Growing Your Financial Advisory Practice | Insights for Financial Advisors, Planners and Investment Managers

Eight years ago, it would have been nearly impossible to imagine the incredible impact fintech would have on the financial services industry today. And even now, we’re just scratching the surface of what this industry can become in the future. 

In a change of pace, today’s episode is an introduction to one of our favourite podcasts: Fintech Impact. You’ll hear host Jason Pereira interview Tea Nicola, CEO of Wealthbar, and our own Pawel Brzeminski, CEO of Snap Projections.

The Fintech Impact Podcast is hosted by Jason Pereira who explores the fintech space and interviews its major players — both incumbents and newcomers. Whether they’re trying to make existing finance players more efficient or looking to disrupt the industry altogether, this show explores their impact on consumers and the industry as a whole.

Listen in to hear about Wealthbar’s acquisition of Snap Projections, what that relationship will look like going forward, and Tea and Pawel’s shared vision for how fintech can impact the industry — and the lives of average Canadians.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Links and Resources:

Wealthbar

Tea Nicola

Snap Projections

Pawel Brzeminski

Fintech Impact

Jason Pereira

 Quotes from the Episode:

“It just made sense to basically own software that is going to eventually become what I want to see, which is a vision for a full practice management platform for an independent financial advisor.” — Tea Nicola 

“This is technology that’s gonna enable you, not threaten you.” — Jason Pereira

“In a lot of cases, it actually takes an advisor to make adjustments. I don’t think we can really have a fully automated tool that can provide the best solution for every single case.” — Pawel Brzeminski

With their shared goal of transforming the financial services industry in Canada and making the lives of both advisors and consumers easier, Tea and Pawel’s recent partnership is a match made in heaven. Today, they’re opening up about what that vision is, how it brought them together, and the impact they hope to have on Canadians.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

Picture a busy mom walking into her home carrying bags of groceries. As she sets them down, she gets a notification on her phone. Maybe her TFSA contribution limit just increased, or RESP season has started.

With one button, she can react to the notification without a second thought. Or, if she wants support making a decision, she can easily get in touch with a real-life advisor who can talk her through next steps.

That’s Tea’s vision for what Wealthbar can be for the average Canadian consumer.

It’s a guided, one-stop-shop for Canadian consumers for everything to do with investing, planning, insurance, mortgages, lines of credit and so on. Most actions can be routine, so users barely even have to think about what they need to do — they can trust that the software’s suggestion makes sense for them. And if they need further support, a human advisor is there to act as their quarterback.

You might be wondering where exactly this kind of automated system leaves financial advisors. Does it devalue the hard work many have put into their careers? Is it a cheap mimic of the skills advisors and wealth managers have developed over many years?

From Pawel and Tea’s perspective, robo-advisors do just the opposite: they let you manage your time more effectively by taking care of your rote tasks — the administration, much of the research and portfolio management. These tasks, which often take a lot of time, are not the true value-add that an advisor offers clients.

If you’re like one of the many advisors we’ve spoken to and worked with over the years, the part of your job that you love and value the most is the actual relationship with your clients: the advice you can give them when they’re stuck, or making sure their financial plan makes sense not only in terms of the numbers but also in terms of what they seek to get out of life.

This is also doubtlessly what your clients appreciate most about working with you. And if you can spend less time on the dreary routine tasks and more on your clients, think about the impact you can have on their lives.

Luckily, the rote tasks are the exact things that a robo-advisor lets you outsource to automation. It’s just about making more room for you to provide what technology can never replace: the human touch.

For instance, with today’s robo-advisor and planning software, you can generate a pretty solid financial plan and a solid investment strategy. But as Pawel explains, “in a lot of cases, it actually takes an advisor to make adjustments. I don’t really think we can really have a fully automated tool that can provide the best solution for every single case.”

With the time-consuming heavy-lifting out of the way, you can focus on tailoring the plan for your clients to take their plans to the next level. That human aspect — the qualitative details, the behavioural coaching — can’t be replaced by any machine.

As Jason summarizes, “this is technology that’s gonna enable you, not threaten you.”

If Tea had one wish, she would love to see financial literacy among average Canadians increase tenfold.

Currently, Canada scores at about a C-minus for financial literacy. But this is a worldwide problem — sadly, we’re among the most financially literate countries in the world. But as Tea says, “being the best of the worst is still not good.”

For Tea, this lack of financial literacy is not just bad for Canadians — ignorance is actually her biggest competitor. When people don’t know any better, they buy into media sensationalism and fads, believing the hype about the shiny new thing.

If average Canadians knew enough about finance, Tea feels they would realize why they need a product like Wealthbar in their lives. They would see the value of a good financial plan, and they would love to see it better integrated into their lives.

To hear more of Tea and Pawel’s conversation with Jason, and their shared vision for the future of financial services, listen to the full episode right here on this page. You can also find us and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

It’s one thing for the general public to misunderstand what financial advisors do or be mistaken about important principles of personal finance. But what about financial advisors? What myths and misconceptions do you believe that might be holding you back from giving your clients the best advice? That’s what today’s guest is here to talk about.

John De Goey is a Portfolio Manager with Wellington-Altus Private Wealth. He has built a national reputation as a trusted authority on professional, transparent and evidence-based financial advice. He’s written for publications including Canadian MoneySaver, MoneySense and The Globe and Mail, and appeared on television programs like CBC’s MarketPlace, News World and BNN’s Market Call. He’s the author of The Professional Financial Advisor, now in its fourth edition, and STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry, released last year.

In today’s episode, he’ll discuss misconceptions commonly held by financial advisors, why advisors might hold these misconceptions, and what you should believe instead. Listen in to hear more about John’s work, research and advice for advisors and investors.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Links and Resources: 

Standup Advisors

STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry: Protecting Yourself From Well-Intended But Oblivious Advisors

Email John

Quotes by John De Goey:

“There are a lot of advisors that should be part of the solution, want to be part of the solution, but the really ugly secret that a lot of people in the industry don’t want to come to terms with is that there are many advisors that are themselves part of the problem.” 

