One planning firm executive calls it “the march of the penguins.” In his allusion to the French film documentary about the fortitude of the flightless bird, he’s referring, of course, to the slow but steady shuffling of planning firms’ advisors to the Investment Dealer Association of Canada platform from their birthplace within the Mutual Fund Dealers Association model.

Of the 11 firms surveyed in Investment Executive‘s 2006 Planners’ Report Card, the five that do offer an IDA platform as a choice to advisors are finding that every month brings a fresh flock of converts to the securities side of the business.

Advisors must choose between the IDA or the relatively new MFDA; they can hold membership in only one. And an increasing number are weighing the costs and benefits and choosing the IDA.

“We’re leaving the choice up to [advisors],” says Robert Frances, president and CEO of Montreal-based Peak Investment Services Inc. Almost 20% of Peak’s 180 advisors have moved to Peak Securities Inc. , the firm’s securities arm. “Many are waiting to see what is going to happen between the MFDA and the IDA, [if] they merge or not, before they make their choice.”

Those advisors may have to wait a long time. It’s conceivable the IDA and the MFDA could be forced into an arranged marriage if they can’t get together on their own. The Canadian Securities Administrators initiated a review of self-regulatory systems more than a year ago. The duplication of systems is an obvious inefficiency, industry experts say. However, no merger is currently in the works.

From a business perspective, though, many senior advisors argue that to meet clients’ true planning needs, they need to migrate to the IDA platform, which allows advisors to provide more products and services — especially to high net-worth clients who may want access to discretionary asset management.

Costs, too, may be a consideration for individual advisors. The MFDA’s monthly fee per $1 million in assets under administration is still cheaper than the IDA’s fee, but has crept up. And many advisors at MFDA-member firms are made to pay their own way; IDA-member firms generally pay the shot.

More than half of the planners at Assante Corp. are IDA-licensed through Assante Capital Management Ltd. , the firm’s securities arm. The remainder operate on the MFDA platform, registered by Assante Financial Management Ltd. Joe Canavan, chairman and CEO of all three firms, says he prefers the IDA model: “It’s a broader and deeper platform.”

Chris Reynolds, president of Investment Planning Counsel, appears to agree. The IDA model allows advisors to deliver all the products and services they would ever need in one consolidated package, he says. He adds that the 500-advisor Mississauga, Ont.-based firm plans to move about half its planners to IPC Securities Corp. — still IPC’s fastest growing business line — within five years.

Executives at the dual-platform firms concede that making the switch is a lot of work. Advisors stay on the MFDA platform mostly because it’s where they are comfortable. Advisors know the MFDA system, and the administrative “ordeal” of transferring over doesn’t motivate them to move, Frances says.

Maybe that’s why Dundee Wealth Management Inc. is soft-selling its IDA offering, Dundee Securities Corp. Less than one-third of the group’s almost 1,900 planners are on the IDA platform. “I’m ambivalent,” says Kym Anthony, CEO of the Toronto-based parent. “If somebody wants to migrate, I want to make it as easy as possible. But I don’t want to put pressure on people to do it.”

Some firms that don’t offer securities trading are considering it. Rick Annaert, president and CEO of Manulife Securities International Ltd. , says part of his mandate as CEO is to review the business needs of advisors: “I’m worried about losing reps [if there is no IDA platform].”

Partners in Planning Financial Services Ltd. has been considering an IDA platform for a couple of years. CEO Michael Wolfond cites increased regulatory costs and a drag on the firm’s profitability as reasons to hold off.

“When you set aside all the rhetoric,” Winnipeg-based Investors Group Inc. executive vice president Kevin Regan says, “there is no difference between an IDA and an MFDA firm.” IE