Wealth management firm "chooses happiness" and more autonomy after leaving bank and returning to its independent roots
This article has been produced in partnership with Q Wealth.
40 years of success for Canvas Wealth has not been built on broad brush strokes. Instead, every financial plan and investment strategy is a work of art carefully painted in line with each client’s wants and needs.
The Calgary-based wealth management firm has become a byword for integrity and trust among its 400 household clients for whom it manages $630 million. The strong bonds of trust the team had built with clients became evident recently when the team decided to make the move to independence. After completing three years of due diligence, the Canvas team decided it could do more for clients if they had more control over the financial fine art it was creating.
Canvas Wealth, led by managing partners and senior wealth advisors Colin Andrews and Steven Molina, conducted 3 years of due diligence to compose the right strategy. In mid-November the team resigned from their bank brokerage to join Q Wealth Partners (Q). It was a move – and a weekend - that would have tested anyone’s nerves, but they passed with flying colours. The response from clients was “overwhelmingly positive” and the vast majority of clients have already followed them to their new home.
“Our business is such a relationship business,” Andrews said. “[The move] doesn't really have anything to do with the bank; it's the relationship between us and the clients that we serve.”
The switch marks the next chapter for the business, previously named The CM Group, which started 40 years ago at McLeod Young Weir (later to become Scotia McLeod). About 11 years ago, the firm switched to CIBC Wood Gundy.
To understand its recent move to Q, however, is to understand the ethos engrained in everyone at the firm. Andrews describes Canvas Wealth as “real people working with real people just trying to solve problems.” He said he grew up at banks, believes they are great training grounds and is proud to have left on good terms. But Andrews also believes the firm had outgrown its surroundings and was restricted in what it could offer clients.
“We don't have the same restraints on us that we had before,” he said. “We are supported with better technology, we can source better solutions, we have access to institutional pricing that we didn't have, and we can open accounts that we couldn’t before, like First Home Savings Accounts, RDSPs, and the ability to work with US citizens.”
Canvas can now broaden its palette, but that’s only half the story. To do this it needed a trusted partner and a fellow believer in its financial planning-first approach. Rewind three years ago to a meeting with Q Wealth executives at Future Proof and the seeds of this partnership were sown. Q was not the only suitor, however, as Canvas had interviewed a host of other independent dealers and platforms before making the final decision. Ultimately, though, the Q Wealth story, culture, and the true equity partnership model was the most compelling to Andrews, Molina and their team.
“The idea of joining a partnership and having a say in what tools can be in our toolbox is really interesting.” He added: “We are choosing happiness.”
Having always acted as fiduciaries for their clients, this pathway of independence ensures this continues uninterrupted. For Karyn Silenzi, senior wealth advisor at Canvas Wealth, this is a key message. “It was very important to us that there were wins all along the value chain. [The move] has to be better for the clients, it has to be better for us individually, it has to be better for our team, and it has to be better for whoever we choose to partner with. And that's what we've found with this structure, there's a win at every level.”
For Q Wealth, the addition of Canvas represents a genuine coup and their biggest new partnership to date, setting them up to cross the $5 billion in assets milestone.
For Jared Rabinowitz, CEO, Executive and Founding Partner, welcoming another team of bank advisors into the fold is the icing on the cake on what has been a significant year of growth for Q Wealth. The Canvas team are, he said, the “quintessential, Quintessence Wealth partner,” which is reflected not just in their humanistic planning first approach but also in their personal integrity. Rabinowitz still remembers how Andrews and Molina refused to let Q pay for their first lunch meeting so as to not feel like they owed them anything. It struck a chord.
“They are just the nicest human beings and I think that's why their clients have been so loyal to them. Most have followed them from one bank to another bank, and now to Q Wealth and it's because of how much they care, how awesome their service is, and just the amount of integrity they have. This shows up in everything from their approach to portfolio construction to the depth of financial planning.
“The fact that they chose Q Wealth is just unbelievably humbling. There’s never a day around here where we think what we’ve done is good enough. It’s usually something external like this which affords us a momentary thrill to think what we’re doing here is pretty special. It always starts with genuinely listening to the feedback from our Partners and prioritizing what they want at the top of the to-do list, as true business partners do.”
Stephen Gasparek, Chief Marketing Officer & Head of Partnership Development at Q Wealth Partners, emphasized the significance of this achievement: “This marks a pivotal moment for our Partnership. Welcoming Canvas Wealth to the Q Wealth network means so much more than expanding the Partnership. Canvas’ shares our passion for the human-centric advice movement, and together we’ll keep pushing the level of experience for clients to new heights. Colin and Steve embody the essence of what it means to be Q Wealth Partners, seamlessly fitting into our culture and vision. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have them join us.”