“Any advisor who is worth his or her salt would do very well to understand that where the rubber hits the road is in the behaviour that they help to enforce or disabuse their clients of.”

“This is perhaps the only industry in the world that I’ve ever found where the low-cost products are the best products.”

We’re so thrilled that for the fiftieth episode of Growing Your Financial Advisory Practice Podcast, John De Gooey is back on the show to celebrate with us. If you missed his first episode, it was all about determining the key assumptions you should use when developing financial projections. Today, we’re looking at the opposite topic: John is here to bust the myths and misconceptions you may have as a financial advisor — myths that could be holding you, and your clients, back.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

A lot of advisors tend to act like the cost of products is immaterial. But in fact, cost makes up a full half of the value proposition, the other half being the benefit. When you change the cost of a product, you actually change its value.

Cost is also one of the most reliable determiners of a product’s performance — it’s inversely correlated to product’s performance. Consistently, lower-cost products perform the best over time. But many advisors either don’t realize this or ignore this fact.

This might be because with most things in life, you get what you pay for. A good quality suit or vehicle, over time, deliver far more value than a cheap version.

But when it comes to investing, as Vanguard founder John Bogle used to say, “you get what you don’t pay for.” The more a product costs, the more it eats into your return and the lower your return is expected to be. So, in what might be the only exception in the world, the low-cost products are actually the highest quality products.

This fact is more relevant than ever — in a world economy in which returns are significantly lower than they used to be even just 30 years ago, this information becomes all the more important to apply.

For most of his career, John focused on other advisors, working to get them to challenge their assumptions and rethink the advice they give. The whole time, even through releasing four editions of his book, The Professional Financial Advisor, he’s felt ignored and overlooked inside of his industry.

Now, he’s turned his attention to investors. His newest book, STANDUP to the Financial Services Industry is written for clients, and he wants to show them how their advisor may be part of the problem.

While he’s careful to clarify that advisors’ intentions are generally very good — most people don’t go to work every day with the desire to hurt people — the results of poor financial advice can be harmful.

John encourages investors to take the following three steps in ensuring their advisor is using evidence-based practices in their advising:

There are two things keeping investors from holding their advisors accountable: not having the tools and knowledge to do so, and being too accepting of unsatisfying answers. John’s helping cover the first piece — the latter is up to each individual to combat on their own.

If there’s one area John wants advisors to focus on, it’s beliefs around behavioural economics and behavioural finance.

More and more, the emerging evidence reveals that investor behaviour is probably the most important factor of financial wellbeing, yet most advisors don’t pay much attention to it, seeing their role too firmly in the investment side of things.

John explains it like this: “When you ask a typical advisor what he or she does for a living, many of them will say, ‘Well I recommend products and I help my clients save taxes,’ and whatever. But some of the more enlightened ones will go a little bit further and say ‘I help my clients by engaging in behavioural coaching.’”

If you can help clients invest in the right registered account or save just $100 more every month, you can have a major impact on their life.

Hint: This sometimes means disappointing your client by correcting their misguided beliefs: rather than just facilitating what it is they want, challenge their assumptions and give them advice about what will actually help them in the long term.

One major part of investor behaviour that you should be focusing on is implementing the plan that you put together. You spend so much time and effort doing the proper diagnostics, suggesting great solutions, and coming up with the perfect plan, but none of that helps the client if they don’t actually put anything into action.

A plan that doesn’t get updated or used isn’t worth anything. So along with actually updating plans on an ongoing basis, helping clients implement solutions should be a major focus of financial advising.

To hear more of John’s advice, listen to the full episode where he explores various financial advising myths in depth, speculates as to why advisors hold these beliefs — and explains why that’s actually the wrong question altogether. You can find the show right here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

What unique financial planning challenges do individuals face when they live full- or part-time in the US but have Canadian citizenship (or vice versa?) How can you help clients who straddle two countries? And more to the point – should you always be the one to help them? Today’s guest is diving in deep to help you understand the pertinent issues around cross-border financial advising.

Terry Ritchie is a Partner and Director of Cross-Border Wealth Services for Cardinal Point, with offices in Toronto, Calgary, Irvine, Phoenix, and Boca Raton. He is a Registered Financial Planner in Canada and is enrolled to practice before the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as an Enrolled Agent. Terry is also a Trust and Estate Practitioner affiliated with the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He has been practicing cross-border financial, investment, tax and estate planning for more than 30 years. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

 Links and Resources: 

Cardinal Point

Email Terry

Quotes by Terry Ritchie: 

“I can quantify the numbers that you might be better off from a tax perspective in that jurisdiction or country versus this one. But really at the end of the day, it’s truly around lifestyle. Where are they going to be happiest?”

“It’s just the nature of the business. Markets go up and down... Tax laws change. Family dynamics change.”

“Advisors have a right to say no,” he says. “There has to be a fit – on both sides.”

Terry’s firm, Cardinal Point, offers a total solution to individuals who have Canadian and American financial matters – snowbirds, those who have dependants in one country while living in the other, and those who move between the two countries. And as someone who has financial matters in both countries himself, he has unique insights into what it takes to plan for people like him.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

If you were paying attention to social media around the 2016 American election, you probably would have heard Americans who were dissatisfied with or worried about the results and saying that they would be moving to Canada. However, that flood of Americans moving to Canada hasn’t panned out.

It turns out that tax talk doesn’t much affect people’s decisions about where to live, either.

“I can quantify the numbers that you might be better off from a tax perspective in that jurisdiction or country versus this one,” says Terry. “But really at the end of the day, it’s truly around lifestyle.” It’s about where they see themselves living and where they will be the happiest.

