Newsmaker: Creating trust in the investment industry

“The industry is suffering from a lack of trust, something like a used car salesman. The influence of movies such as The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short further challenges the reputation of industry participants,” says Hamilton-Keen, who took up the reins as the CFA Institute’s global board’s chairwoman in September 2015 and also is director of investment counselling with Calgary-based Mawer Investment Management Ltd.

“Individuals should be able to access good investment advice easily from well-educated, reliable and competent professionals,” she says, “and finding them should not be a difficult search.”

Hamilton-Keen brings her experience from a long career in financial services to her position with the CFA Institute. She started as a bank teller with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) in Jasper, Alta., following her graduation from the business program at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.

Now 46 years old, Hamilton-Keen’s path has taken her through positions of increasing responsibility at CIBC and later at TAL Private Investment Counsel Ltd. in Calgary, a subsidiary of TAL Global Asset Management Inc. (TAL was bought by CIBC, its major shareholder, in 2001; Hamilton-Keen remained with TAL until she joined Mawer in 2005.)

The value of good advice goes far beyond portfolio returns, she says. Once a client’s immediate financial needs are met, he or she can focus on projects ranging from philanthropic endeavours and charitable contributions to supporting political and social causes.

“Financial capital can help with the education of young people or support sustainable environmental practices,” she says. “Financial professionals have a true impact on the movement of capital around the world, and it can be used for good.”

Hamilton-Keen views trends such as the rise of index-oriented exchange-traded funds and low-cost robo-advisors as avenues for investors to get a bare-bones level of service, but not as threats to any professional offering value-added service.

“There still are tons of opportunity to offer guidance and counselling that robo- advisors can’t provide,” she says. “There’s lots of room for the advice channel to add value.”

Hamilton-Keen has some concerns about business models within the financial services distribution channel that influence product recommendations through commissions incentives; she also questions performance-based bonuses for portfolio managers, which may encourage excessive risk-taking in pursuit of high returns. “There needs to be an alignment between compensation and client interests,” she says.

She also sees an opportunity for regulators to “raise the bar” by establishing a standard qualification for providers of financial advice so that an investor seeking an advisor can assume proficiency in the advisor’s capabilities and skills.

At Mawer, Hamilton-Keen deals with a variety of private clients, from high net-worth individuals to family offices and foundations – much of her work involves learning to understand both clients’ personalities and their financial needs so she can recommend the right investment mix. Her early work in banking, she says, helps her tremendously in learning to listen in order to understand clients as well as build relationships.

Following Hamilton-Keen’s first summer job as a bank teller with CIBC in 1990, she qualified for a training program to learn how to manage staff and run a branch. She later became a loans officer and, for several years, she worked with clients in Edmonton, “listening, interpreting, spotting opportunities and helping them meet their objectives.”

Calling loans that were in default also was her responsibility. “I learned about the implications of lending money, and how hard it could be to get it back if the loan went bad,” she says. “That’s where my interest in investment counselling comes from.”

After a few years in the lending business, Hamilton-Keen moved to the asset-management side of CIBC, becoming a wholesaler for CIBC mutual funds. She also was involved in training staff, helping them to find the right mutual fund solutions to match client objectives. In 1996, after some self-examination, Hamilton-Keen realized she was most interested in discretionary money management and dealing directly with clients, so she embarked on the arduous challenge of obtaining her chartered financial analyst (CFA) designation.

Around this time, she also moved to TAL, and she and a partner opened that firms’ first Calgary office. By 1999, Hamilton-Keen had her CFA and was a portfolio manager and partner with TAL. When TAL was bought by CIBC, Hamilton-Keen remained with CIBC’s private-wealth division as an investment counsellor, bringing her TAL clients with her. In 2005, she made the move to Mawer, at which she felt she could make more of an impact than within a big bank.

“Mawer was a smaller organization, with client-oriented values that were in line with my own,” she says. “There also was an opportunity to be a partner/owner in the company and influence strategic decisions.”

Hamilton-Keen found time to marry an oil executive, have three sons, now aged 12, 11 and 8, and pursue volunteer activities while she was busy climbing her career ladder. She was chairwoman of the board of Junior Achievement for southern Alberta for several years, and she has worked with the Bethany Care Foundation, which offers services for seniors, and with Inn From the Cold, a shelter service for the homeless.

After Hamilton-Keen earned her CFA, she turned her volunteer efforts to the Calgary CFA Society, contributing to various councils and committees and grading CFA exams. She was president of the Calgary CFA Society for several years, as well as the Canadian representative on the CFA Institute’s global President’s Council. In 2010, she joined the CFA Institute’s most senior governance body, the global board of governors, moving into the role of chairwoman last autumn.

“I get satisfaction and fulfilment from helping,” she says. “The networking opportunities are huge, and it’s exciting to work with interesting people who have the drive to get things done.”

Hamilton-Keen spends about 30% of her time on CFA Institute activities and 70% on her responsibilities at Mawer. The CFA Institute work cuts into family time, she says, but should lighten up a bit next year. She hopes that will give her more time to devote to her clients and a few distractions, such as a trip to Thailand with her family.

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