CRM2 and its Impact on the Canadian Retail Investment Industry · EquiSoft CRM2 and its mpact on the Canadian Retail nvestment ndustry 3 Foreword Change is coming to the Canadian

CRM2 and its Impact on the Canadian Retail Investment IndustryA White Paper commissioned by EquiSoft

January 2015

3EquiSoft / CRM2 and its Impact on the Canadian Retail Investment Industry /

ForewordChange is coming to the Canadian retail investment industry.

A series of new rules rolled out in three stages beginning in 2014 and continuing through until 2016 will shine a new light on fees and performance, ultimately shaking up the financial advisor’s role.

Known as CRM21, the complex rule changes will result in new cost and performance reporting requirements. Among the most significant changes are the need to provide clients with an annual report on charges and other compensation (showing how much the dealer and/or advisor has earned from clients’ investments) and an annual invest-ment performance report (including dollar-weighted rates of return) by July 15, 2016.

At EquiSoft, we are using this White Paper to build awareness of the critical issues facing our clients: advisors, dealers and the Canadian retail investment industry as a whole. The advent of CRM2 demands diligence and preparation.

This White Paper is based on a series of confidential interviews conducted with industry experts in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Participants included senior management of IIROC and MFDA dealer firms, back-office vendors, industry associations, invest-ment product manufacturers and members of the business media.

The key takeaway from this exercise is that the industry does not fully understand how its client – the Canadian investing public – will react to CRM2. Within that uncertainty, however, lies opportunity for proactive advisors, their dealers and fund companies. We trust that the insights contained in the following pages provide clarity and direction during what may be a tumultuous period in the history of the Canadian retail investment industry.

Jonathan Georges, CIM, FCSI Vice-President, Wealth Management Solutions EquiSoft

1 Client Relationship Model – phase two (CRM2) is a collection of amendments to National Instrument 31-103 introduced by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) requiring certain cost and performance disclosure to retail investment clients of MFDA and IIROC firms.

Jonathan Georges

4 / EquiSoft / CRM2 and its Impact on the Canadian Retail Investment Industry

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

The Uncertain Client 6

The Elephant in the Room 8

How Will Successful Advisors Adapt? 9

How Will Dealers Adapt? 11

Financial Planning in a Post-CRM2 World 12

Conclusions 13

WealthElements™ 14


Introduction How will the customer – the typical Canadian investor – react when the spotlight is turned on?

That is the biggest unknown facing the retail investment industry as it begins to grapple with CRM2.

Will clients take action when a litany of account charges are exposed – com-missions, transaction charges and trailing commissions? And, how will they react to the new performance measurement standards and the complexity of dollar-weighted returns versus time-weighted returns?2

Will clients “shop around”? Or will they stay put as long as “advisors are doing their jobs?”

The industry is nervous about how clients will react when fees, commis-sions and other account charges are spelled out clearly. But surprisingly,

there is less worry about the new disclosure standards for portfolio performance measurement. Some point to the robust markets of the past five years as masking any issues about performance.3

This uncertainty is exacerbated by almost general agreement that the industry will undergo both dealer consolidation and advisor attrition as a result of the new rules. Smaller dealers, faced with mounting costs from technology, compliance and advisor support – coupled with intense competition from the banking industry – will sell or simply whither away.

“CRM2 will shake up the competitive dynamic. The firms and product offering that were successful in the last five years may not be successful in the next five years. That is a big wild card,” observed a research participant.

Change will not be limited to dealers. “[Mutual fund companies] will have to figure out how to deliver more cheaply.”

There is almost unanimous agreement that bad advisors – the product salespersons chasing commissions – will exit the business. One dealer executive used the word “culling.” But this is seen largely as a demographic trend only accelerated by CRM2.

If there is agreement against this backdrop of uncertainty, mounting competitive pressures and business disruption, the agreement is that the role of the advisor will undergo fundamental change.

But how will the role of the advisor evolve?

“CRM2 will shake up the competitive dynamic.”

2 Dollar-weighted and time-weighted rates of return are two methods of measuring an investment portfolio’s performance. The results of the two methods may differ. “It will be very confusing for clients,” said a research participant. “It is amazing how many advisors don’t know the difference.”

3 As of September 30, 2014, the S&P/TSX Composite Index five-year annualized return was 8.67%. In Canadian dollars, the S&P 500 Index five-year annualized return was 16.64%.