Healthcare is often a big factor, but family is the biggest reason for people choosing to live in one place over another. Terry has had clients go through many of the steps required to permanently move to the United States… until a grandchild in Canada came along and changed all of their plans.

It’s important to know all of the factors going into a move or change of citizenship, but people rarely act purely in their financial best interest – and that’s ok.

The biggest mistake Terry sees financial planners making in the area of cross-border planning is… well, taking it on at all. If they’re not well-versed in it, that is.

If it’s not your niche, the truth is that you probably don’t have the skills needed to do cross-border planning effectively. And it’s not subject matter that you can just brush up on in a weekend seminar and be ready to go.

If one thing is clear from Terry’s advice, it’s that cross-border planning is very complex. From limitations on holding investment accounts depending on where an individual resides or has citizenship to multiple sets of tax laws to immigration… there is a lot of liability for the client, for you, and for your firm.

Not to mention that all of these laws change from year to year, and just keeping up with the updates and knowing how they’ll affect clients is almost a full-time job in itself.

If you don’t have the background to take on a certain aspect – or even the entirety – of your client’s planning, there’s nothing wrong with bringing someone else in or referring them to someone who can offer them the services and experience they need most. Yes, it can be hard to let go of the AUM (and the pay that comes with it…), but, put simply, “if you don’t know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

Hint: If you’re looking for advice on working with other financial professionals, listen back to the show with Cindy Radu, where she discusses bridging the gap to work effectively with other advisors.

Terry really wants you to take away that you don’t have to do everything for every client.

At the beginning of your career, it’s easy to feel like you have to take on any client and do whatever they ask you to do, even if it’s not within your preferred niche.

But, says Terry, “advisors have a right to say no. There has to be a fit – on both sides.”

It’s definitely not worth it to take on people you call tell are jerks – they’re only going to cause you trouble down the road. Work with nice people so that you look forward to meeting with them and putting in the work for them. You’ll not only be happier – you’ll likely do a better job for them, too.

This goes for your niche, too. If you know what niche you want to serve (and Terry recommends having one), don’t feel like you need to work for clients who aren’t a good fit for that niche. Your time is valuable, so the time you put into your business should be spent building your expertise in a particular area, not catering to anyone who comes along.

Terry’s firm has this very well defined: they only offer full-service solutions, not individual services. If someone’s just looking to get some tax advice, they’re not the right fit.  “We’re not for everybody, but for those people that we can serve, we try to do a really, really good job.”Defining guidelines

In addition to working with good people on work you want to do, make sure you’re clear for the beginning on what the relationship is and what kind of work you will or won’t do. Setting up clear boundaries is the best way to avoid uncomfortable situations in the future.

For more helpful advice from Terry, make sure you catch the full episode where he talks about the ins and outs of the tax, estate planning, and immigration considerations that can affect financial planning. You can find the show right here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

It’s one thing to build up your own practice. But as we approach the end of the year, we’re taking a step back to look at what it takes to build an entire profession. Today’s guest is here to show us what the financial planning industry can become at its best.

Jason Pereira is a Senior Financial Consultant with Woodgate Financial Inc and IPC Securities Corp. He is one of Canada's most respected authorities on financial planning, the financial industry, and financial technology. He’s been awarded 7 industry designations including the CFA, CFP, and RFP. He has won and been named a finalist for several industry awards, and he is the only 3-time winner of the PlanPlus Global Financial Planning Awards. 

Jason is also the leader of a growing group of financial advisors seeking to improve financial planning, both for advisors and consumers. As the president of the newly launched Financial Planning Association of Canada (FPAC), he’s here to talk about his hopes for the future of financial planning in this country.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

Links and Resources:

Financial Planning Association of Canada

FPCA Charter

Email Jason

Woodgate Financial Inc

 Quotes by Jason Pereira: 

“This is a coming together of like-minded individuals who want to see the professionalization of planning in Canada, and to basically move this industry and this country forward.”

“We’re trying to create the member body that basically is going to push for active change.”

“We’re not going to be able to build the industry up if we don’t provide the resources to do that.”

You might remember Jason from an earlier episode of the show (and if you didn’t, do take the time to hear his advice for competing – and winning – in the Canadian HNW segment). However, today’s show is a little different as we’ll be hearing from Jason about his passion project of transforming financial planning from a sales-based industry to a robust profession in Canada.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

Jason and others started FPAC out of frustration with the status quo of financial planning in Canada. He was seeing that worldwide, among established and even many developing markets, Canada is far behind in terms of its financial planning infrastructure.

While there are many planners who want to see the landscape improve, there hasn’t been a committed yet accessible members’ association that can use the strength of numbers to push for real change.

As Jason puts it, “this is a coming together of like-minded individuals who want to see the professionalization of planning in Canada, and to basically move this industry and this country forward.” This means pushing for regulatory, technology, tax and legal changes to build out an ecosystem supportive of a strong financial planning profession.

Looking at other countries and different industries, Jason and others outlined an end state for what the industry should look like. They broke that ideal down into three main goals.

This is the cornerstone of professionalization. Most consumers just assume that financial planners have a legal obligation to act in their best interest – but that’s not the case. There are certainly organizations that ask or require their members to act in clients’ best interests, but the legal weight doesn’t back the requirement up.

To be a member of FPAC, you must pledge from the first day that you will act as a fiduciary. FPAC is also calling for a legal fiduciary standard for anyone calling themselves a financial planner.

Speaking of which, right now in most provinces anyone can call themselves a financial planner – the term doesn’t really mean anything. The result is that the level of service and competence can vary wildly. 

FPAC wants the term financial planner to mean something. They also want there to be no question that anyone carrying a CFP or RFP can provide sound financial planning.

Too many advisors operate on unproven heuristics, assumptions, and rules of thumb. FPAC wants advisors to operate based on evidence.

Are you recommending an investment portfolio? Make sure you have a solid risk tolerance questionnaire to back it up. If you’re advising on insurance, you have to have a solid needs analysis, and so on.

