Christopher Matugas has been recognized as one of Canada's top business developers and wholesalers by being listed in Wealth Professional Canada's Leading BDMs and Wholesalers report
IN A NUTSHELL
• CI Investments’ best-performing funds over the past year have been Cambridge Canadian Dividend, Signature High Income and Black Creek International Equity
• The firm launched the CI Preferred Pricing platform in response to market appetite for lower fees
• CI Investments’ best-performing funds over the past year have been Cambridge Canadian Dividend, Signature High Income and Black Creek International Equity
• The firm launched the CI Preferred Pricing platform in response to market appetite for lower fees
“I look for advisors who are growing their business, value wholesalers as professionals and view themselves as professionals”
Relationship-building is a key part of being a successful wholesaler, and Christopher Matugas of CI Investments admits that his relationships with advisors have changed over the years. “The traditional roles of salesperson and client have evolved – gone are the days where the wholesaler was a gatekeeper of information,” he says. “Advisors are savvier than ever. I look for advisors who are growing their business, value wholesalers as professionals and view themselves as professionals, take and implement the advice I give from a best practice standpoint, and will be an advocate for me within the advisor community.”Matugas’ most successful funds lately have been the Cambridge Canadian Dividend, Signature High Income and Black Creek International Equity. “Each of these funds have common themes: They will all complement existing portfolios or new ETFs, providing high active share and low correlation to indices,” he says. “They are very difficult to replicate from an individual broker standpoint. It is easy to justify the fee for both the fund and the advisor.”
Asset managers across the industry have being reducing MERs on mutual funds, and CI Financial is no different. Matugas regularly has to justify the management fee on funds, but this is a conversation he welcomes.
“Expenses have come down across the board for a lot of fund companies,” he says. “We recently launched the CI Preferred Pricing platform that really puts our funds in a competitive position when you get into the larger tickets. I believe we are starting to see a bit of a pushback from our side of the desk – really speaking about the value that the managed money portion of a client’s end portfolio brings to the table.”
Technology has also significantly changed his interactions with advisors. “If I bring a solution to an advisor, he can instantly look up any of the numbers I am speaking about, compare them to my competitors and ask more insightful questions based on the data available online,” Matugas says. “I have to be better prepared and able to speak to these questions.”