According to the regulators, “The substance and purpose of the Amendments is to ensure that clients of all registrants receive clear and complete disclosure of all charges and registrant compensation associated with the investment products and services they receive, and meaningful reporting on how their investments perform.”4

Clear and complete disclosure. Transparency. Meaningful reporting on how investments perform. No conflicts of interest because of compensation. From a client perspective what’s not to like about CRM2?

The Uncertain ClientIt would seem a gross understatement to suggest that investors are the winners in a post-CRM2 world.

4 CSA Notice of Amendments to National Instrument 31-103, March 28, 2013.

5 Challenge and Opportunity: The Impact of the RDR on the UK’s Market for Financial Advice, Cass Business School, June 2013.

6 What does Hargreaves slide say about post-RDR advice? FT Adviser, Aug. 13, 2014.

“CRM2 represents a positive step for the industry. Once implemented it addresses the regulators’ concerns that clients are not properly informed,” is typical of the industry’s reaction.

However, it also means that smaller investors may be shut out from receiving advice altogether. Similar but stiffer regulatory changes in the United Kingdom were partially responsible for 25% of advisors exiting the business between 2011 and 2013.5

Additionally, there were estimates that up to 5.5 million UK investors were left without advisors.6

Suggested a dealer executive: “There will be far fewer people left to provide professional advice. Good professional advice will be harder for the consumer to obtain.”

Some clients may be in for a rude awakening. But not all of them.

The high-net-worth market will likely see little disruption. Most advisors serving the wealthy market have already moved to a fee-based model, which is more transparent in regard to their charges and transaction costs.

The “mass market” may well react differently. There is plenty of evidence indicating that Canadian investors are unaware of how advisors are compensated.

Two different studies, underwritten by organizations with differing business objectives, arrived at roughly the same conclusion – about 40% of investors are unaware of the fees, commissions, management expense ratios (MERs) and trailer fees that are subtracted from their portfolios. In fact, only one-third may be aware of trailer fees or trailing commissions.

The answers to the questions posed by the Investor Education Fund (IEF) and the Investment Funds Institute

“There will be far fewer people left to provide professional advice. Good profes-sional advice will be harder for the consumer to obtain.”


7 Investor Behaviour and Beliefs: Advisor Relationships and Investor Decision-Making study, Investor Education Fund. Research by Brondesbury Group, 2012.

8 Canadian Investors’ Perceptions of Mutual Funds and the Mutual Fund Industry, Investment Funds Institute of Canada. Research by Pollara, 2014.

of Canada (IFIC) may differ but they all point to a yawning communications gap as shown by the figures on this page.

Sentiment is mixed as to how clients will react, but as one interviewee put it, “The vast majority will not like trailer fees.”

Another executive fears the worst: “[Clients] will be very surprised. If they discover [for example] that they are paying $10,000 in trailer fees, they will

ask questions about the services they are receiving and most likely start shopping around.”

Others said that nothing would happen. But there was a huge caveat attached to this belief – Nothing would happen if the advisor has been doing a good job.

“If there is a good back and forth dialogue... if the advisor has been very transparent about how he is paid... what services are delivered in return for the commission... If he’s doing a good job communicating there shouldn’t be any issues. There are no risks unless the advisor is doing a poor job,” said a dealer executive.

One research participant best summed up the uncertainty about how clients will react: “We don’t fully understand how consumer behaviour will change.”

About 40% of investors are unaware of the fees, commissions, management expense ratios (MERs), and trailer fees that are subtracted from their portfolios.

66%

55%

48%

44%

40%

... are unaware of trailer fees.7

... say their advisor did not tell them how much compensa-tion they would receive for the investments they made.7

... did not discuss compensation with their advisor.8

... did not discuss MERs with their advisor.8

... did not discuss fees with their advisor.8

According to studies by IEF and IFIC, investors...


The Elephant in the RoomIn September 2014, The Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick9 asked 11 chief investment officers, portfolio managers and advisors to provide an estimate of average annual returns over the next 10 years for a portfolio based 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds.

Most of the respondents predicted that the average annual returns of such balanced portfolios would range from 5% to 6%. Asked about inflation, they provided estimates of between 1.8% and 3%. This suggests real returns (after inflation) of about 2 to 4%. These returns are before fees and taxes.

Couple these forecasts with the fact that when CRM2 is fully implemented, clients will receive new annual performance reports covering one-, three-, five-, 10-year and since inception periods and it is likely that the investment perfor-mance discussion will be front and center in the years to come.

