm facilitates access to an advanced planner, while a third advisor cited internal videos and tips on how to approach wealthy clients.
Continued investment in private wealth products and divisions were welcomed by advisors with several firms, including those with CI Assante Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management and Investment Planning Counsel Inc. (IPC).
An advisor with IG Wealth in Atlantic Canada felt that their firm “continually add[s] resources. The experience with high-net-worth clients is very good, [as is] access to experts.”
An IPC advisor, also in Atlantic Canada, said, “The Private Wealth division is advanced, and they’re putting time and money into it.”
Both IG Wealth and IPC were rated higher in the high-net-worth category than they were a year ago, at 8.8 and 8.0, from 8.6 and 7.3, respectively. IPC was the only firm in this year’s Report Card to gain significantly year over year in the category.
Dealers’ “effectiveness in keeping advisors informed” about firm strategy was another category for which the performance and importance averages both rose. Results for this year were 8.4 and 8.9, up from 8.1 and 8.5, respectively, in 2023.
Effective communication from firms is critical: the category was rated as one of the 10 most important areas for advisors this year. But the amount of communication that is considered adequate varied by firm.
Take the two firms whose performance ratings improved significantly year over year: Manulife Wealth and Portfolio Strategies Corp.were rated 7.6 and 8.2 for communication this year, up from 6.8 and 7.0, respectively.
Several advisors with Manulife Wealth said communication from head office has increased and they’ve welcomed the change, even if the dealer “sometimes … falls into over-communicating,” as one of the firm’s advisors in Ontario put it. “But it’s the nature of the beast. We’re independent but we have … Manulife Wealth, asset management [and] so many different entities communicating with us.”
An advisor with Portfolio Strategies said, “I only want to know what I need to know,” as they valued “complete independence.” Still, they added that “communication from leadership regarding direction of the business” can be useful. Another advisor with Portfolio Strategies said there’s already a large amount of information sent from regulators and industry groups.
No matter the dealer, advisors benefit when they hear from head office. “[I value] communication on where the firm is heading and what tools they’re using,” said one advisor with Carte Wealth. “If I think about hiring an advisor, it would be nice to tell them about the firm’s goals [and] why they should work with my dealership.”
Carte Wealth was rated 9.2 for its communication effectiveness, similar to 9.1 a year ago.
“They are responsible and friendly, [and] there is so much empathy in difficult situations,” said an advisor with Carte Wealth.
Executives value connecting with advisors. Manulife Wealth president and CEO Richard McIntyre said the dealer is learning from advisors and “continually communicating and trying to make [advisors and their teams] understand how to optimize, whether it’s a system or procedures.”
Jason Bobee, vice-president of business development with Portfolio Strategies, referenced his firm’s advisor portal, which includes coaching materials. The dealer aims to balance the needs of younger and older advisors.
“[We want to be] ahead of the curve and we’re willing to do things a little differently to make things easier for the advisor and the client,” said Mark Kent, president and CEO of Portfolio Strategies.
At Carte Wealth, president Maria Jose Flores said advisors are the firm’s “clients.” The dealer wants to speed up processes and find cost savings while keeping advisors informed.
The 10 categories rated most important to advisors in 2024 were largely unchanged compared with 2023 — and the same was true for the list of the 10 best-performing categories in 2024. Alongside the communication effectiveness category, the only other new entrant on the importance list was “support for remote system access & transactions” (see story, Dealers make headway with technology training and support).
Across the dealer space, advisors’ “freedom to make product choices” remained the top concern. This category was rated 9.7 for importance in 2024 and in 2023. Its performance average was 9.3, down from 9.4 in 2023.
Both CI Assante and IG Wealth Management saw their ratings slip significantly in that category year over year, but the majority of firms had results that changed little.
One advisor with Manulife in Quebec said they appreciated a deep product shelf, adding that they had left a previous firm because “they were pushing more in-house products. [The] whole point is to be objective and give the client the best solution possible.”
Several advisors with IG felt their list of approved products had become too small and restrictive, and an advisor in B.C. said the process for requesting off-shelf products should be less cumbersome. An IG spokesperson said there had been no material change in the firm’s product shelf or product accessibility. After the research was conducted, “we opened alternative investment fund licensing for non-securities licensed advisors,” they added.
At CI Assante, one advisor in Ontario said firms’ policies are only one part of the equation. They called know-your-product rules under the client-focused reforms “stickier” and harder to navigate: “Our compliance department isn’t necessarily at fault for that.”
See how dealer advisors rated their firms for 2024.
This article appears in the September issue of Investment Executive. Subscribe to the print edition, read the digital edition or read the articles online.