IE’s Regulatory Reporter: April 2017

Toronto-based Invesco Canada Ltd. plans to take financial advisors’ businesses digital with the launch of its advisorDUO platform on Wednesday.

advisorDUO is a robo-advice platform that is to be used exclusively by financial advisors with their clients — there is no direct-to-consumer option.

“We believe investors are better served when they’re working with a financial advisor,” says Peter Intraligi, president of Invesco Canada. “[However] advisors are better served if they use technology to actually make themselves more efficient, more productive, so that they can focus on higher value-add activities with their clients.”

The platform is a white-label offering available to advisors whose dealers have signed on with Invesco. Through the advisorDUO platform, advisors can direct new clients to provide all of the required information to open an account, such as know-your-client (KYC) information, online and to do some goals-based planning through a questionnaire.

The platform is responsive, meaning that clients can complete the onboarding process via their tablet, smartphone or laptop either on their own time or alongside their advisor at his or her office.

Furthermore, all necessary documents for the accounts, including Fund Facts, are delivered and signed electronically.

“It really is that all-encompassing digital experience that we’ve created here,” says Andrew Manning, head of marketing with Invesco Canada.

Once the onboarding process is complete, the platform then recommends one of five target-risk portfolios for clients. Advisors can decide how much of the client’s assets they wish to allocate to the portfolio. These multi-manager portfolios, which range from conservative to high-growth, have been designed by the Invesco Global Solution team and include 12 to 14 ETFs. The portfolios can include third-party products, such as iShares or Vanguard ETFs. Furthermore, the ETFs are wrapped within a mutual fund structure giving mutual fund licensed advisors access to the portfolios.

Fees for the portfolios range between 0.41% for the conservative fund and 0.51% for the high-growth option.

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