“While many advisors fear the disclo-sure of commissions or being held to a fiduciary standard, I think performance disclosure is the national regulatory initiative that will have the greatest impact on the advice industry. Once

long-term performance is shown in percentage terms, I expect both clients and their advisors to be surprised at the low numbers,” said Dan Hallett, director of asset management, Highview Financial Group.10

The impact of market timing on performance is also worth considering. Since 1994, Dalbar Inc., a US consulting firm, has been measuring the effects of US investor decisions to buy, sell and switch into and out of mutual funds over both short and long-term timeframes.

Over a 10-year period, according to Dalbar, the average equity fund investor has achieved returns of 5.88% versus the S&P 500 index return of 7.4%. Over the same period, the average asset allocation fund investor has achieved 2.63%.11 The conclusion drawn from the study is that investors tend to underperform due to excessive trading on their accounts.

Lower market performance, market timing and added performance scrutiny may lead to lower than expected investment returns in the coming years. And, if performance numbers are low, about half of investors will equate these results with bad advice, according to research by the Investor Education Fund.12

9 Balanced is best: Never doubt long-term portfolio gains, The Globe and Mail, Oct. 17, 2014.

10 Performance reporting is advice industry’s biggest challenge, The Globe and Mail, Nov. 19, 2013. Hallett estimated that as of mid-2012, the range of investor returns was generally in the 3 to 4% per annum range over the trailing 15 years.

11 Average equity investor, average bond investor and average asset allocation investor performance results are calculated by Dalbar Inc. using data supplied by the Investment Company Institute. Investor returns are represented by the change in total mutual fund assets after excluding sales, redemptions and exchanges. This method of calculation captures realized and unrealized capital gains, dividends, interest, trading costs, sales charges, fees, expenses and any other costs. After calculating investor returns in dollar terms, two percentages are calculated for the period examined: Total investor return rate and annualized investor return rate. Total return rate is determined by calculating the investor return dollars as a percentage of the net of the sales, redemptions and exchanges for each period.

12 Investor Behaviour and Beliefs: Advisor Relationships & Decision-Making, Investor Education Fund. Research by the Brondesbury Group, 2012.

“[…] performance disclosure is the national regulatory initiative that will have the greatest impact on the advice industry.” – Dan Hallett, Highview Financial Group


How Will Successful Advisors Adapt?Many will evolve. Others will struggle to survive.

13 In the United Kingdom, “By the first day of RDR, the numbers of IFAs and tied advisors operating was 31,132, down 25% compared with the 40,566 operating in December 2011.” Challenge and Opportunity: The Impact of the RDR on the UK’s Market for Financial Advice, Cass Business School, June 2013.

14 Investor Economics, March 2014.

Older advisors who are heavily reliant on commissions and trailer fees may leave the business.13 Dual-licensed advisors may chuck their MFDA licenses and focus on selling insurance products that are currently outside the purview of CRM2. Others may forsake the funds business entirely by taking on exempt market dealership licenses and focusing on alternative investments. Small-book ($10- to $20-million) advisors may struggle to survive under the new regulatory environment.

That being said, the majority of advisors will adapt. They will evolve. They will do this by streamlining processes and becoming more proficient at using technology, cutting costs and (in some cases) fees, taking on new roles, introducing new fee structures, becoming better marketers, and offering clients new services.

STREAMLINING

“Independent advisors will have to become more systemized. They will have to figure out how to offer a similar range of services to all clients or households of the same size. There will have to be more consistency. The banks

are very good at providing systematic and consistent customer experiences,” says a MFDA dealer executive.

New processes and new systems will require the adoption of new and improved tools – financial planning, asset allocation, portfolio modelling and analytical tools and sophisticated dashboard views of consolidated client data.

Asset allocation tools, which allow for the building and presenting of portfo-lios, are “going to be huge.” “Advisors will need good asset allocation and financial planning tools,” pointed out a research participant. “And once they have them, they are going to need to use then more regularly and more consistently.”

Tools will be needed to help communi-cate the “value of advice.”

Tools will be needed to help communicate the “value of advice.”

“After CRM2, independents are going to be prepared to be led by their dealer firms,” claimed one dealer executive. “In the past, they would rail against that. The pressures are going to be so great that advisors are going to be willing to accept [dealers’] software solutions.”

NEW BUSINESS MODELS

CRM2 will accelerate the growth in the number of both MFDA and IIROC advisors whose fees are a percentage of assets under administration or management.

