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Wealth Professional celebrates the best wealth management firms with the ability to grow and retain clients.
Investors nationwide were asked to nominate their advisory teams, classified as consisting of three or more advisors, and describe the key service offerings that set these teams apart, particularly:
meaningful contribution to clients and the financial industry
understanding client needs
impact over the last 12 months
Data on the 5-Star Advisory Teams of 2024 shows that:
54 percent were formed in the last decade
89 percent have between one and 15 members
WP’s data also illustrates key geographical factors, with the 2024 winners' list compared to 2023 revealing that:
Ontario remains the dominant province but the only one to lose national share by 14 percent.
Manitoba is the largest gainer on 5 percent.
Quebec is the second largest gainer on 3 percent.
Government agency Statistics Canada data shows that Ontario and Quebec account for a combined 61 percent of the national population.
The Ontario Securities Commissions Annual Report 2023 shows:
4,580 investment fund issuers
1,369 registered firms
70,077 registered individuals across Ontario
It also processed a record 77,858 individual registration applications and information filings, up 77 percent from 2022.
The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) Annual Management Report 2022/23 showed a snapshot of Quebec’s numbers. For financial planning, it recorded:
1,087 firms, companies, and independent representatives
4,697 representatives
And similarly for securities:
39,445 broker representatives
470 advisors
2,965 advisor representatives
404 investment fund managers
The firm combines steering clients objectively with non-traditional psychology.
“Our core values lean towards independent advice rather than being told what to sell. One of my ultimate goals was to develop a practice where I can share my philosophy,” says senior investment advisor Shafik Hirani.
“I’m most proud of the recognition that’s gone into our client portfolios, performances, our client servicing model, and how we’ve differentiated ourselves away from the traditional model.”
Hirani explains how the firms’ message results in:
50 to 70 referrals per year
average referral of $1,000,000
Breaking away from industry orthodoxy has been a key part of Hirani’s success in wealth management.
“Traditionally, there’s a lot of errors in financial planning. One is people tend to just look at their current state, but you can’t build a puzzle without a picture of the box,” explains Hirani. “People have this problem psychologically when it comes to money. They call it cognitive dissonance. The whole premise is, how do I connect my current self with my future self?”
The firm differentiates itself by:
analyzing internal operations rather than macroeconomic conditions
prioritizing face-to-face meetings
“They can get an idea of my authenticity and approach. Everybody’s busy, sometimes an email can accomplish a lot, but when it comes to the actual work, we are meeting face to face,” comments Hirani.
The firm’s advisory team looks at client risk tolerance and then formulates its investment advice.
Hirani adds, “Going above and beyond for us means projecting thar portfolio, giving a client an idea of what their retirement and what their estate is going to be.”
The best wealth management teams collaborate with external experts such as:
accounting professionals to assist with corporate and personal taxes
estate planning teams to advise on passing on wealth from a multigenerational viewpoint
Hirani believes what sets his team apart from competitors is they don’t focus on external factors.
“Looking externally means whoever can see further tends to win. Whoever has got a bigger telescope is good at the investing. I don’t subscribe to that,” he says.
“Of course, you need to be able to see far into the future, you need to really understand macroeconomic policy and how geopolitical tensions correlate with the capital markets. But our approach is to first point the finger at the person in the mirror. What attributes do you have psychologically to get you from point A to B?”
Pushing this philosophy in his employees has garnered success.
“Our operations people have been with us years; they understand our philosophy and subscribe to it. I’m passionate about what we do and believe in it,” Hirani says.
Engendering a family spirit is fundamental to the success of our team.
Senior investment advisor Darren Cooper praises the team's founding partner Craig Baun and Michael Pate.
“We treat our staff like we would treat our family and create this sort of reverberation of care within the team. It doesn’t feel like you’re servicing when you are communicating and interacting with people that you view as almost an extension of your family,” Cooper says.
“We have five dedicated administration professionals that have been in the industry for many years, the least tenured would be up to 12 years, and the longest would be 30+ years. So, we have an extremely experienced team.”
That group has been able to grow, most notably at a continuous rapid pace.
“We’ve maintained trajectory that a lot of people didn’t think was possible once we hit a certain scale and it hasn’t slowed. We’re mindful of our capacity, so we have a minimal portfolio size to respect the responsibility we have to existing clientele,” explains Cooper.
“We don’t want to overwhelm ourselves and our staff by growing to a point where we can’t service anyone, so that is a consideration.”
The ever-changing nature of the industry can prove challenging, especially with compliance.
“Internally, we have built a process in tandem with the compliance team. One thing that I really like about our firm, Wellington-Altus is that there is no animosity with the compliance team,” adds Cooper. “We’re evolving. We’re trying to learn it as the new requirements are better defined in the industry.”
The best wealth management team has four guiding principles:
Say what you’re going to do and do what you say.
Show up on time.
Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
Finish what you start.
With that, we focus on great client service. Without [our clients], we wouldn’t have a business,” says Marni Harvey, senior investment advisor.
Harvey and business partner Krissy Morrison travel to meet clients. They think nothing of hitting the road and going nearly 120 km to Humboldt or to Yorkton over 330 km away.
“We have a lot of clients in Alberta, so we’ll do road trips there, too. To connect with a client, you really have to be in front of them and for the most part, clients are more comfortable in person,” Harvey explains.
This ideology seems to work as the best wealth management team retains clients and families across multiple generations.
“We very seldom lose a client. Across the industry on average, they stay with their advisor for seven years. All ours have been with us for much longer than that, and then we bring on their kids. It’s quite a lengthy relationship,” Morrison says.
The team serves approximately 340 households, but only takes new clients who match their values.
“It’s important to be of similar mindsets. If we meet somebody and it’s not a fit, we’ll always help them find somebody that is a fit,” Harvey says. “We want to grow year-on-year, but with that, we also recognize that we are a smaller team, so we want to limit how many new households we bring on and make sure that they’re a good fit.”
The chemistry between Harvey and Morrison is the linchpin to the team’s performance.
“We work so well together, both of us bringing different things to the table, but still thinking about things similarly, and then bringing our team in on that way of thinking,” adds Morrison.
Scroll down to get to know Canada’s best wealth management firms and teams of 2024.
To identify the 5-Star Advisory Teams of 2024, Wealth Professional asked investors across Canada to nominate their advisory teams and describe the key service offerings that set these teams apart and what value they provide to their clientele. For the purpose of this report, teams were classified as those consisting of three or more advisors.
To narrow down the list to the final 46 5-Star Advisory Teams, WP reviewed all nominations, examining how each advisory team had made a meaningful contribution to their clients and the financial services industry.