On the surface, belonging to FPAC might sound like signing up to follow a lot of rules. But Jason is committed to building up the resources planners need to help them reach the required standards. “We’re not going to be able to build the industry up if we don’t provide the resources to do that,” he explains.

While they’ve only just launched the association, they will be rolling out major initiatives to help planners improve their practices.

FPAC is creating a wiki of best practices that will act as a guide on how to run your practice from start to finish. While anyone can edit it, there will also be curators to help create definitive guidelines and suggestions and ensure the content doesn’t become outdated.

Jason sees this as a hybrid between an academic journal and a concept library. It will include how-tos on everything planning-related, all backed by evidence and research. For example, if you’re executing an individual pension plan, there will be a definitive article on what that is, where it fits into a financial plan, how to implement it, who to go to and what tools you can use.

You can think of it as a one-stop repository for how to actually plan for your clients.

They will also create an online forum for members to participate in. This will work to build a community of members who can help one another raise the bar for financial planning in Canada.

Jason has been hearing from colleagues across the country for years that there’s not a great structure for financial planners to offer financial planning services pro bono. As a result, they want to build a pro bono community to connect financial planners with communities that most need their help.

Jason’s vision is that as consumers start to learn about FPAC, they will demand its standards of their own financial planners. Consumers want to be able to trust their financial professionals, and they will seek out those who are demonstratively working for them.

If you want to learn more about FPAC, be sure to listen to the full episode and check out the FPAC charter. And come back in two weeks for more great financial planning advice from experts like Jason.

You can find the show right here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

Family businesses inevitably come with complex scenarios for a financial advisor to sort through. But the biggest complications may not be what you expect: the emotional aspect of family, business, and money is often the foremost concern when beginning conversations around business transitions. Today’s guest brings a rock-solid technical background and soft skills that helps her see the full picture and help families navigate the wealth transition landscape.

Cindy Radu is a family wealth transition advisor. She works with individuals, family enterprises, business owners and family offices to maneuver the complexities and opportunities of multi-generational wealth. Cindy has over 25 years of legal, fiduciary, trust and governance experience, giving her a bird’s eye view of the many issues families can face.

Listen to the episode to hear how Cindy frames wealth, family enterprise, and success in a way that helps her clients handle the complicated financial and emotional factors involved in transitioning family wealth.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

Links and Resources: 

Cindy Radu

Cindy on LinkedIn

Email Cindy

Quotes by Cindy Radu:

“Way too many families are willing to stake everything they work so hard for on basically a hope and a prayer that everything is going to turn out alright.”

“Referrals from clients are frankly the strongest possible referrals that you can get.”

“I’ve been successful in my practice because I’m able to bridge those emotional and technical aspects of the wealth planning and transition.”

Cindy has been a Chartered Accountant and estate planning lawyer, and she’s also worked with large financial institutions. And yet all of her work has had one common goal: helping families through transitions. Today, she shares her experience to reframe the conversation around family wealth transitions.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

There are nearly 900,000 family businesses in Canada. Together they contribute to over 60% of GDP, employ over 6 million people, and donate annually $1.5 billion to charity.

However, successful wealth transition from the first generation of a family business to the next only has a 30% chance of success. Worse yet, the chance of a second generation transitioning their wealth to the third generation is a measly 10%.

So where does this failure come from? If you look at what most financial professionals focus on, you’d think that tax and financial planning problems are the major issue. However, together these only contribute to about 3% of transition failures.

Here’s how the other 97% breaks down:

These numbers are a stark wake-up call to anyone who believes that financial planning is all about the numbers. That’s why Cindy focuses most of her time on bringing multiple generations of a family to the table and helping them find common ground.

Hint: You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle, which states that 20% of activities generate 80% of results. In this case, think of the amazing results you could have just by getting two or even three generations of a family discussing their plans together!

The difference between a family business and a family enterprise amounts to a critical difference in how Cindy helps families.

A family business is exactly what most people think it is: a business owned and run by a family. They vary in scope, from your local corner store to McCain, but they’re all considered family businesses.

A family enterprise, on the other hand, includes the family business as well as all the other elements that make up a family’s financial situation: real estate, art collections, investment portfolios, registered investments, insurance products and so on.

Traditionally, we break these things out, with different experts taking on different asset classes. And that makes sense because each area is itself rather complicated. But when they just work in a silo at different points in time, the family enterprise as a whole gets forgotten.

Without really knowing how all the pieces fit together, it’s impossible to get a clear picture of the family as a whole. That’s why a major aspect of Cindy’s work is liaising with different financial specialists and making sure everything fits together in a way that helps – not hurts – the family members themselves.

Hint: For more on working effectively with other professionals, listen to our interview with Jamie Robb.

What wealth and wealth management really mean

When asked about how Cindy approaches wealth management, she pointed out that everyone has a different definition of what it means. And in most cases, the definition is far too limited – usually just involving investment management.

Cindy has been trying to shift the meaning of capital beyond just the financial – though that part matters, too. “This term of wealth management for me,” she says, “really is a very, very broad term that encompasses all of the financial, social, human, and intellectual capital that a family has, all tied up in a bow around a shared dream of where that family wants to get.”

So when Cindy works with a family on wealth transition, she’s always keeping in mind all of these pieces – not just the family business, not just the family enterprise, but the family members themselves, too.

To hear more from her on how she works successfully with teams of advisors and specialists, why you need to be honest about your blindspots and what post-mortem exercises can reveal, make sure you listen to the full episode. You can find the show right here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

Everyone says they put their clients’ best interests first, but what’s the best way to set yourself up for success in this regard? By introducing portfolio management companies into his business model, today’s guest has structured a financial advisory practice that allows him to focus on his clients first.

Peter Cishecki started Everything Financial Group in 1996 after working for many years at one of Canada’s leading insurance companies. He has created an all-in-one financial experience for his clients where he built trusted, long-term relationships by providing complete financial strategies and solutions for financial peace of mind.

