A select group of financial advisors from the Greater Toronto Area will see their client base expand temporarily to include low-income Torontonians as a result of their voluntary involvement in the new MPower Money Coaching Program.
The program, which launched in Toronto on Wednesday and is currently in a pilot phase, will connect professional advisors with low-income individuals who need assistance with planning and achieving their personal financial goals. This could include tasks such as setting up a bank account, creating a budget and help with income taxes.
“This pilot project is really about democratizing the value of advice,” said Carol Lynde, president and chief operating officer with Toronto-based Bridgehouse Asset Managers at the launch event. “It’s about helping those with fewer resources access the benefits of one-on-one help with their finances through a financial coaching model.”
Of the 95 advisors who applied to be a part of the program, 15 were chosen to act as financial coaches to 30 low-income clients who are required to commit to monthly meetings for five months. A second round of the program, which will include an increased number of advisors and clients, will begin this autumn, said Ana Fremont, program officer with Prosper Canada, a Toronto-based non-profit organization that develops and promotes financial programs and resources to financially vulnerable Canadians. The organization is also involved in this program.
Although the initiative is in its pilot phase, advisors will work with these new clients for five months and meetings will take place at City of Toronto Employment Centres. This is because the program is a partnership between Toronto’s municipal government, a consortium of investment firms and financial services sector associations, and Prosper Canada. Participants at the launch event lauded the collaboration between these three sectors.
“MPower Money Coaching is exactly the kind of collaboration that I would like to see as a role model for others between the public, private and non-profit sectors,” said Jane Rooney, Canada’s financial literacy leader charged with implementing the federal government’s financial literacy strategy.
Inspiration for the program began when Lynde attended an industry conference in the U.S. in 2013 at which she learned of a pro bono financial coaching program that was supported by several U.S. investment firms. She wanted to know if there was a similar program in Canada but was unable to find one. In turn, Lynde began discussions with Elizabeth Mulholland, CEO of Prosper Canada, and various Canadian investment firms and financial services sector associations to establish such a program.
“It didn’t take long to get a number of firms interested in this,” Lynde said.
One of those firms was Toronto-based Dynamic Funds, which is a financial sponsor of the program. Jordy Chilcott, the firm’s president and CEO, noted the potential benefits to low-income clients and the advisors: “A lot of [advisors] want to do this. They just don’t know how.”
Lynde agreed with Chilcott, saying that the program’s structure, in which training and a client relationship management system are provided to advisors, makes it easy for advisors to give back to the community.
“All advisors have to do is bring their skill set into play,” she said. “They don’t have to worry about logistics.”
One advisor who is taking advantage of the opportunity to give back is Ann Josephs, an a advisor with Sun Life Financial (Canada) Inc. in Brampton, Ont., who can relate to the experiences of low-income individuals.
“I was once a low-income person and if I can make it, so can [these clients],” Josephs said.
Colin Barry, an advisor with Canfin Financial Group Inc. Oakville, Ont., sees this program as another way to apply his skills and support the community, which is why he initially wanted to join the financial services industry, he said.
The initiative is beginning as a one-year pilot with the goal being to determine if it would be viable as a national program.
“We think this program has legs,” Lynde said. “But we have to walk before we run, do this as well as we can and once we fine-tune the program, we can expand nationally.”
The pilot program is funded by a consortium of investment firms, including AGF Management Ltd., Bridgehouse Asset Managers, Franklin Templeton Investments Corp., IA Clarington Investments Inc., Sun Life Global Investments, Zavitz Insurance Inc. and industry association the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. Volunteers for the program were recruited through Advocis, the Financial Planning Standards Council and Independent Financial Brokers of Canada.