How one young advisor is rising to new expectations

Narrator  05:05:45 

We dive into the transformative world of financial services through the eyes of Percy McDonald, a rising star from Saltwinds Financial Assante Financial Management Limited in Halifax, recognized in wealth professionals annual Top 40 under 40 Rising Stars. 

David Kitai  05:06:02 

Financial services industry is evolving due to the pace of technological innovation, changes in client expectations and the enterprise of advisors and firms financial advice looks very different today than it did even 10 years ago. That's why at WP we publish our annual Top 40 under 40 list to celebrate those young advisors and financial services professionals who are helping this industry to adapt. Percy Macdonald is one of those young advisors. Percy is Wealth Advisor at Assante Financial Management Limited in Halifax, and he joins us today to discuss his own experience and the path forward for the industry. Percy, welcome and congratulations.  

Percy Macdonald  05:06:38 

Well, thank you very much for having me appreciate it.  

David Kitai  05:06:40 

So Percy, maybe this is the cocktail party question. But why did you become an advisor? 

Percy Macdonald  05:06:47 

Yeah, so it was kind of a career I fell into accidentally. So I started my studies at Dalhousie as an engineer, so mathematics that lined up. But what happened was, well, I was paying my way through university. One of my national accounts was Asante advisors. So I befriended one of the local advisors in Halifax, and he really took me under his under his wings, as a mentee. So whenever I had a career change come up, or a potential opportunity, I would get Andrew on the phone. And so while talking to him, when I was down living in the Annapolis Valley at the time, one of the big five banks came and presented me an offer. So first person I called in, or I said, Well, what do you think of this? He said, I think it's worthwhile to go and explores. And that was back in 2011 Hard to believe, going back about 13 years ago now. So I went, started cutting my teeth at the bank, and it's kind of evolved from there. And he always said, well, one of these days when you've learned enough, maybe we'll bring you over to this side and the independent side from one of the big five. And lo and behold, that happened. 

David Kitai  05:07:52 

Well, I mean, this beautiful story, and I think it mirrors, in some ways, what I've heard from so many other advisors of there's, you know, it's not this obvious path, but it's one that kind of grabs you at a certain point and engages you. But you know, 2011 doesn't. It shouldn't feel like that long ago, but as you say, it's about 13 years. So what in your view, has changed in the industry since you started at the bank to where you are now at CI? 

Percy Macdonald  05:08:18 

There's, it seems like a short amount of time, little over a decade ago, but the technology, it's leaps and bounds. I even find in the last five years, there has been a massive shift, and it felt stagnant, almost, with regards to the technology, from 2011 up until the pandemic, that eight year time frame, things were kind of status quo. Well, once the pandemic came, technology has changed, and I think for the better, if you've leaned into it, regulations have changed. So you see the merging of the investment in industry regulatory bodies in Canada on IROC, and then the mfda Merging under one regulatory body. Well then all of a sudden, now the compliance has gone through the roof, and what we have to do day to day with our clients. It's also a great change for the better if you're leaning into it and educating but with that also comes from increased costs, so then you're also having to scale your practice a lot more than what you may have had to when I first started in the industry. So scales become very important. So I think technology, the regulation changes, and the scale which we run our practices now are some of the biggest changes that I've seen in the last decade and a half.  

David Kitai  05:09:33 

And then the other piece I always like to pull on is from a client perspective, how have you seen client expectations change? What do they now expect from you that maybe they didn't when they walked into your bank office in 2011?  

Percy Macdonald  05:09:44 

Yeah. 11. Yeah, well, it's not a one size fits all anymore. Is what it almost seemed like years ago. You know, you started the banks and it's, here's 14 questions, and here's the the fund that you're going to put in those days are long gone. Clients expect, an expanded product shelf now. They also want to see the advisor have partners and an expanded knowledge base, not just in the investment space, but on the insurance, tax, legal, because all of that's contributing to their overall financial plan. So having all of those feathers in your cap. I really that's kind of what clients are leaning on. Now, it's not a one size fits all. It's build that plan. Lean on your partners, because you're almost as a quarterback in the relationship. You just you can't know it all. So you have to be able to have high quality partners within your within your shop. Job to be able to lean on to essentially provide better quality advice to your clients, or industry leading advice. 

David Kitai  05:10:50 

And as you say, I mean that no man is an island, and that teamwork is key. But you know, there's just so many changes at which you as the advisor, and all advisors have been kind of at the at the fulcrum of that change. You feel like you're sort of at that pivot point and and sometimes the pressure gets, gets a lot. So I guess, what have you done, whether it's in just the way you approach your day to day work, or your strategic view of your practice? What have you done to adapt to all of these changes that you've highlighted?  