Listen to the episode to hear about how Peter came to work with portfolio management companies on a referral basis and how it’s affected his business. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

Links and Resources:

Everything Financial Group 

Quotes by Peter Cishecki: 

“When I can get people to change their outlook on life and start to enjoy their money while they’re young and healthy, that’s huge satisfaction.”

“If you’re going to collect a fee, do something for the person.”

“Truly look yourself in the mirror every day and say ‘What am I gonna do today to make a client’s life better?’”

In late 2010, Peter noticed he was already running his practice like a portfolio management company – offering six different model portfolios and spending all his time on administrative work. He realized that by working with an actual portfolio management company, he could let other professionals handle that work while focusing his efforts on what he really wanted to do: building financial plans.

Since making the switch, his practice has grown by at least 500%, and his entire office culture has changed into less of a team and more of a family.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

Peter realized that working with a portfolio management company came with enormous benefits for his clients. Here are the four main benefits:

Legally speaking, portfolio management companies are the only true fiduciaries within the Canadian financial services industry. Their responsibility is to the client, never to the advisor, so the client can rest assured that their best interests are always being considered.

Portfolio management companies provide active management of portfolios – someone is working daily to ensure the client is reaching their goals and nothing is going off the rails. Imagine trying to do all that by yourself.

Portfolio management companies provide 100% transparency and disclosure on the fees they charge.

Hint: This one can be tricky because a client who is used to working with a mutual fund salesperson, for instance, likely doesn’t realize the fees they were paying before because they weren’t being disclosed. Learn about properly articulating the value of financial advice in our previous episode with John Page.

Additionally, unlike commissions, management fees on non-registered investments are 100% tax-deductible, so clients are already saving money before the market even does its work.

Personalized portfolios

Portfolios are designed for the financial plan and not the other way around, meaning that a client’s portfolio is perfectly suited to their situation. For example, if according to the plan the client only needs a 4% return to stay on track and meet all their goals, there’s no point in having a portfolio that chases a 7% return. This results in less risk and volatility, which in turn means the plan is more accurate and realistic.

Ego

Some advisors think they can do a better job than a portfolio management company. In truth, they can’t possibly succeed at advising clients, creating great financial plans and managing portfolios better than a company with hundreds of staff whose job it is to actively monitor and manage portfolios.

Money

Earning a deferred sales commission is easy and quick. A referral fee from a portfolio management company, on the other hand, may not end up in your bank account for up to a year and a half after you start working with a client. A lot of advisors aren’t willing to give up on that comfort by changing their business – and compensation – structure.

Lack of knowledge

In the end, Peter believes that most advisors just don’t realize the opportunity exists. For example, they think there are regulatory barriers, or that portfolio management is only for their wealthiest clients – not the case at all!

One objection financial advisors may have to working with a portfolio management company on a referral basis is that it feels wrong to earn the referral fee (usually around 1% of AUM) when it seems that the company is the one doing the work.

In short – does Peter ever worry that he’s not delivering enough value to justify his pay?

Not at all, he says, because the value he does deliver is clear to him and his clients.

Sure, it would be wrong to just earn a referral fee and then do nothing else for the client. Simply put, “If you’re going to collect a fee, do something for the person.”

And since Peter outsourced all the administrative work behind portfolio management to someone else, he’s had far more time to actually do things for his clients. His firm offers its own Omni Formula financial plans, a proprietary system that has undergone significant revision (and still gets tweaked once in a while). They update the plans annually to make sure they’re still meeting clients’ needs.

For clients over $2 million, they also provide some legal and tax services to make sure those clients get their money’s worth.

Peter – and perhaps more importantly, Peter’s clients – are confident in the value he provides them.

For more helpful advice from Peter, make sure you catch the full episode where he talks about his fee structure, how his work culture changed after transitioning to this business model and more. You can find the show right here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

When growing your book of business, you can either build it from scratch yourself or join up with another advisor and purchase their practice. Today’s guest is most experienced in the latter, and he’s here to share the insights, benefits, and perils of buying (and selling) your business.

Brad Amlin has put in more than 17 years in the financial services business. His primary area of expertise is financial, estate and tax planning, focusing on strategies that include the use of life insurance and investment vehicles. He works with both business owners and high net worth individuals.

Brad has also been through numerous business transitions, both as the advisor buying practices and, more recently, as the one selling his own business. Listen in to hear how Brad built a $30 million AUM business to $150 million – and why he decided to sell.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

Links and Resources: 

Email Brad

Cornwall Wealth Management

The Personal Coach 

Quotes by Brad Amlin: 

“Success really revolves around the continuity of who the client’s dealing with.”

“Even if you do want to, over time, rebrand the company, I think maintaining the brand… for a specified period of time post-transition really helps the continuity and maintains that client.”

“I find the challenge to be maintaining confidence and maintaining that ‘up’ feeling in an environment that seems to be rapidly shifting through regulatory change.”

While Brad started his financial services career working for a bank, he’s since had quite the career building and buying financial advisory businesses; at its peak, his practice had $150 million AUM. In his mid-forties, he decided it was time to sell his business to another advisor and get back to what he loves best: time and working directly with clients.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

Now that he’s sold his business and no longer needs to worry about strategy and operations quite as much, Brad has the freedom to be more picky about which clients he wants to work with. There are two characteristics he looks at first when choosing which clients he wants to keep working with.

Brad now works just with the clients who listen to what he has to say and are willing to put in the work to put his advice into practice. While some consumers just shop around until they find an advisor who will tell them what they want to hear, Brad likes working with people who are ready to hear the truth and act on it.

Brad most enjoys working with clients who are within his age group. He finds that clients in their forties and fifties see retirement looming and are therefore more motivated to take advice. As well, they’re just at a similar point in their lives as he is, and it makes it that much easier to relate to one another.

