What financial advisors want from their branch managers has changed dramatically over the past several years. Advisors no longer want their branch managers to be hands-off and to get out of their way. Instead, advisors now want their branch managers to be leaders, to take the time to build relationships with the advisors they oversee and to offer support to both the advisors and their clients.

“The role of the branch manager is more important than I once thought,” says an advisor in Alberta with Toronto-based Richardson GMP Ltd. “Now, I have a manager who has added a ton of value and changed my view on the importance of having one.”

Adds an advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based PPI Advisory: “The relationship with your branch manager is key for success in this business.”

The increasing influence that branch managers have on advisors can be seen in the overall average importance rating that advisors gave in the “your branch manager” category, at 8.7 this year. But of all the distribution channels in the financial services sector, advisors with the banks and credit unions (CUs) placed the highest importance upon the role of the branch manager, giving the category an overall average importance rating of 9.1 in the Report on Banks and CUs.

These advisors praised their branch managers for being supportive, knowledgeable and resourceful leaders upon whom they can rely on a daily basis.

“‘Branch managers are some of the most influential people I’ve met in my career,” says an advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). “They are the face of the branch as far as relationships go, and are always there to assist clients and advisors.”

CIBC advisors gave their branch managers the best performance rating in the Report Card on Banks and CUs, at 9.1, up significantly from 7.7 in 2013. The bank recently introduced a leadership program that trains branch managers in how to coach advisors. CIBC also emphasizes the importance of having the branch manager sit in on client/advisor meetings.

“It is a very client-focused agenda, as opposed to being a sales-focused agenda,” says Larry Tomei, CIBC’s senior vice president, national sales and service, retail and business banking. “When our branch managers are having conversations [with advisors] about their clients, the advisors feel a lot more comfortable with those conversations, as opposed to talking about [sales] results.”

Other firms across the various distribution channels seem to be following suit, shifting away from branch managers focused on sales and toward branch managers who fill more of a supportive role.

This may stem from the fact that one of the biggest gripes among advisors about their branch managers is that many branch managers are producing advisors themselves and, thus, in direct competition with the advisors they oversee.

This complaint was heard the most from advisors in the brokerage and mutual fund dealer channels, in which advisors are wary of a producing branch manager who could have overrides attached to his or her mandate and individual branch sales targets to meet.

“As a producing manager,” says an advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based CIBC Wood Gundy, “he doesn’t care very much about what we do; he cares about his own business.”

Adds an advisor in the same province with Toronto-based ScotiaMcLeod Inc.: “The problem is a lot of these guys are focusing on their own books instead of being around [for me] to bounce ideas off of.”

As a result, several firms have moved away from the producing branch manager model and introduced full-time regional supervisors. Montreal-based National Bank Financial Ltd. (NBF), for example, switched to this model in 2009, says Steve Galimi, vice president, strategy and performance, wealth management: “We recognized that many of the branch mangers didn’t like being in the line of fire when things went wrong [from a compliance standpoint]. As well, we heard that some advisors didn’t like that the biggest producer in the branch was also the branch manager. So, we decided to make changes.”

To relieve the frustrations of both NBF advisors and their branch managers, the firm introduced 14 regional managers across Canada and renamed the existing branch managers as “local branch managers.” Advisors now report directly to the regional managers, who do not have books of business and, adds Galimi, are the only people held accountable from a legal perspective.

Meanwhile, the local branch managers no longer have to worry about compliance duties and can focus solely on improving sales at the branch level. In addition, NBF will be expanding the role of its local branch managers this autumn, whereby they will support the regional managers in both coaching rookie advisors and providing experienced advisors with the support tools they may need to grow their businesses.

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