Percy Macdonald  05:11:18 

Well, it's it's leaning into the changes. It is huge. Being younger, we're starting to see a shift where there's that aging demographic of advisors in the industry, but there's not as many younger advisors coming in and lasting and running their practices. So there's some big changes that I've made to the practice since, you know, I started in 2011 became an owner of a practice in 2019 and then coming out of the pandemic, trying to rapidly change the status quo of what once was. So that meant, you know, moving all of my clients from, say, a client name account at viewer level to having nominee fee based accounts, just completely removing the perceived bias for my clients, and just leaning into that independence when you're doing that and you're taking control and you own the practice, you can make some of those changes a little quicker. So that meant leaning into the technology side. So it's having, like, constantly trying out new technology, with regards to Calendly, so my accountants can go in at any point in time, book and meeting whenever they'd like, you know, leveraging a digital office, you know, working from home at the moment. So I don't have to drive, you know, downtown Halifax or over to Bedford to my office. It makes, you know, you can get that much more back in your day. So then, by leveraging that digital practice, using all the tools, all of the portfolio management software, it's all electronic now, so you're constantly trying out new technologies and new partners just to lean into the independent side of things. 

David Kitai  05:12:50 

Now, you know, as you mentioned, you function as an entrepreneur and as a firm owner, or as a as an office owner, practice owner, but the firm also plays a key role, whether that's in compliance or it's in just the supports that you're laid out or your product shelf. So you know, how have you seen since, I guess, 2019 when you joined with CI Asante? How have you seen Asante adapt and support you in making these changes? 

Percy Macdonald  05:13:17 

Yeah. So it's very important to have a dealer that you can rely because as these compliance changes are coming down the pipe, clients are more educated, which is great. You can have more of a better conversation, but having you know a dealer that is staying up to date with all of the regulatory changes, providing the continuing education and expanding a dealer that will have a dealer on the investment side, an mga partner on the insurance side that provides the additional long term partners that you need. You know, because it's it's sometimes cost prohibitive internally within your own family practice to hire a lawyer, an accountant or charter financial analyst, but to have those partners within your dealer that are readily accessible. So if you have a client, you're going, Okay, here's the here's the challenge this client is facing, or this long term planning challenge or goal that we're trying to hit, and you can pick up the phone and say, Okay, what would you do in this scenario, relay that to the client, to our internal accountants and lawyers. So that way, I can ask my client, you know, do you have any objections to me reaching out to your tax and legal professionals with the solution that I found working with my professionals before I take that back to the client? That way, I know, once the client sees that proposal, their accountants, their lawyers, have already, you know, they're already on board and they agree with it, so it makes that planning process much better. So having a dealer that's up to date with the technology, with compliance and ahead of the game with the professional services, it adds a lot of value to your your individual practice. 

David Kitai  05:14:58 

No, that's a it's a fascinating view, and it's one that I've heard a lot of different advisors talk about in terms of industry trends, just how different the service expectations and the kind of the suite of offerings is, where once it might have been a one off, or again, as you said, kind of initially it's just in the realm of investment advice, you're now the single point of contact who clients can expect and deliver on so many different fronts, and it's interesting to hear how your firm sort of adapted to do that. But going back to the clients, right, they expect a lot from you now, but they're also, you know, they are facing some unique challenges, whether it's through demographics or their own shapes of their lives, through market movements. What are you hearing from clients? What are. Are the key challenges that you hear reoccurring in your client base, and I guess, what are you doing to help them? 

Percy Macdonald  05:15:48 

Well, it's interesting, especially where we're getting the way the market looks now. From a demographics perspective, you're seeing a lot of clients that are aging and that next even my generation, you know, in their 20s, I'll say 20s, I'm almost 40. But in the 30s, for example, they don't have, maybe, the savings that their parents did at that point in time. And so there's this big generational asset transfer from, you know, the parents that are in their 60s, 70s, 80s, into those individuals in their 20s, 30s, 40s that may not have had a big relationship with an advisor, so they didn't have a primary point of contact for financial advice. So a lot of them would lean on social media. So what, I think, what would happen with a lot of that noise with social media is anybody can go on and start an Instagram account, a YouTube account, with no financial background whatsoever. So a lot of times that clients are coming in new with ideas or things that they've seen online which may not work for them, and you have to then educate as to why that may not be the best for that individual client. So social media access to information, are some of the biggest challenges. But with that comes, Well, if everybody has an Instagram account, the first thing you see is bigger house, bigger cars. So one of the questions you get from those clients coming in is, okay, how am I doing compared to x? And one of the things you have to continue to reaffirm with your clients is, well, compared to what you don't know, what that other client's story is, what their family dynamic is, how affluent they may be, so you have to continue to bring them back in and say, Okay, well, compared to what you know, find your own story and leverage that, build your plan, execute that. 