In his experience going through numerous business transitions, Brad has found that maintaining the client experience is the most important. As he puts it, “success really revolves around the continuity of who the client’s dealing with.”

For this reason, when talking to his clients, he positioned his recent business sale as a strategic alliance. He’s not broadcasting to them that he sold equity in the business – they don’t need to know all that. While the logo may be different, all they care about is that they now have more offerings and people available to help them than they did before.

In time, the advisor who bought Brad’s business may make further changes. But letting clients adjust to the transition and see that nothing drastic has shifted in the level of service is key to keeping the relationships running smoothly.

Hint: For more on keeping your clients happy while navigating transitions in your business, listen to our episode with Jim Greenwood. Jim shares the two most important values that he’s keeping at the forefront while helping another advisor transition out of the industry.

Having gone through several business transitions now – on both ends of the deal – Brad has seen his fair share of challenges coming up. Here are the biggest three, along with the solutions that helped him overcome them.

When you build a book of business from the ground up, you have the chance to pick clients who see eye to eye with you, and the clients can grow with you as you develop your practice. When buying a book of business, however, it’s hard to know whether the clients will be a good fit.

Luckily, Brad foresaw this potential problem when he bought his first business, and he avoided it proactively. He and the senior advisor agreed to a one-year trial where Brad would work under the advisor and get to know the clients and the business. When it came time to buy the practice, Brad was sure it was a good fit. He had also begun noticing ways he could grow the business, so when he took over, he was ready to hit the ground running.

One major challenge Brad experienced was working with the financial advisor whose business he first bought. While Brad had been expecting a mentor to show him the ropes in the first several months of working together, it turned out that the other advisor was too busy to spend much time with Brad at all – he was essentially left to his own devices and felt like he was floundering for several months.

Brad’s firm hired a business coach (The Personal Coach) – someone he could be accountable to and who could help build his confidence in the business. Together, they created a value proposition, wrote scripts that Brad could use, roleplayed different scenarios and brainstormed how he could reach out to prospects. It was exactly what he’d been missing from his senior advisor.

This one’s more related to running a financial advising practice in general – Brad has found that it can be a very lonely business. When you’re the one running everything yourself, it’s easy to second-guess yourself and question every decision. Brad still beats himself up any time a client leaves his practice (and it does inevitably happen to everyone). This uncertainty can lead to loneliness – you’re the only one who knows what it’s like to be in your shoes.

Brad’s best advice is to work with a senior advisor. While it’s true that he didn’t get the mentorship he had hoped for when he worked with a more experienced advisor, he still recommends it to others. Find someone to teach you about the industry – and, just as importantly, someone who knows what it’s like to be new to the business.

You’ll definitely want to hear about Brad’s unique experience in the industry in his own words – as well as his keys to a smooth business transition and why his practice has both MFDA and IIROC advisors. You can find the show here on this page or better yet, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes.

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

You’re an expert in your field, but what do you do when you come across a planning situation that’s out of your depth? Today’s guest works with advisors and their clients to create better financial and retirement plans.

Yvonne Martin-Morrison is a financial planner with Raymond James Ltd.’s Retirement and Financial Planning Group. In 2019, she was the winner of the PlanPlus Global Financial Planning Award for Canada. She provides planning services, advice, and tax intelligence for Raymond James advisors and their clients. Her work also involves creating educational materials, presentations, and publications to empower advisors and help them better serve their clients.

Listen to the episode to find out what Yvonne has to say about her no-nonsense approach to financial planning, her principles of good financial planning, and how to approach decumulation. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

 Links and Resources:

Raymond James

 Quotes by Yvonne Martin-Morrison:

“It’s very important that I avoid getting lost in the details right at the beginning.”

“What is the point of planning if you’re not implementing the strategies and solutions?”

“When we get those outputs and those software results, that allow me to really dig into analysis. And I think that’s one of the challenges for a lot of advisors is they think an output is the end. For me, that’s the beginning.”

Yvonne has been through it all as a financial advisor – from her uncertain rookie years to taking on some of the most complex situations in the business. Now, she steps in to help other advisors create integrated and comprehensive financial and retirement plans for their clients.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas that Yvonne has to share in this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

Yvonne approaches working with advisors the same way you probably approach working with your clients. She asks them about where they are at in their planning, how they’ve been doing, what’s been working for them, and what their frustrations are.

Because she works with so many different advisors (and their clients), it’s important for her not to get bogged down in minutiae. She wants to get right to the heart of their issue so that she’s not wasting anyone’s time.

Advisors are often a bit cautious when bringing on an external expert like Yvonne to help them. And that makes sense – you probably feel the same way if you start recommending a new accountant or lawyer to clients. When you’re ultimately responsible for your client’s financial well-being, you want to make sure that the person coming in is the expert they claim to be and that they will impact your relationship with the client positively.

To earn their trust, Yvonne works hard to establish open communication and clear expectations. She’s been where they are, so she respects the fact that they are running their own business. She gets that they know their clients better than she does, so she seeks to understand their situation. She shows that she knows what she’s talking about and that she’s really there to help.

Her ultimate goal isn’t to make them the perfect advisor; her goal is progress. She works with them and empowers them to help them be a little bit better tomorrow, the day after that, and the day after that.

Planning is such an important part of financial well-being, but a lot of clients are reluctant to do it. So how can you convince them of the value of planning when they’re not interested?

Yvonne shares how you can overcome two main objections.

Often, clients have had some financial planning experience, but it didn’t go well or wasn’t useful for whatever reason.

This is a reasonable objection. There’s experience behind it, and it’s your job to find out why it exists. You need to dig in and listen to what they’ve shared with you.

What has been their experience? What was the result? Where did their frustration with planning come from?

Once you understand why they didn’t like financial planning before, you can show them how their experience with you will be different – what you’re going to do that will be new to them and how it will help them.

