Canada life wants to build “the best place in Canada for an entrepreneurial advisor”
How Canada life wants to ‘remove friction’
Technology underpins much of the investment that Shewchuk says his firm is making to build the platform they want. They’re planning to roll out a new workflow integration into advisor desktops, followed by a new digital onboarding process, a new client portal, and a new client app. All these tools, he says, will reduce the number of times information has to be re-keyed and free up time for advisors.
Shewchuk says that increased client expectations, regulatory requirements, and operating costs have all created more friction for advisors. The new IPC Wealth brands as dealers will try to remove as much friction as possible, while giving different platforms for advisors in mutual funds, securities, or discretionary portfolio management.
Insurance is another area where Shewchuk sees competitive advantage. He notes that with one of the major LifeCos as a parent company, these wealth platforms can access more transparent tools that bridge wealth advice and insurance advice.
Growth goals and service to advisors
Canada Life has identified entrepreneurial independent advisors as their core base, a business model which Shewchuk says represents between 14 and 16 per cent of wealth assets in Canada. Those advisors face risks and challenges around succession, however, with a large cohort of baby boomer advisors set to retire without a younger cohort of advisors able to pick up the slack.
IPC’s succession model, Shewchuk says, includes firm acquisition of smaller clients to allow advisors to better focus their practice on high net worth and ultra high net worth clients. It also includes the facilitation of more peer-to-peer transactions that can help them move books from retiring advisors to younger successors. The firm also has a program wherein advisors can sell their books directly to the firm and retire while IPC fills the gaps of client service.