David Kitai  05:17:41 

That keeping up with the Joneses angle is such a fascinating aspect of modern financial advice. And I think I say this is maybe as one millennial to another, but the the degree to which social media forces us to compare and forces us to think, you know, oh, why is my life not the same? Why am I not eating that steak? Why am I not, you know 

Percy Macdonald  05:18:01 

At that timee and it's the one the biggest shocker I had when starting to work in finance was the person that you would envy driving down the street in the Porsche, or the person with a large house, you're going, my goodness, they have it all. You step on this side, and all of a sudden you go, wow, they have a massive mortgage. They use every bit of their income to debt service that mortgage. Wow, that they really can't afford that car. And you see things on social media where it's, I just bought a new a new vehicle. We have the new vehicle. That's great. People are putting that up on social media. If I said, instead of buying that $80,000 truck, is that eight, you know, your Ford, f1, 5080, grand, in five years, it's gonna be worth $20,000 I couldn't imagine going to a client say, Hey, we're gonna hold this security. It's really cool. You just, you know, you just invested $80,000 come see me, in five years, will be worth 20 grand. See how you're how you're doing. And I just that social media, it's really everybody sees the positives, but nobody understands what the story is in the back. And I feel like that's a big primary education piece for clients.  

David Kitai  05:19:11 

You're making me feel pretty good about my 2013 Kia Sorento there. Percy, so thank you for. 

Percy Macdonald  05:19:17 

I don't think, well, what is it? One of my cars is 13 years old, and one of my cars is six or seven years old. They're depreciating assets. I love vehicles. I'd love to have a Porsche, 911, GT three in the driveway, but with three young kids in a house in a practice, I just That's it doesn't align with what my values are. I'd rather allocate my cash somewhere else. 

David Kitai  05:19:42 

So I mean this, this leads into an interesting point about you as a young advisor. Though, do you find that your experience when you're talking to those millennial clients, whether they're the children of your clients, part of that great wealth transfer that you mentioned, or new clients, you know, folks who are thinking, Well, my life's getting a bit more complex. I need an advisor. Can you use your own personal example and some of the choices you've made under the same circumstances, right? You've got an Instagram name that I do same as your clients do, yeah? How do you use that to kind of relate to the clients and show them there's another way to live that isn't just keeping up with the challenges? 

Percy Macdonald  05:20:15 

Well, it's yes, you have to educate them and you tell them your own story, and I think that plays a big part if they know that you're executing your own plan, whether that's putting the insurance in place. And what do you have? You know, what do the investment accounts in place? Well, what do you have? Our stories might not all always align, but it, it helps them understand what you would recommend. End and how strong your conviction is with your recommendations, if you're actually towing that same line, because you're not always going to know what the other person's story is, like we talked about. So it's it's develop your own story. So let's create your story. Let's find you know, develop a plan for you, and let's execute that. But then talking with conviction from what I'm doing in my personal life, like, yeah, no, I don't. I don't feel the need to go and buy a brand new vehicle all the time. It's depreciating asset. I'd rather set up my family and my kids long term, but to each their own. And this is why, like, there's no necessarily, it's not necessarily a bad plan, but it's having organic conversations, because every plan is going to be different depending on what people value, because you're going to find the funds for what you value, whether you value the savings, the insurance or the new car. But how do you tie that into your plan and make that work for everybody? 

David Kitai  05:21:39 

So you offer such an interesting perspective as that young advisor who is in the same weeds that your clients are, how can you take that experience and widen it out, not to not to put the progress of the industry squarely on your shoulders Percy, but, but what can you do as a young advisor who is in these weeds to move this industry forward and to make sure that it's meeting the next generation of clients, where they are? 

Percy Macdonald  05:22:05 

Well, I think as a younger advisor, you have to be on that forefront of continuing to lead with technology. There are a number of advisors across the country that are doing a great job with educating through Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, and I'm working with one of my co founder in the firm, and we're relaunching Instagram YouTube to continue to add educational videos for people that are just starting, that are kind of those millennials, gen x all the way through. So that way, you know, you're adding to that education piece, but you're doing that by leaning into the technology and constantly adapting, because if you continue to lead in your industry, you're never going to be left behind. 

David Kitai  05:22:50 

Okay, that is a beautiful note to end on. Percy, and unfortunately, that is all the time we have. So all I can really say is thank you so much for sharing your insights and sharing your story with me today. 

Percy Macdonald  05:22:59 

Oh, thanks. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. 

David Kitai  05:23:03 

And thank you as well to all of our viewers for wealth professional TV. I have been David Kitai, have a great rest of your day.