Efficient specialists are key to programs’ success: Includes chart

But the top score in the category belongs to Ottawa-based Independent Planning Group Inc. Advisors at the Report Card newcomer gave their firm a 9.2 in category.

The top-rated firms all have one thing in common, however: they employ individuals who flawlessly ensure that an advisor’s transition to the firm comes off without a hitch.

Because the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada banned bulk transfers in 2000-01, IPG now provides every advisor who joins the firm with a customized transition plan. The plan is quarterbacked by a dedicated transition specialist who leads a team that provides software installation, training and any other support the advisor may need during this period.

“We do what we do,” says Vince Valenti, IPG’s president, “because everyone has their own unique needs.”

At PIP, Hugh Gabruch, the dealer’s general counsel and chief operating officer, maintains that the firm’s success boils down to execution. PIP saw its transition support rating increase by a whopping 1.5 points, to 7.4 from 5.9 in 2007.

A PIP advisor in Ontario says when he joined the firm, the staff collected all his clients’ information and quickly fired back pre-populated paperwork. “So, when I met with my clients, it was just a matter of signing the papers,” he says. “We were able to transfer $45 million in client assets in two months.”

PIP’s transition support is managed by a transition co-ordinator whose only job is to co-ordinate issues relating to registration as well as transferring books of business to the firm’s database.

“The co-ordinator knows her role and we know ours,” says Gabruch. “We’ve been able to fulfil both roles very well. I assume our competitors have similar strategies.”

Worldsource certainly does. The firm doesn’t have only one co-ordinator, however, but a whole team dedicated to supporting an advi-sor’s transition to the firm. This team is earning Worldsource rave reviews from its advisors, sparking a jump in its performance score to 8.8, up from last year’s 7.9.

“The team is excellent. They spent the time with us, met with us and re-entered all the documents [into the database],” says a Worldsource advisor on the Prairies. “They took a lot of pressure off us and saved us hours and hours of time.”

Andy Mitchell, president and COO of Worldsource, compares the process of transition support to making major renovations on a house. “You don’t just walk in there and start knocking down walls,” he says. “It takes a large amount of preparation and methodical planning to pull it off.”

A major part of Worldsource’s transition support is the strength of its technology. More specifically, the firm’s custom databases, which are supported by Toronto-based Univeris Corp.’s Enterprise Wealth Management System, make it easier to facilitate the transfer of client information and books of business.

Sentinel — which tied World-source at 8.8, a solid 1.6-point increase from a year ago — also has a team dedicated to handling book transfers as well as regulatory and administrative issues. The team is prepared to use every advantage available to help advisors, but it does this more out of necessity than to win advisors’ goodwill.

“It’s important we step in, not only to ease advisors’ pain but also to make sure their businesses are transitioned properly from a regulatory perspective,” says Sentinel’s president and chief compliance officer, Merlin Chouinard. “Since most advisors have no idea how to transition properly, as a firm you must be proactive in supporting them at every turn because a non-compliant transition means that advisors could veer offside before they even start working here.”

@page_break@The firms that saw their transition support performance ratings drop also have teams in place, but there are other factors that are leaving their advisors dissatisfied with the process.

Markham, Ont.-based Pro-fessional Invest-ment Services (Canada) Inc. is one of those firms. In its case, the transition support team is a recent addition to its service offering. After PIS acquired predecessor firm Generation Financial Corp. in November 2006, it transformed the transition program.

“We’ve only been around as PIS for a year and a half,” says Ken Rousselle, PIS’s president and CEO. Now, he adds, “We have a team whose sole job is to handle the entire process and answer questions along the way. We use technology that automatically populates all the forms, from know-your-client forms to client consent forms. We also pay for all the transition expenses, including rebranding and signage.”

So far, PIS has moved 20 advi-sors into the firm using its new support system in the past six to 12 months.

Rouselle considers the lower score — PIS advisors rated transition support 7.2, a full point lower than their rating in 2007 — part of the Generation legacy. “So, 85%-90% of our advisors transitioned under the former owners, who had absolutely nothing when it came to transition support,” he says. “I bet if you talk to people who transitioned recently, the results would be different.”

Indeed, most of the PIS advisors IE surveyed have not used the new support system. Most advisors who gave the firm a low score in the category say they swapped firms under Generation — and that the support has improved since.

Winnipeg-based Investors Group Inc. is another firm that has a transition support team in place but saw its performance rating drop — in this case, to 6.0 from 7.6. But the firm wasn’t so much a victim of circumstance as one that suffered because of a choice made.

“By and large, we aren’t really focused on bringing advisors in from Firm X,” says Kevin Regan, the firm’s executive vice president of financial services. “We tend to be much more concerned with finding advisors from all walks of life. So, because [advisors moving from other firms are] less of a focus, it might explain the lower rating.”

In fact, an Investors Group advi-sor in Ontario rated the firm’s transition support a zero in performance but a 10 in importance. “It’s concerned only with new hires,” he says of his firm.

However, Regan insists that when an advisor from another firm joins Investors Group, the firm pulls up its socks and helps the incoming advisor shift his or her business to the firm.

“When we do have someone coming in from another firm, we use a very client-centric approach. A team from Investors Group will generally handle moving the clients, the database and the book of business over,” Regan explains. “In addition, Investors Group has a very exclusive product shelf. So, someone from wealth and practice management will help the advisor familiarize him- or herself with our products and teach the advisor how he or she can best be used to grow his or her business.” IE