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DNY59 / ISTOCKPHOTO
Dealer firms build on momentum
Advisor satisfaction jumped,
pushing average IE rating to a 10-year high
Heading into March, pan- demic-related fears and criti- cisms cropped up.
“I had a client complain about the market because of corona- virus. [Their] account was actually up but [they] just complained because of what [they] had seen on the news,” says an advisor in the Prairies with Oakville, Ont.- based Manulife Securities.
Other advisors were con- cerned about their remote-work- ing tools and the general support firms were offering at that time: one advisor in Ontario from Winnipeg-based IG Wealth Management said their mobile access “went down and I needed to get in touch with clients, espe- cially looking at the market and the virus,” while an advisor from Calgary-based Portfolio
Strategies Corp. wanted more materials to send clients. (See story on page 33.)
Nonetheless, when asked to reflect on the past 12 months, advisors looked on the bright side even after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic.
The best-performing and most important categories remained “firm’s ethics” and “freedom to make objective product choices.” Both were rated 9.3 for performance, up slightly from a year ago, and were rated higher for importance (9.8 and 9.7, respectively, up from 9.6). This suggests firms must stay focused on both areas.
Case in point: “I get no pres- sure [to sell] anything,” says an advisor in Atlantic Canada from Toronto-based Assante Wealth
Management (Canada) Ltd. The firm tied for highest-rated dealer in both the ethics and prod- uct freedom categories with Mississauga, Ont.-based Carte Wealth Management Inc.
Ethics, says one Carte Wealth advisor, is a “very important part of their culture.” Multiple advis- ors added that, while they’re required to conduct due dili- gence when choosing products, they have “total freedom.”
At Portfolio Strategies, which was rated third-highest in the ethics and product freedom cat- egories, sentiment was mixed. “We’ve had some fundamen- tal disagreements on things like load [mutual funds], which [I] don’t use,” says a Portfolio
> TURN TO ADVISORS / PAGE 28
n BY KATIE KEIR
from the upbeat outcome
of this year’s Investment Executive Dealers’ Report Card, you wouldn’t know that a global pandemic is rocking the econ- omy. Eight of the nine companies included in the main results had improved IE ratings (the average of all of a dealer’s category rat- ings), while the ninth kept the same rating year-over-year.
More importantly, the aver- age IE rating (8.2, up from 7.9 a year ago) hit a 10-year high. Only 10 category performance ratings
across all companies dropped significantly year-over-year (by half a point or more), compared with 45 a year ago. Meanwhile, 72 performance ratings rose signifi- cantly year-over-year, up from 39 in 2019.
Business growth contributed to financial advisors’ rosy out- looks: respondents, who were polled from February 18 to April 3, reported an average book value of $70.1 million, up from $48.6 mil- lion a year ago and $38.4 million in 2018. (See story on page 31.)
Offer your clients exceptional digital investment services
Industry leading Wealth Management solutions for independent investment dealerships and insurance MGAs.
JUNE 2020
PAGES 27-33 INSIDE THIS SECTION
BUILDING MOMENTUM 27
Following positive 2019 results,
most dealers in this year’s Report Card once again saw improvement.
THE CHART 30
The ratings for nine dealers in this year’s Report Card.
CUSHIONING THE BLOW 31
Our analysis of advisor trends before and after Covid-19 began to spread domestically.
TWEAKING TECHNOLOGY 32
Dealers are investing in digital offerings to support advisors and clients.
DOES REPUTATION MATTER? 32
Advisors want independence but also support from strong dealers.
CRISIS SUPPORT 33
The pandemic has affected the investment industry, and firms are responding.
RESEARCH BY Emily Fox,
James Gaughan, Surina Nath, Swikar Oli RESEARCH EDITOR Katie Keir
broadridge.com/winfund