'Curiosity drives creativity, and be prepared to fail early and learn quickly'
What’s the secret to being the most innovative user of wealth technology?
“What we’ve learned is that curiosity drives creativity,” Stephan Cantanna, the platform product director for Investment Planning Counsel (IPC), told Wealth Professional. It just won the WP Award for the most innovative use of wealth tech.
“I think constantly asking: Why? What if? And why not? I think these questions keep an organization and a team focused on innovation and challenging the status quo to do things differently from what has typically been done historically.
“When cross-functional teams come together with a shared purpose of innovation and apply creativity, that’s what helps to really lead a sustained differentiation and develop a unique offering for a competitive advantage in the marketplace.”
IPC is interested in identifying opportunities to capture more of the Canadian market, and Cantanna is excited about developing a unique service to help it. The firm formed a team in January 2020 to assess how it could generate more enterprise value. It now has about 20 members and organizational support. It has developed a platform that allows portfolio managers across the country to achieve scalable growth, so they can spend less time on paperwork and more time on meaningful client conversations.
The team did a soft launch of its new portfolio management platform in 2020 and a hard launch in January 2021. It allows portfolio managers to make trades without having to call their clients for consent each time. In two years, it’s onboarded more than 20 portfolio managers and almost $2 billion of assets. The team now is assessing whether the platform can support additional segments that can also access centrally managed portfolios from IPC’s head office.
“That’s our focus: it’s freeing up advisors’ time so they can have more meaningful conversations. That can translate into improving the financial literacy and objectives of Canadian clients and communities at large,” said Cantanna.
“I don’t think innovation ever stops. It needs to be an iterative and agile process. So, the more the wealth management platform evolves and matures, I think the more learnings we’ll have. It’s taking those learnings and determining the highest impact and rolling them out for the benefit of our advisors and the end investor.”
While he said many think a new idea must be fully developed to be implemented, his team believes it can start, then make alterations, so it can progress more quickly.
He said it’s also important that IPC has endorsed a culture of innovation and agility, which means it’s receptive to failure: “If you’re going to fail, fail early, but learn quickly. I think it’s that mentality that’s guided the team to bring forward effective solutions and a platform to support our advisors.”
Cantanna, who is also about to start his Masters of Management in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Queen’s University to learn more about innovating more effectively, is excited about the progress IPC is making because “Canadian history has typically lagged behind our U.S. counterparts. We’re now in a position within the Canadian industry where we’re starting to see a rise in fintech providers and the development of innovative new business models.
“What excites me is now there’s the opportunity to close the gap with our U.S. counterparts to provide products and services that better serve Canadian advisors and investors. My colleagues and I, with the IPC leadership team’s guidance, are excited about developing a unique service to help.”
