Toronto-based Clearsight Investment Program is expanding its focus beyond its traditional customer niche of university alumni. The wholly owned subsidiary of Winnipeg-based Wellington West Capital Inc. is looking to enter into partnerships with additional professional associations, including those that represent Canadian retirees.

“We are looking at negotiations with other affinity type groups outside of the university network, such as a potential partnership with the Canadian Association of Retired Persons and Zoomer Magazine, ” says Michael Burns, president of Clearsight. “This is a group that represents more than 500,000 Canadians and we think that the 50-plus group in Canada is a highly targeted and desirable group that we would like to partner with in the future.”

Clearsight was acquired by Wellington West in 2006. At the time, it had $100 million in assets under administration and affinity programs with alumni associations at 15 universities in Ontario and British Columbia. After the acquisition, some Clearsight advisors chose not to join Wellington West, taking significant assets with them. Since expanding through Wellington West’s network, the remaining advisors have grown the Clearsight AUA back up to $70 million.

Today, Clearsight markets its services to alumni through direct mail, alumni newspapers and magazines and online initiatives at 25 universities, with access to 2.5 million Canadians in Ontario, B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick, says Burns. The company is licensed in every province except Newfoundland and Labrador, but with the presence of Memorial University in that province, it is something Burns would like to explore.

“We are always out there talking to universities and we are continually reaching out to new prospects,” says Burns. “Over the next six to 10 months, we hope to bring on a number of additional partnerships that we currently have in the pipeline.”

The main focus of the Clearsight program remains its affinity relationship with universities. Alumni, their families and faculty are able to access financial advisors, premium investment products and simplified pricing, says Burns.

Through the Clearsight program, Wellington West investment advisors work closely with alumni clients; they are matched with each individual’s investing profile and objective in mind. In turn, the program helps direct some of the management fees and marketing dollars back to the universities to support school programs.

Clearsight is currently home to 25 dedicated investment advisors, who are selected individually to join the group. Advisors are required to live up to contractual obligations with the universities with which they are partners, and recognize that they will be participating in a number of alumni-related activities throughout the course of the year, says Burns.

“We need advisors who recognize that when someone from the university calls or emails us, we respond to them in a prompt manner,” he adds. “We want to roll out the red carpet to make sure we are giving them the level of service that perhaps they are not getting today with their existing advisors.”

Clearsight advisors are scattered across the country — with the East Coast being the latest region to join the program this past January, when the University of New Brunswick signed a five-year affinity agreement.@page_break@Nancy Shewfelt, who has been an investment advisor with Wellington West in Vancouver since 2001, joined the Clearsight program in 2008 and covers the area comprising four universities in central B.C. Known locally for her charitable work with the Rotary Club of White Rock, B.C. and the local hospital, Shewfelt decided that the Clearsight program would be a good fit for her and her team of eight advisors.

“We felt that the program fit well with our team’s philosophy, which focuses on family wealth management,” Shewfelt says. “The program provides a good opportunity to be able to go out to the universities in an educational role and talk about what we do, how we work with families and really take them from one generation to the next.”

Shewfelt, who has been an advisor for more than 30 years, was pleasantly surprised with the public’s reaction to the Clearsight program as well as with the number of alumni and guests that make it out to the events in which the firm participates.

“We participated in an event that focused on women and investing,” she says, “and it was great to see so many women — young women, too — take such an interest.”

Since joining Clearsight, Shewfelt and her team have received numerous client contacts, which her daughter, Caroline pursues. So far, the team has added approximately five client families, with a number of others in the prospect stage.

Jay Nash, an investment advisor with Wellington West in London, Ont., and part of the Roberts Nash Wealth Management Group, joined Clearsight in 2007. Like Shewfelt, Nash is avidly involved in his city’s athletic squash program, something that is also important to the local university, the University of Western Ontario. As soon as the opportunity to join Clearsight was made available, Nash and his team, which includes Kelly Roberts and Diane Nash, knew it was a commitment they wanted to make.

“Two of the three advisors on our team are graduates of UWO,” says Nash. “I was at Huron College in 1996 and Diane was at King’s College in 1996. My family has always been heavily involved with the university and this was a way to bring our business into this involvement. The university is a big part of life in London.”

Nash has been in the investment industry for 13 years and, along with Roberts, joined Wellington West in 2005 after they both decided they wanted to return to their independent roots. The team manages $150 million for 225 client households, with a strong focus on entrepreneurs and families.

Nash and his team attend university meetings and seminars and contribute to Western News, a campus publication that is distributed by the communications and public affairs department. With very little direct marketing involved for the team, Nash says, the clients he gains from the Clearsight program tend to be dedicated and long-term in nature.

“We like that the program focuses marketing dollars on the university,” says Nash. “Western has some very strong sports franchises and gaining exposure through the football, hockey and squash programs is good for our brand.”

Along with the Clearsight program, Nash also has hosted a squash tournament at the London Squash Racquet Club for the past 10 years. His main goal in starting the tournament was to raise funds for UWO squash players, an initiative that won his investment team the 2010 Corporate Achievement Award in September. IE