DFS Private Wealth targets stunning Wealth Professional Awards treble
A focus on private equity and debt, and an excellent relationship with its client base are the backbone to the success of award-winning DFS Private Wealth.
Led by private wealth managers Jennifer Black and Janet Baccarani, the firm are gunning for their third Wealth Professional Awards victory at this year’s Oscars-style event on May 31 at the Liberty Grand, Toronto. The deadline for nominations is February 23.
DFS Private Wealth will defend its Multi-Service Advisor of the Year crown, having scooped The Vision Systems Award for Engagement, Loyalty & Client Care prize in 2016.
Baccarani said the most rewarding aspect of the company's success is the fact the awards it has has won have been client-focused.
She said: “It’s really rewarding to be recognised for what is really our top priority, which is doing our best for the client. We know a bunch of our clients nominated us with, I guess, descriptions of what we’ve done for them, which I’m sure is why we won because it was our clients themselves giving testimony.”
Black added: “It was fun and a good opportunity to meet other people from the industry who are achieving a high level. It was a good party.
“It’s not about our revenue, our growth or our business as much as it is about us doing our absolute best for the client. It’s always been our focus so I think that really resonates for us from that perspective.”
With a client base of business owners, high-net-worth families and widows/widowers, Black and Baccarai said clients can be exposed, depending on individual needs, from between 15-30% to the private equity and debt market.
Black said that emphasis is just a part of what separates them from competitors.
She said: “The first one is that personal touch and actually working with the family and making sure that everything we do is customised to them. So it’s about their goals, what’s important to them and their family. And everything we do for that family is around them and comes from the conversation we have and the questions we ask.
“The other thing is, from the investment perspective, we strongly believe that private equity and private debt should play a part in a clients’ portfolio. If you think about the wealthy individuals today and how they achieved their wealth, it wasn’t in public markets.
“Public markets have their place but private markets also need to be considered and really that’s where true wealth is created.”
To nominate yourself or someone else you think is deserving of recognition, simply log on to www.wpawards.ca and follow the links.