Fee-based businesses – both discre-tionary and non-discretionary lines of business – have already outstripped transactional business as the main source of growth for full-service brokers.14

Observed an IIROC executive: “Ten years ago transactional or commis-sion-based business was 80% of our firm’s business. Today it is probably 50:50. CRM2 will mean that shift will happen at a faster pace.”

“The transactional business will be decimated,” said another research participant, making the point more clearly still.


15 The Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) channel is the fastest growing segment in the US retail market. RIA shops are characterized as being independent, fee-based, and offering discretionary and non-discretionary management. They are not tied to proprietary product offerings.

16 Challenge and Opportunity: The Impact of the RDR on the UK’s Market for Financial Advice, Cass Business School, June 2013.

All research participants shared these sentiments. One pointed to the uncer-tainty around the future of trailer fees as a driver of this trend. Another pointed to a head office consideration: “From a head office position, there will be a huge push of the fee-based model because it creates more stability in the earnings cycle.”

The consensus is that “fee-based will be the norm in 2016.” 15

PRESSURE ON FEES

CRM2 may lead to lower fees, according to some research participants. “Bigger clients will shop around for lower costs,” said a research participant. “The CRM2 disclosures will lead to lower prices.”

But not all agreed. “At the end of the day I’m not sure clients will pay any less,” said an industry executive.

CHANGING ROLES

In the United Kingdom, since its “regulatory Big Bang in 2013,” the role of the advisor is changing from fund selector to a primary role of financial planner.16

There is consensus that the role of the Canadian advisor will change. Some see advisors morphing into relationship managers who focus on financial planning and leave the portfolio management to others through an increasing reliance on model portfolios or by “outsourcing” the investment management component.

Some advisors may give up their licenses and focus entirely on financial planning on a fee-for-plan basis, said an industry observer. The investment part will be “referred” to a portfolio manager.

NEW SERVICES

To compete with the banks, indepen-dent advisors will seek relationships with dealers that can provide banking services such as credit, credit cards, mortgages, loans and home and car insurance.

Others will look for a dealer that can provide clients with online access to their portfolios. “The MFDA world lags in providing clients self-serve function-ality,” claimed a dealer executive. “Some clients want to make trades while sitting in their pajamas at 10 p.m. They still want their advisor to review their choices. And look at the overall financial picture, tax implications and how they are tracking to the financial plan. This type of functionality will help attract a different demographic and help independent dealers compete with banks.”

MARKETING

“Advisors need to do a better job promoting themselves. Clients need to understand what they are getting. Most advisors are doing what they have to do – they just aren’t promoting themselves in the right way. One of the services we are focussing on is marketing and branding,” said an MFDA executive. “Help advisors market themselves. Make sure they have a written service offer. Make sure the client knows what the advisor can do for them so they don’t shop around.”

“Advisors will need good asset allocation and financial planning tools. And once they have them, they are going to need to use then more regularly and more consistently.”


How Will Dealers Adapt?Canada’s MFDA and IIROC dealers will need to up their game. Or, face extinction.

To stay in the game and meet the communication requirements of CRM2 important changes to technology are required.

For example, dealer considerations may include the accuracy and volume capacity of dollar-weighted rates of return calculation engines and the need to integrate these engines with other systems. Not to mention all the new statement and performance report delivery considerations.

“There is one risk [related to CRM2] and it involves technology,” said a research participant. “Clients will be receiving valuable information in the new account statements and performance reports. But if there are any data glitches anywhere in the chain between the fund companies, the dealer and the advisor there will be unhappy clients.”

From a distribution perspective, the technology requirements of CRM2 are not a big deal, said another research participant. “Rates of return, perfor-mance reporting – we already do that. It is just a function of putting it on the statement in the correct format.”

That’s the first part of the dealer challenge.

The second is advisor retention. This is a key issue for dealers. Assuming the technology issues are properly addressed, the next challenge will be supporting advisors as they deal with the challenges of CRM2. In other words, providing advisors the tools to commu-nicate to their clients the value of their services ahead of the fee and perfor-mance disclosures.

“Advisors will need to provide more services so clients won’t leave,” said an executive. “To get those services, advisors will rely on their dealers. If the dealer does not provide what is required, the advisor will start to look around.”

“We need to automate the administra-tive portion of the business as much as possible,” explained another partici-pant. “Instead of shuffling paper, the advisor can spend quality time in front of the client.”

