COO reiterates the core message while highlighting investments made at the dealer
An ethos of wealth creation pervades the work done at Mandeville Private Client Inc. Following on from a clear framework elucidated by the firm’s Chairman Michael Lee Chin, Mandeville consistently reiterates that the greatest value advisors can deliver to clients is in the creation of wealth. That represents something of a departure for an industry that now seems more focused on wealth preservation and ancillary services. While those goals are key to success, Mandeville believes that putting wealth creation first can drive wider success for advisors and their clients.
Agha Raza, Chief Operating Officer at Mandeville Private Client Inc. spoke with WP about how the firm is retaining that focus in an evolving industry. He outlined the various investments in personnel and technology the firm is making while highlighting how they are prioritizing to ensure maximum value for clients.
“If you ask a financial advisor what’s the highest value add they can give to their client, you’ll hear all sorts of answers. You’ll hear about saving for retirement, investment strategy, budgeting, tax and estate planning, being available, knowledgeable, all of that stuff, and none of it is untrue,” Raza says. “But it doesn’t accurately answer the question because ultimately, at the heart of an investor’s needs is wealth creation. All those other services are complementary. They’re necessary, but they’re not sufficient.”
The demand for those complementary services is growing, and Raza acknowledges that modern clients want a holistic financial plan, covering everything from life-stage planning to estate planning, insurance, etc.. His firm’s focus now is about integrating those expectations into their core wealth creation work.
Raza explains that his firm’s wealth creation framework hinges on strategic capital allocation to quality public and private investment products, which is how his firm believes the wealthy invest and how every Canadian should also invest. He emphasizes those private products as an area where Mandeville continues to lead, offering clients access to certain private allocations that many other dealers can’t access. He further explained that the needs of all investors, whether they are high net worth investors, family offices or institutions, are five-fold: preservation of capital, liquidity, income, growth and tax minimization, and that’s how strategic capital allocation should be approached.
While the services delivered matters immensely, the platform that advice is delivered on matters too. Raza notes that a digital experience is now table stakes for modern advisory firms. Younger clients expect to be met where they are, which is on a phone screen. At the same time, high net worth clients want more seamlessness in their overall experience. Raza notes that Mandeville has invested in their digital service in order to deliver on those expectations, while integrating many of their wealth creation strategies and thought leadership on investments into these platforms.
Raza explains that all these efforts and investments are built around giving advisors the means to succeed. “Our role, really, as a dealer, is to provide advisors with the platform,” Raza says. “The framework, the tools, technologies, high quality differentiated products, marketing and business development support, operations, compliance, and the training that they need to be able to succeed. Mandeville operates an independent advisor model with an attractive payout and product choice and flexibility for the advisors. Our advisors are their own entrepreneurs who own their book of business and benefit from the compounding of their assets. Results speak for themselves. On average, our advisors have grown their assets fourfold since they joined Mandeville. We have six advisory practices that have increased their assets by more than tenfold since they joined Mandeville.”
One of the key advantages Raza highlights is that Mandeville’s clients have the unique opportunity to invest in high quality offerings alongside some of the world’s most successful institutions and affluent investors via the Portland Holdings conglomeration
Mandeville’s ethos is about buying quality assets and holding them as they grow. Mandeville, Raza notes, encourages advisors to treat their books as similar quality assets. Holding onto clients, serving them well, and growing their assets will create benefits for the advisor, and the end client.
For all their investments, Mandeville is still a boutique firm with an unwavering adherence to its investment philosophy. Raza notes that firms should focus on keeping services in-house that are core to their business and have an impact on the regulatory and risk aspects of the business. He said, at the end of the day, it is a strategic business decision and there is no “one size fits all” approach.
Fundamentally, Mandeville seeks to differentiate itself by remaining committed to wealth creation. While they work to lead in the expanding range of services that clients demand, the core idea of creating wealth through quality investments continues to pervade their work.
“If advisors do today what they were doing 10 or 20 years ago, they will become irrelevant very quickly,” Raza says. The only way to avoid becoming a commodity is to focus on client needs and maximize wealth creation for them. On that goal, the interest of the advisors, the clients and the firm have to be aligned.”
