By James Langton

(January 17) – Royal Mutual Funds is looking to build its sales through independent advisors, following the lead of TD Bank, and to a certain extent Bank of Montreal.

Bill Hatanaka, COO of Royal Investment Services, told the RBC Dominion Securities Conference on Wealth Management this morning that RBC has a three-point strategy to grow Royal Mutual Funds nets sales: boost the product lineup, expand distribution, and do a better job telling its performance story to all distributors.

On the product side, the fund company has launched Royal Select Choices, a fund of funds providing access to third party funds in branch. It has also launched some new global funds.

Perhaps most interesting is Royal’s plan to expand the number of distribution channels selling its funds. While Hatanaka was short on specifics, he noted that, “We will look for new opportunities with other full service and discount brokers, insurance companies, and financial planners.” He said wholesalers have already been recruited to work on this initiative.