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2001 PLANNERS’ REPORT CARD |
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Training |
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2001 |
2000 |
1999 |
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|
Primerica |
9.1 |
6.7 |
9.0 |
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|
Investors Group |
8.6 |
7.9 |
8.9 |
|
|
IPC Financial |
8.5 |
n/a |
n/a |
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|
FundEX |
8.1 |
n/a |
n/a |
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|
Berkshire |
8.0 |
7.5 |
n/a |
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|
Assante |
7.5 |
n/a |
n/a |
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Sun Life |
7.4 |
n/a |
n/a |
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|
Dundee |
7.3 |
5.7 |
n/a |
|
|
Manulife |
7.2 |
5.9 |
n/a |
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|
Regal Capital |
7.1 |
6.3 |
5.8 |
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TWC Financial |
6.8 |
7.1 |
7.4 |
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W.H. Stuart |
6.8 |
7.0 |
6.9 |
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Money Concepts |
6.7 |
6.1 |
4.8 |
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CMG Worldsource |
5.2 |
5.2 |
4.7 |
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Balanced Planning |
4.6 |
5.8 |
5.3 |
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SOURCE: INVESTMENT EXECUTIVE RESEARCH |
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INVESTMENT EXECUTIVE CHART |
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Everyone loves a good, old-fashioned bull market because it makes giving financial advice a fairly safe endeavour. Providing sound and lucrative advice isn’t so easy when you are face-to-face with a bear market. And things become even tougher when you’re looking at a beast you may never have seen before.
This last scenario may well be the case for the majority of financial planners in Canada. According to the information Investment Executive gathered for our third annual Planners’ Report Card, the average financial advisor in Canada has never seen a downturn in the market, let alone a real live bear.
The booming market of the 1990s was mirrored in unprecedented recruiting at the country’s planning firms; as a result, most of the planners out there today have been planners only during an expansionary market. But the financial direction has made an abrupt about-face and many planners are facing tough times alone, yearning for some quality training.
Of the 450 financial planners we spoke to at Canada’s 15 biggest firms, the amount of experience advisors had, on average, was 10 years. That number fluctuates from an average of five years in the business for a planner with Primerica Financial Services Ltd. of Mississauga, Ont. (the top-rated firm in our survey), to 15 years’ experience for advisors with Waterloo, Ont.-based Regal Capital Planners Ltd.
The market correction has prompted cries from planners for a higher quantity and quality of education and training. “I’m new and I have had to take it upon myself to learn,” says an Alberta planner with Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. “Training and marketing support could always be better,” she says.
While the ratings that advisors give their firm’s training programs indicate companies have already stepped up the frequency of training, rookies are still looking for a little more guidance.
“They don’t really provide any training, and the little they do is of poor quality,” says an Ontario-based newcomer at CMG Worldsource Financial Services Inc.
The industry at large seems to have improved slightly over last year’s ratings, inching up to an average score of 7.3 from 6.5 last year. Planners with Ottawa-based Balanced Planning Financial Group give their firm the lowest mark in the category with a 4.6. That mark is relevant to all aspects of the firm, which took a beating in our survey, mainly because of the upheaval and integration woes since being taken over by BRM Capital Corp. of Montreal.
“There are a few seminars here and there, but they are all at head office,” says one Balanced planner on the West Coast. However, another advisor in Vancouver says the training he receives is frequent and of high quality. “Every Tuesday we have a specialist come in to talk about some new aspect of the industry and it is pretty good,” he says.
CMG is another firm scraping mediocrity in the area of ongoing training, with a score of 5.2. While one Ontario planner says he attends regular luncheons to brush up on industry changes, another CMG advisor in Vancouver says training is not part of the firm’s mandate. “There’s not supposed to be any,” he says. Another planner in Vancouver says he does his own training, “because the firm couldn’t care less about its western branches.”
It is not surprising that the top-rated firm is Primerica, with a score of 9.1 — after all, the company does have its own “university,” at which it prepares its recruits for provincial licensing exams.
Slightly behind Primerica is Winnipeg-based Investors Group Inc., with its advisors rating training 8.6, increasing from 7.9 last year. In fact, seven of the 15 firms surveyed saw an increase of at least half a point over last year’s score. However, we don’t have previous data on four firms that are new additions to the survey: Assante Corp., Sun Life, IPC Financial Network Inc. and FundEX Investments Inc.
Berkshire Investment Group Inc. of Burlington, Ont., has one of the highest scores in the training category at 8.0, and its advisors say that’s because the training is frequent. “There is something every month,” says one planner in Burlington. Another says: “It’s the most training I’ve ever had. It’s constant and up to date.”
But it’s not all congratulations and kudos: an Ontario-based Berkshire planner not at head office says there’s not much training at all. Another advisor on the East Coast sounded surprised at the question and responded by asking, “What training?”
One Berkshire planner in Toronto expanded a little. “The training has improved over the years that I have been here. Training is good, although deficient in some areas. [What there is] is mostly in life insurance, and I would like to see it [be] a bit broader-based.” IE