Technology will play a large role in the retention of advisors – comprehensive client dashboards, document imaging, electronic direct deposits, electronic signatures and software tools. “The big challenge is, ‘How do we train the advisors to use tools in their business processes?’”, offered one of the research participants. This trend has already

started. “Advisors are moving around for better technology, compliance support and marketing support.”

Some dealers may not be able to cope with the dual challenges of technology and advisor support. Some research participants see the MFDA dealership market shrinking from 110 to 80 firms. “Many dealers are on the market to be sold as we speak,” says said a research participant.

However, for some firms, the disruption caused by CRM2 will be an opportunity. “If we do the job correctly, implement in the right way in respect to our competitors, that will be an advantage in attracting advisors,” suggested a research participant. “Advisors who want to be compliant and want good quality and professional account statements and performance reports. Obviously, that will be a differentiator.”

“Advisors will need to provide more services so clients won’t leave. To get those services, advisors will rely on their dealers.”


Financial Planning in a Post-CRM2 WorldDedication to financial planning and its components – asset allocation, tax planning, estate planning, retirement planning, household budgeting, debt and risk management – will become the foundation of the successful advisor’s relationship with clients, post-CRM2.

“Financial planning is starting to become the basis of the client relation-ship,” said a dealer executive.

Not only will financial planning be the foundation of the client relationship but adherence to financial planning principles will help build ongoing client communication. The proper and ongoing use of financial planning tools will allow advisors to not only develop plans but monitor progress against those plans, providing a critical point of contact with their clients.

Furthermore, it will be a differentiator. “Financial planning will increase in importance. Advisors with a financial planning component will have an advantage over others,” said a research participant. Added another: “There will be a lot fewer people in the industry because a lot of advisors can’t provide these services.”

Firms are jumping into the fray. “We are focusing on developing our financial- planning capability,” said an MFDA dealer executive. “As clients age, finan - cial planning takes on more impor-tance. We are using financial planning as a retention tool and to differentiate ourselves from competitors.”

“Just managing the portfolio is not enough,” claimed one industry observer. “There need to be other services such as estate planning and retirement planning.”

The challenge for advisors and dealers will be to find the right tools to allow advisors to implement a systematic and scalable process for the vast majority of their client base while also addressing the more complex needs of a smaller percentage of their book.

“Financial planning will increase in importance. Advisors with a financial planning component will have an advantage over others.”

However, financial planning services won’t be a panacea, according to this research participant: “[They] may help advisors build a uniform process for interacting with clients, [but] to survive, advisors will have to reduce costs and put systems and processes in place to help them achieve that goal.”


ConclusionsAt least 40% of all investment clients may be unaware of the costs of investment advice. And about half of clients may equate low performance with bad advice. Take this cocktail of uncertainty and throw in a new measure of performance that even advisors may have trouble understanding and you get a very uncertain future.

In the short term, the potential exists for the Canadian retail industry to be thrown into turmoil by clients’ initial reactions to the fees and costs they pay and the performance of their portfolios.

For successful advisors and the dealer firms that serve them, the antidote to uncertainty lies with advisors being advisors. In the short term, that will require proactive and sustained client communication and education around fees and performance. In the long term, it will mean that adherence to sound and basic financial planning tactics will become the foundation of a more holistic approach to advice.

Costs will be required to be driven down at all levels. This will affect advisors, dealers, manufacturers and other service providers to the industry.

The successful adoption of new workflow and client relationship technologies will be critical.

There will be a move to fee-based structures – allowing a simpler, more transparent, client-focused approach to advice.

Dealers will be challenged to provide additional support to advisors. Advisors will have to learn to use this support.

None of this is new but CRM2 will accelerate these trends.

Challenges will remain. How will the Canadian retail investment industry continue to serve the small investor? Where will tomorrow’s advisors come from? A combination of regulatory hurdles, a lack of on-the-job training and the new compensation structures

may make it difficult for young people to enter the business. Will there be a rise of new direct-to-consumer channels that disrupt both the independent advisor and bank branch channels?17

Ironically, as markets become increas-ingly efficient and the regulations that govern them become increasingly stringent, the need for advice will only grow. Those who succeed in this new environment will do so by demonstrat-ing respect – respect for both the evolving regulatory environment and their clients.

