A pair of boutique brokerages have their eyes on veteran producers at larger competitors as they seek to expand their operations, especially in Western Canada.

Both Winnipeg-based Bieber Securities Inc. and Toronto-based MGI Securities Inc. are actively recruiting, looking to persuade advisors with more than five years of experience that there is life after the bank-owned investment dealers.

Bieber Securities CEO Guy Bieber is looking to grow the firm from 10 advisors up to as high as 50. MGI plans to more than double its size by the summer of 2008, from 43 advisors to about 100 and from $2 billion in assets under administration to $6 billion-$7 billion in AUA.

Going beyond the century plateau, however, is an unlikely. It would require additional — and costly — overhead, says Sam Collins, senior vice president of MGI’s retail division. “That’s a huge cost factor. Adding additional management, office space and back-office support is either going to cut into our profits or we’re going to be pushing these costs down to our brokers, which we don’t want to do,” he says.

Allan Jacks, manager of business development at Bieber Securities, is going after experienced advisors. Training costs can be high, he says, and the firm knows what it’s getting when it hires a veteran. It is also able to make sure the potential advisor will fit in with the firm’s culture.

“We’re looking for conservative people, we’re not looking for gunslingers selling the flavour of the day. We want [products] to fit the clients’ needs. Then the client won’t get into trouble, the advisor won’t get into trouble and the firm won’t get into trouble,” he says. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link, and we want to make sure we have no weak links in the chain.”

Bieber Securities has recently expanded its efforts to include every province except Quebec, Jacks says, adding the firm has a model that is profitable and works well in smaller centres.

“We’re open for business. We’re not going into the bar with a flashlight looking for anyone whose eyes respond to light,” he says. “We’re not cutting cheques or hiring people who are running from something. We’re looking for advisors looking for a better platform to serve clients better.”

MGI, which changed its name from McFarlane Gordon Inc. a year ago, is aiming to expand beyond its base of Toronto, London, Ont., Winnipeg and Calgary, says Collins. Ideally, it will attain a coast-to-coast presence within the next couple of years, provided it can find the right people.

“Our focus will be on Western Canada. That’s where we’ve had our most success up to this point. We’re definitely an entrepreneurial firm and we find the people out West understand our story and the entrepreneurial spirit a little bit better than the people in Eastern Canada,” he says.

Edmonton, Vancouver and Brandon, Man., are in the firm’s sights, as are the Ontario centres of Markham, Kitchener and Waterloo.

“I’m not really pointing at a map and saying we have to be in any one city,” Collins says. “The reason these cities have come up is the interest in the firm by an individual or a group of individuals. We’re not targeting areas just so we can say we have a cross-Canada presence.”

MGI’s recruitment plan involves persuading veteran brokers at other firms to jump ship by dangling the carrot of high payouts, cash and shares in MGI’s parent, Jovian Capital Corp., Collins says. The firm’s sweet spot is advisors with between five and seven years of experience and books of $30 million-$40 million. He notes MGI has already grown from 10 advisors to 43 over the past year-and-a-half alone.

MGI has a flat 50% payout for all advisors, Collins says. It also covers phone bills, computer costs and other expenses associated with running an office. MGI pays for one assistant for any advisor who brings in a minimum annual revenue of $700,000.

Neither firm wants much to do with rookies. Collins says the investment in training new advisors typically has low returns: “The attrition rate is quite high. If you get a 20% retention rate, you’re doing well. We’re at the stage at which I don’t want to spend $500,000 and see $400,000 of that walk out the door within a couple of years. It’s a tough business, you lose a lot of [rookies].”

@page_break@Bieber, who is also co-founder of his 11-year-old firm, says it recently opened offices in Dauphin, Man., and his hometown of Brandon. The firm looking to expand beyond Manitoba’s borders if and when the right people come along.

“We feel we can leverage off our staff at head office and our technology,” he says. “Advisors can plug into a full-service boutique without a lot of additional costs. They get traditional corporate finance — we’re a member of many syndicates, plus we do our own deals.”

Bieber declines to discuss the firm’s grid, but he does admit that it’s at the high end of what full-service brokerages pay. That’s the pull, he says, but there’s also a push: “There are quite a number of unhappy advisors who feel they are restricted in the products they offer and feel compelled to direct their clients to proprietary products. We don’t have any proprietary products. Our advisors have the freedom to go in any direction they want.”

But the recruitment process has been getting “trickier” of late, Bieber admits. “For the longest time, everybody was after the mega-producer with gigantic up-front cheques. Today, the competition is heating up for the $40 million-$50 million advisor,” he says.

Both Bieber Securities and MGI may find their growth goals somewhat difficult to attain, says Dan Hallett, president of Windsor, Ont.-based fund analyst Dan Hallett and Associates Inc. He says the competition is stiff, with Richardson Partners Financial Ltd., Dundee Wealth Management Inc. and Raymond James Ltd. already chasing experienced brokers with significant books.

He says these three firms, as well as several others, are older and more established, which can be a significant advantage when recruiting.

“It will probably take more work for the smaller firms,” says Hallett. “If they’re not as well known, it’s not as clear what their angles are. The bigger, better-known firms are definitely attracting advisors.” IE