Head of the firm’s Private Client Group outlines what follows after “defining year.”
Where do you go when you’ve crossed a milestone? That’s the question now facing Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management after the dealer broke through $50 billion in assets last year. It’s a moment that Matt Cicci describes as “defining,” a single achievement produced by years of dedication and hard choices, of growth through market exposure, through client attraction, and through advisor acquisition. The question for Cicci, Head of the Private Client Group at CG, is where his firm goes from here.
Cicci’s answer is rooted more in the evolving needs of clients than it is in a specified growth target. While he insists that there is “no finish line” for the firm, he sees the future of CG in serving an increasingly sophisticated client set.
“Clients have never been as sophisticated as they are today,” Cicci says. “They have become incredibly literate, they understand now that professional wealth management has become table stakes. Now they want plans to understand where they are and how they’re going to get where they want to get to. They want security and they want a trusted relationship with a team or a business that is going to last.”
Those client expectations now extend well beyond the confines of investment management, Cicci explains. Financial planning, legacy planning, philanthropic giving, insurance and estate needs, all of that is now part of the package expected by ideal clients. That expectation, Cicci says, is part of why clients across North America are trimming the number of financial services providers they work with, shifting from a model where many professionals know a little bit about different aspects of their lives, to one where a few professionals have a complete picture of their lives. CG’s goal, Cicci says, is to be the firm that client stay with as they trim back on their work with other service providers.
To achieve that goal, CG is focused on advisory teams. Cicci explains that by supporting advisors in expanding their service offering, they become more of that one-stop shop that clients say they want. Building that offering means tapping into firm resources and specialists in key areas like estate and financial planning. It also means continuing education among existing advisors, be that on the technicalities of life insurance or the intricacies of practice management.
Investment management still sits at the centre of what CG expects their advisors to provide. In a period where news volatility and market headlines can grab attention and swing emotions, Cicci insists that their advisors’ approach to investment management must be built on a foundation of trust. When advisors can understand how their clients feel about risk and how they would be impacted by market volatility, they can manage investments accordingly. Moreover, they can be that trusted voice of calm capable of showing their clients that for all the difficulties highlighted by the news, markets usually find a way to recover.
CG’s focus on teams as businesses drives their support for advisor incorporation. Cicci explains that, in the firm’s view, incorporation will allow advisors to build their practices into businesses that can outlast their own careers. They can add redundancies and broaden their service offerings to clients. It can also help with the recruitment of a new generation of advisors, building a cohort that will be absolutely necessary as both baby boomer advisors and their baby boomer clients continue to retire.
While incorporation is still not an option for many advisors, CG has front-run that trend with a push towards bigger and more robust teams. Now, looking at 2026 and beyond, the firm has one-year and five-year plans aimed at driving further growth. Some of that, Cicci says, will come from the acquisition of advisors from other firms who see the same need for bigger teams and more sophisticated service. Those advisors, Cicci says, may see the same opportunity for growth that CG sees in the marketplace: solving for the needs and expectations of modern clients.
“In our Canadian wealth businesses, we are 100% driven by exceeding our clients' expectations. And we point to those that have joined us from outside, and the high quality businesses that have grown here from the get go,” Cicci says. “It's built to serve clients. It's built to enable advisors. And we're very, very proud of what's been built here. We're incredibly proud of the people that work here. And we're enormously grateful to clients that have entrusted us, and we're not going to stop.”
