'We've depended on our independent, unconstrained, and entrepreneurial thinking resonating with them,' says Wellington-Altus president
The Winnipeg-based Wellington-Altus is continuing to chalk up awards – with two this year following its hat-trick last year – but it’s success is a product of staying the original course that it charted when it launched more than six years ago.
“It’s just a manifestation of what we originally set out to do. We’re continuing to plow that road,” Jordy Chilcott, president of Wellington-Altus Private Wealth and executive vice-president of wealth strategy and enablement for Wellington-Altus Financial Inc., told Wealth Professional.
“But, I think it’s been more attractive recently with more advisors generally joining Wellington-Altus from the bank-owned firms.
“Since the beginning, we’ve depended on our independent, unconstrained, and entrepreneurial thinking really resonating with them because these advisors can own their own book of business. They can control their own destiny, within reason, of course, on the platform, and they have the ability to be owners and partners. That’s been present since the beginning, but I think it’s been more coveted in recent times.”
Wellington-Altus won two WP awards this year – The Wealhouse Capital Management Award for Employer of Choice and the Trez Capital Award for Multi-Office Advisor Network Brokerage of the Year, which it also won last year. Chilcott thinks those honours reflect the fact that advisors who join them have the opportunity – along with Wellington-Altus’s corporate staff – to become shareholders in the company, which most do. They can then bring in their own brand and establish their own offices, yet remain part of the Wellington-Altus network and provide input to its corporate decisions.
Two-thirds of Wellington-Altus’s lifespan has been in challenging environments, ranging from COVID-19 to the current bear market, noted Chilcott. But, it’s still experienced a 55% compound annual growth rate sine inception and currently has 84 advisor teams, 48 branches for them, 758 employees (advisors and corporate), and $25 billion in assets under administration (AUA). Chilcott figures that, depending on the markets, it will reach $30 billion AUA by the end of this calendar year and surpass $50 billion in AUA in 2025. But, he emphasizes that quality, not quantity, is the company’s main focus.
“We do have some of the highest average sizes of advisors in the industry,” said Chilcott. “But, our goals are much more around maintenance of quality. One of the awards that we’re proudest of is being one of Canada’s best managed companies, which was adjudicated by Deloitte, because we’re focusing on quality advisors versus size of advisor. 88% of our assets are in managed assets, which means they’re managed by professionals in the money management space.”
Being the Employer of Choice for the Year is also significant, however, because when prospective advisors are researching whether they want to join the firm, Chilcott said it suggests that they call any of the other advisors already on-board – and not just a curated list - to hear their testimonies.
“I think once they get here and they feel that they have autonomy and they’re actually asked for input on how to run our business as partners and significant owners, because they own part of the success of the firm, I think the happiness comes in,” he said. “I think that’s even better for clients because we think a happy advisor provides better service and support to their clients.”
Chilcott said Wellington-Altus tends to be attracting advisors with 25 or more years of experience who already have thriving businesses and their own training programs for growing their offices.
“We just give them the opportunity to do even more on our platform,” he said.
While Wellington-Altus is continuing to refine its winning recipe to bring more advisory teams on board, Chilcott believes there’s a growing opportunity for independents to continue to flourish.
He noted there’s more opportunity for independents in Canada than there has been for thirty years while the banks were acquiring independents. There’s been an increased rise of independents in the past three years and, given the RIA trends in the U.S., he predicts it will continue and alter the fact that 70% of Canadian assets were recently controlled by major platforms, such as the banks.
“If you’re looking down south to see what’s happening differently in Canada, the same reasons are setting up the advisor movement in Canada,” said Chilcott.
“I do see the opportunities opening up between the independents and banks to where I think it will soon be more like 55% of our industry is controlled by the banks and 45% by independents. It could get closer to 50/50 over the next five years, but I think it will settle out at 55/45. So, we’re just trying to make sure we invest to support our growth.”