It sure is! But, as Yvonne puts it, “anything worth doing is going to have a level of difficulty and challenge.” This is especially true when they’re trying something new for the first time. The great thing about planning is that it does get easier with time – let them know that the work they need to put in upfront will lessen, and they’ll start to see benefits that will more than make up for their initial effort.

Hint: One great tool that Yvonne loves to use to show clients the value of planning is storytelling. If you can tell someone, “I have a client like you who had similar concerns” and share with them what results they were able to achieve, they’ll be able to visualize what you’re telling them in a much more visceral way.

When Yvonne works with advisors, they often ask her for basic rules they can follow to get the best results every time.

Of course, planning doesn’t really work with rules. You can pretty much expect that any assumptions you make will be a bit off, and projections never come to be exactly as expected.

That’s why Yvonne likes to share basic principles – not rules or formulas – that she encourages advisors to work off of. Here are some of her favourites:

Hint: There’s a lot of misconception out there that the CPP is always in danger of failing; while this was true in the 90s, it’s just not the case anymore. It now has guaranteed benefits for the next 70 years, as well as huge protections.

Hint: Are you looking for more advice from retirement planning experts? Listen to Episode 11: The Art and Science of Retirement Income Planning with Howard Dixon.

Yvonne has a lot of wisdom to share about financial and retirement planning, so don’t miss the full episode where she shares her detailed planning process, how she uses software to aid in her financial planning and more. You can find the show right here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

Helping people succeed financially isn’t about dollars and cents or numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s really about uncovering and understanding where clients are in life and how they’re feeling about it. Today’s guest runs a practice that helps his clients uncover their goals and find smarter ways to achieve them.

Mark Shimkovitz has been providing financial planning advice and managing investment portfolios for 25 years. He works together with his wife Robin, a life coach, to take a life-first approach to financial planning. This approach allows him to build personalized financial plans and investment strategies.

Listen to the episode to hear what life-first financial planning is, what it was like for Mark to start an independent practice after over twenty years working for banks and why he’s excited about giving back.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

Links and Resources: 

Mark Shimkovitz

Living Richer Podcast

 Quotes by Mark Shimkovitz: 

“I’m very clear, in fact, in saying that you know when you’re hiring me, the investment management component is only one slice, and it’s not a very large slice.”

“We need to be able to articulate and demonstrate why we deserve to be paid more than, you know, 30 or 40 basis points that could perhaps be attributable to the investment management.”

“Let’s really look at the big picture. Let’s look at what’s really most important to you. Those should be your benchmarks for measuring success.”

With plenty of experience working for banks and now running his own financial practice, Mark has figured out a lot about what works in financial planning – and what doesn’t. He has a clear philosophy and strategy for his own business, so it makes sense that’s exactly what he helps his clients with in their own lives.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

Mark’s life-first approach means he has come up with a custom three-step planning process that he uses with clients. He calls it the 3D process: discover, design, and deploy.

Financial discovery is obviously a crucial part of providing good financial advice. And Mark goes deep into it with clients: where are they now? Where do they want to be? What financial obligations are likely to come up in their lives? When do they want to retire and what does that look like to them?

But for Mark, the financial side is the easy part of discovery. First, he needs to understand where clients are at emotionally. How do they feel about where they are today? What gets them up in the morning? What keeps them up at night?

He wants to understand their goals so that he can truly provide life-first advice. If he doesn’t know what they want out of life, it’s hard to know what financial strategies make sense for them.

Hint: This deep-dive into clients’ goals is a great way to separate yourself from what the big banks offer. For more on this topic, listen to Episode 23: How to Differentiate Your Independent Practice from the Big Banks with Chris Rawles and Spencer Tilley.

Next, Mark looks at what needs to be done to get clients from where they are to where they want to be. He looks at all aspects – the savings strategy, the estate planning, tax strategy and so on.

Of course, no one wants to be given a huge list of things they need to do. That’s why Mark also prioritizes the steps so that it’s clear where the focus needs to be. He shows clients what they need to do now and what they’ll want to address later on but don’t need to worry about just yet.

Deploy

Deployment is pretty self-evident – it’s putting the plan into action. As assets start to come in, Mark begins working with clients on their investments and savings strategy. He also brings in his office’s internal experts to review wills and powers of attorney to make sure all their bases are covered.

Have you ever seen clients balk when you bring up budgeting? It makes sense. Budgets are tough to build accurately, they can feel restrictive and they’re about as easy to stick with as a fad diet (so… not easy at all).

A lot of people think about budgeting as subtracting expenses from income to figure out what they should be saving – but does it ever really work that way?

Instead, Mark frames budgeting as “spending money with purpose.” Rather than mindlessly letting money go where it goes, he encourages clients to be intentional about the way they use it.

And yes, the first step is knowing how much money is coming in, followed by figuring out the non-negotiable expenses. But to Mark, one of those non-negotiable expenses is paying your future self.

This is part of his “pay yourself first” strategy. It means having a really strong “why” – a meaningful reason for putting the money away. As long as the goal is clear and stronger than in-the-moment impulses, budgeting works well.

Often, people will get excited about a budget that they can see truly aligns with their most important goals. But after a while, they won’t necessarily stick to it.

That’s where Robin’s side of the business – the life coaching – comes in. She helps clients understand why they might have trouble sticking with a budget, why they might want to work on their behaviour and how they can do it.

Hint: You may not have a life coach working with you, but the takeaway here is that a budget isn’t a one-and-done kind of deal. It’s a recursive process that requires a lot of reinforcement to help clients remember what that budget is helping them accomplish.

Mark finds that people often conflate wealth management and investment management. But they’re not the same thing – the first is just one component of the latter.

For example, if a client is saving $1000 a month in their RRSP and Mark helps them find a way to save an extra $100 a month, he’s just helped their retirement savings grow by 10% – a huge gain. On the other hand, trying to shave four or five basis points on an ETF or negotiating down a small fee isn’t going to have nearly the same effect.

