Blaine Shewchuk outlines how the new amalgamation of IPC and Quadrus into IPC Wealth gets the parent firm closer to their goal
Canada life moved closer to a fully amalgamated wealth arm this week with the merger of its two mutual fund dealing arms. IPC Investment Corporation and Quadrus Investment Services Ltd. were brought together into one dealer named IPC Wealth Inc. in a deal that takes effect today. This follows CIRO’s approval in July of a merger between two investment dealing arms of the insurance company: IPC Securities Corporation and Canada Life Securities Ltd. officially registered as IPC Securities Corporation but also operating under the IPC Wealth brand, though it remains distinct from the newly amalgamated mutual fund dealers.
Blaine Shewchuk, Executive Vice President of Wealth and Advice at Canada Life, says that these decisions all serve a wider goal of building “the best place in Canada for an entrepreneurial advisor to build a great business.” He outlined how he hopes to achieve that goal, noting that this new amalgamation gives Canada Life and IPC Wealth a better means of addressing some of the systemic and macro challenges that financial advisors face today.
“The advice industry continues to evolve and it’s moving at an amazing pace. Our advisors, like most advisors, are facing rising client expectations. Our advisors are facing rising regulatory requirements, including, you know, upcoming total cost reporting. We’re also in the midst of an amazing intergenerational wealth transfer that’s occurring, you know, over $1 trillion moving from the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers to Gen X to Millennials and Millennials and their children. And then clearly the role of AI and technology is, is we’re feeling it from, from our clients,” Shewchuk says. “so this is, in our view, the right time for Canada Life to invest in a wealth platform in Canada before these pressures become barriers to our advisors’ growth.”
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.
Shewchuk says that under the new more unified IPC Wealth dealer models, Canada Life can be of better service to independent advisors, a cohort he expressed pride in being able to serve.
“I look at these independent advisors as more than advisors. I look at them as entrepreneurs. I look at them as business builders,” Shewchuk says. “They are helping Canadians navigate the most difficult decisions of their lives, from retirement to business transition to family challenges through market uncertainty. They’re there through all those moments. I’m really proud to be associated with those advisors.”
