Financial advisors with Burlington, Ont.-based Mandeville Private Client Inc. will be able to refer their clients and prospects to a new online portfolio management platform that combines index funds and alternative investments thanks to a new partnership with Toronto-based robo-advisor Smart Money Capital Management Inc.
Mandeville, the investment dealer subsidiary of Michael Lee-Chin’s Mandeville Holdings Inc., and Smart Money announced the launch of WealthPort on Tuesday, a wealth-planning portal that provides clients with access to private and alternative investments as well as globally diversified index funds.
“The WealthPort program combines the benefits of an online robo[-advisor] platform with lower fees, but also has access to private alternative strategies where that’s suitable for investors,” says Tuula Jalasjaa, a Smart Money advisory board member, in an interview with Investment Executive (IE).
Under the terms of the agreement, Mandeville advisors will be able to refer clients and prospects to the WealthPort platform in exchange for a referral fee.
“[This] provides advisors with a tool to enhance their practices,” says Frank Laferriere, senior vice president and chief operating officer with Mandeville, in an interview with IE. “Through this referral arrangement, [advisors] will be able to potentially address another client’s needs, or a potential client’s needs.”
The platform could be suitable in a variety of scenarios, such as for clients who don’t have time to engage in the investment process actively or clients’ family members who are interested in opening an account, Laferriere says.
With most robo-advisors investing primarily in ETFs and other traditional investments, the inclusion of alternative investments sets the new WealthPort platform apart from other industry players, Jalasjaa says.
Specifically, WealthPort will offer access to funds managed by Mandeville’s sister firm, Burlington, Ont.-based Portland Investment Counsel Inc., in cases in which those investments are suitable for the client.
“The inclusion of the ability to access private [investments] is extremely unique,” Jalasjaa says. “We think that will be a real competitive advantage.”
The inclusion of those investments aligns with Mandeville’s approach of providing clients with access to investment opportunities that are typically reserved for affluent and institutional investors.
“Mandeville’s philosophy is that clients should have access to the same type of wealth-creating strategies that the uber-wealthy and highly successful professional investors have,” Laferrier says, “which is a combination of both public and private securities within a portfolio.”
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