Wealth management to Mark means taking a step back to look at the whole picture and identify what’s really important to the client – and what’s going to have the biggest impact on getting them there.

To hear more advice from Mark, including a break-down of his investment strategy, what he suggests to new advisors and more, make sure you catch the full episode. You can find the show here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.

Most people know that divorce can take a financial toll. So what’s the best way for clients to protect their assets during a divorce? And more importantly, how can you help your clients plan for the future given their new financial reality?

Today’s guest will answer these questions and more. Debbie Hartzman is a financial advisor, holding CFP, CLU, CDFA (Certified Divorce Financial Analyst), TEP and CEA designations. She’s also an author and a national expert on helping individuals undergoing separation or divorce proceedings. Listen in to hear what she has to say about becoming an advisor, understanding the nuances of working with divorcing or separating couples, and the benefits of using a financial advisor during separation or divorce. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

Links and Resources: 

Hartzman and Associates

To order Debbie’s book, Divorce isn’t Easy, But it Can be Fair, contact her through her website above. 

Quotes by Debbie Hartzman: 

“If I’m going to be in this business, I’m going to be that bus driver. I’m going to be the coordinate between the lawyer, between the accountant, and the client so that there’s somebody watching the big picture and helping the client make good financial decisions.”

“That’s where my value comes in. It’s being able to help them understand how that’s going to impact them not today, not tomorrow, but in ten or fifteen years down the road.”

“I wouldn’t be a good planner if I didn’t plan for myself. So my plan for myself was: I love this business, I love giving back, I love helping people, but I also want to do it on my terms instead of the business running me.”

Now approaching a quarter-century in the business, Debbie has (literally) written the book on having a divorce that is fair and ensures long-term financial stability. Coming from a legal background, she understands how to work with lawyers to help clients make the most of marital separation.

Below, we’re sharing three key ideas from this episode:

For the rest of the episode, find the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or hit the link above.

It’s well understood that when going through a separation or divorce, it’s important to have lawyers helping you through the process. However, while lawyers have expertise in the legal system, they have blind spots and lack that financial expertise. Here are some of the ways Debbie helps clients navigate divorce in a way that a lawyer alone can’t:

Lawyers negotiate on behalf of their clients, but it’s still up to the client to decide what they want out of the divorce and what the lawyers should be trying to achieve.

Debbie helps clients figure out what they need and can expect in the first place. Often, a client will become fixated on one thing – keeping the house so there’s less upheaval for the kids, for example, or trying to punish their spouse financially for their infidelity. Debbie helps them have a broader look at what will benefit them financially, emotions aside.

For the most part, that broader look means looking at the person’s financial future. The lawyer’s job is to come to a settlement; it’s not to make sure that their client is financially set for the future.

Debbie can look at a client’s situation and help them see how certain decisions will affect them for the rest of their lives – taxes, cashflow, everything. “That’s where my value comes in,” she explains. “It’s being able to help them understand how that’s going to impact them not today, not tomorrow, but in ten or fifteen years down the road.”

As a financial services professional, Debbie is the best person to prepare documents to help complete a financial disclosure for the client. She knows what to look for better than a lawyer.

She also helps clients save money in the process. “If we do all the grunt work in advance, we get all the documentation set up properly and we bring it to the point where we can hand it to the lawyer as a package, that cuts out a whole bunch of hours and a whole bunch of back and forth between the lawyers.”

Hint: For advice on building business relationships with lawyers, accountants, and other professionals, listen to Episode 34: A Value-First Approach for Working Effectively with Clients (and Other Professionals) with Jamie Robb.

A lot of past guests on this podcast have talked about how financial planning is similar to counselling in many ways. But Debbie doesn’t see it that way.

She feels that the last thing clients want is to be paying you to talk through how they arrived in this position.

Instead, she finds it important to be laser-focused on the business aspect of the relationship and to put everything else aside. Yes, someone going through a separation is experiencing a lot of emotional turmoil. And if their partner hurt or cheated on them, they may feel that they deserve more out of the divorce. Or they might be accustomed to a certain lifestyle and expect that they can maintain it moving forward.

But in the end, a judge is going to be looking at what is fairest for both parties regardless of who hurt who in the marriage. And there’s nothing you can do to change that.

That’s why you must help clients manage their expectations, both around what they will be entitled to and what they can expect their lifestyle to be after assets are split. To do that, you need to understand what’s reasonable from a legal perspective.

Rather than letting them waste time fighting for a result that legally speaking isn’t possible, you need to help them be realistic and move forward with what is achievable.

Hint: If you don’t feel like you understand the separation process enough to help your clients through it, that’s ok! It’s better to refer them to someone who does than to risk giving them bad (or even illegal) advice.

Narrowing down into a specialty as a financial planner is one of the best ways to grow your business. However, Debbie cautions against trying to specialize in divorce too early in your career. In her experience, a new advisor isn’t going to be ready to specialize in such a complex area right off the bat.

First, she recommends getting your CFP and focusing on gaining experience and building knowledge. Debbie herself has spoken to people going through divorces, worked with mental health professionals and attended seminars – anything to give her a better ability to help her clients. When it comes to divorce and separation, you also need to be well-versed in tax and the legal process.

The legal piece is especially important as there are very specific limits on what you can and can’t advise on. The last thing you would want is to be accused of practicing law without a license and being unable to defend what you’ve advised.

Just as importantly, Debbie says you need a rock-solid process that is scalable and repeatable.

From the very beginning, you should be putting processes in place that will allow you to help the clientele you want to serve while having the lifestyle you want. This isn’t something you can create right away and coast on for the rest of your career – it takes time to learn from experience and create the balance that works for you.

Make sure you catch the full episode to hear about Debbie’s full process for helping clients through separations and divorce. You can find the show right here on this page or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any episodes. 

And to get new episodes directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below.