17 In the United Kingdom, an estimated 6.5 million private investors invest online. Hargreaves Lansdowne and Fidelity are two of the best known direct to consumer (D2C) providers. In the United States, wealthfront.com is an example of a “robo-advisor.” Clients pay 0.25% of invested assets above $10,000 to access a suite of model portfolios constructed using ETFs. Launched in December 2011, clients deposited $10 million from iPhones in the first three months. Today, the online startup has more than $1 billion in assets under management. To counter this trend, financial powerhouses Fidelity and Schwab are planning “robo-advisor” launches in 2015.


WealthElements™ is a suite of investment, insurance and financial planning tools designed to help advisors manage every element of their clients’ wealth. Configurable and customizable to a dealer’s specific needs, the web-based software can also be integrated with back- and front-office systems in an effort to streamline advisor processes.

Introduced by Equisoft in 1994, WealthElements is currently leveraged by thousands of advisors across Canada and around the world as a critical element of their business processes.

Jonathan Georges, Vice-President, Wealth Management Solutions at EquiSoft was interviewed regarding the role of WealthElements in the post-CRM2 world. His thoughts are outlined below.

Q: How does WealthElements help communicate the value of advice?

JG: By integrating WealthElements into their practice, the advisor instantly adds documented support for an important part of the overall value they offer. For example, WealthElements helps advisors easily add the following items to their value proposition:

• Assessment of client’s current financial situation;• Determining client goals and constraints;• Portfolio asset allocation and holdings selection;• Systematic portfolio review;• Retirement planning;• Education planning; and• Insurance needs analysis.

Q: How does WealthElements help streamline an advisor’s business?

JG: Part of our efforts to help streamline an advisor’s business include: client data imports through back- and front-office integrations, aggregation of a broad range

of investment product data and a simple, advisor friendly user interface. These features help minimize the amount of time required to prepare each plan, allowing advisors to scale the wealth planning aspect of their practice.

Q: Does WealthElements help an advisor become more productive?

JG: Yes. Advisors often tell us that WealthElements’ systematic and scalable approach to wealth planning, makes their practice much more efficient and it frees them up to spend more time with clients and prospects.

Q: Educating clients on portfolio performance ex - pectations will be key to survival in a post-CRM2 world. Is there a role for WealthElements in meeting this challenge?

JG: Absolutely. WealthElements offers a vast array of asset allocation and portfolio metrics to help advisors set appropriate performance expectations. For example, for current and recommended portfolios, advisors can easily show their clients the best and worst returns over various time periods, how frequently they should expect positive and negative returns for their portfolios and how individual holdings contribute to the portfo-lio’s overall return and volatility.


Q: Is WealthElements an asset allocation tool?

JG: Of course. One of the platform’s key modules is the Asset Allocation Analyst. This module offers a simple portfolio construction and analytics process that helps the advisor determine an appropriate asset allocation given the investor’s risk tolerance, select appropriate portfolio holdings and support the recommendation using many different analytics.

Q: Does the advisor require extensive training to maximize the use of WealthElements?

JG: No. Over the past 20 years we have worked hard to optimize the advisor’s WealthElements user-experi-ence. Part of these efforts includes the design of a very user-friendly and intuitive navigation. Most of the advisors using WealthElements have never opened a user manual. When advisors do need guidance they can use the “help” option available on every screen or contact one of our Product Specialists for more information. We also offer regularly scheduled webinars to demonstrate all the functionality available to our clients.

Q: Can WealthElements help with client communications?

JG: WealthElements’ industry-leading plans are an excellent communications tool. The plan the advisor presents to their client or prospect clearly defines their objectives and the strategy that will be used to reach those objectives. The plan can also include a “Roles and Responsibilities” page where the advisor and client can sign-off on the agreed upon strategy, putting everyone on the same page regarding expectations.

Q: What is the role of WealthElements in building a strong dealer-advisor relationship?

JG: While many advisors wish to remain “independent”, regulatory changes like CRM2 are making advisors look to their dealerships for guidance and support. By offering an important tool like WealthElements, dealers demonstrate their commitment to supporting their advisors, whatever challenges are thrown their way.

Have questions? Please contact Jonathan Georges, Vice-President,

Wealth Management Solutions at (888) 989-3141 x 201 or

[email protected]

Powered by

EquiSoft specializes in the design and development of digital business solutions for the financial and insurance industries. To find out more about our products, custom solutions or our expertise on demand, please visit our website: www.EquiSoft.com.

Documents

CRM2 and its Impact on the Canadian Retail Investment Industry · EquiSoft CRM2 and its mpact on the Canadian Retail nvestment ndustry 3 Foreword Change is coming to the Canadian