Practice leader explains what it takes to bring in a new generation of advisors on a massive scale
The ‘meet our team’ section of Diligence Wealth Management’s website seems to go on forever. Scrolling down the roster of advisors in that practice will take you through 169 names and faces. The team has a few portfolio and associate portfolio managers, twenty-six senior investment advisors, eleven investment advisor assistants, and about 130 investment advisors. The team, headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, runs on a massive scale. They’re growing, too.
Thierry Jabbour is one of the practice leads at Diligence Wealth Management. He is a portfolio manager registered with Manulife Wealth Inc., and a financial security advisor with Manulife Wealth Insurance Services Inc. He explained that this year, his practice is set to recruit new advisors in their hundreds. Jabbour outlined what that kind of recruitment and training entails. He outlined how this much recruitment plays a critical role in addressing Canada’s shifting demographic landscape by proactively developing and mentoring the next generation of qualified professionals who will be equipped to meet the evolving financial needs of the Canadian population and emphasized that this approach to practice management requires massive effort and commitment on the part of everyone involved.
“There’s a huge need for proper financial advice, and we love to train these recruits. To put them on the right path,” Jabbour says. “We want to make sure they’re going to learn this profession from every possible angle, to get a global picture, not just a narrow-minded view. We try, as much as we can, to open their minds and make them experts at different aspects of the business.”
Jabbour explains that his practice is very much planning-first, and that the training these young recruits and new graduates get is designed to both meet core licensing requirements and equip them for the more nuanced and multifaceted aspects of financial planning work. Starting as assistants and junior associates, these recruits shadow more senior and established advisors in meetings, providing administrative, outreach, and record keeping support as they learn how the business is run. They get to learn firsthand under the supervision of a more senior mentor.
Jabbour acknowledges that he’s running a business, not a school, but he argues that if the right expectations are set then a large cohort of new recruits is expected to gain enough knowledge and expertise to serve a bigger base of clients and add as much value as possible to more Canadians. Those recruits are expected to bring in new business and their success grows the AUM of their own individual practice. The formula is relatively simple, but requires a degree of oversights and vigilance to see where recruits are succeeding and where they aren’t.
Even as these recruits bring in new business, the client relationships are owned by the more senior and established advisors on the team until these recruits get to a senior level and acquire all the necessary knowledge and skills to service their clients. That’s part of the model because some turnover is inevitable when you recruit large cohorts of young people. Some may not succeed, others may realize that this career isn’t for them. That’s all to be expected. Tying the client relationship to a more senior advisor, therefore, ensures that clients aren’t left adrift when the young associate who brought them in decides they’re going to switch careers.
The success of this practice model, Jabbour says, is drawing in even more recruits than before. In service to that demand for roles and the growth his team wants to achieve he notes that the practice is opening a new office in Toronto, with other provincial offices in their targets as well.
This huge influx of recruits helps Diligence manage two looming demographic issues for the industry: the generational wealth transfer and the succession crisis. By constantly bringing in fresh new advisors, they can recruit younger clients and inheritor generations of families. At the same time, they can naturally plan successions for their own senior advisors if and when those professionals choose to retire.
Maintaining and training such a huge influx of recruits takes dedication on the part of those recruits and the established members of the Diligence team. The practice offers broad ‘holistic wealth management,’ but Jabbour wants his team to truly deliver on that promise, not just pay lip service to it. That requires intense attention to detail, relationships with experts and referral partners, and senior advisors who can model this behaviour to the new recruits. While Diligence casts a wide net in their recruitment, they look for individuals who are hardworking, coachable, show attention to detail, and commitment to improvement. While the nature of this model is straightforward to articulate, Jabbour says it’s incredibly difficult to execute well.
“To build this model, it’s extremely hard. It has to come from the roots, and if you don’t believe in it from A to Z, it’s not going to work,” Jabbour says. “There are a lot of people who would get to a certain stage in their practice and take it easy, go for a balanced life – it is their business and there is nothing wrong in it. Each advisor decides how far to grow his or her practice. On the other hand, Leaders need to stay committed. From top to bottom, our team is aligned around a culture of integrity, discipline, and excellence — holding ourselves to the highest standards in serving our clients.”
