Agenda
8:00AM – 8:30AM
Registration and Credential Pickup
8:30AM – 8:45AM
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Conference Co-Chairs:
Alice Fang, Vice President, Investment Solutions, Scotia Wealth Management
Barbara Foy-Pilchner, Managing Director, National Accounts, Manulife Asset Management
8:45AM – 9:45AM
Keynote Presentation
Canadian Wealth Management in the Next Decade: The “In-Between” States
This session will examine key findings from the recently-released 2017 edition of the Investor Economics Household Balance Sheet Report. Over the past 25 years, this report has become an essential strategic tool for monitoring key developments in the Canadian financial services industry and identifying the critical themes, growth opportunities, and challenges for different segments.
The leading theme of this year’s report is the “wealth management business in transition.” The discussion will focus on the impact of a quartet of external forces – regulation, disruptive technology, demographics, and lower market returns – on the future shape of the asset management industry. Collectively, these forces, which are beyond the industry’s control, will reshape product shelves, prevailing business models, competitive ranks, and the economics of manufacturing and distribution alike. Add to this an increasingly empowered investor, and the stage is set for an upheaval not seen since the early nineties when the massive baby-boomer cohort arrived on the threshold of its accumulation phase.
Is your business ready for the future?
Goshka Folda, President & CEO, Investor Economics
9:45AM – 10:45AM
Legal & Regulatory Update: Preparing for Future Challenges
The Canadian regulatory framework continues to evolve at a rapid pace, as do the business models being regulated. In this session, Prema Thiele will review the key regulatory developments from the Canadian Securities Administrators, IROC and MFDA, including an update on the best interest standard, the discontinuance of embedded commissions, compensation practices, technological innovation, and compliance priorities and trends.
Prema K. R. Thiele, Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais
10:45AM – 11:00AM
Refreshment and Networking Break
11:00AM – 12:00PM
Picking Up the Pace on Digital Transformation
Technology can already replace much of what many advisors do. Seamless access to data is the primary obstacle to further progress, but Amazon is rapidly overcoming that hurdle by building its own picture of your customers’ financial lives. While industry incumbents may feel like they’ve already made huge investments in digital, the changing competitive landscape is nonetheless demanding that they pick up the pace. This panel will paint a picture of where the bar needs to be set and debate the merits and challenges of different ways to get there.
Moderator: Amelia Young, Principal, Upside Consulting Group
Panelists: Phillip Barrar, Founder & CEO, Mylo Financial Technologies
Randy Bullard, General Manager, SigFig
Richard Lok, Head, Digital and Client Experience, BMO Wealth Management
Robert Mahoney, Director, Institutional Product Management, TD Ameritrade Institutional
12:00PM – 1:30PM
Luncheon with Keynote Speaker
Wealth Management: Time to Change our Collective Intuition?
In this session, Patrick Mercier covers a range of trends and forces that are disrupting Canadian wealth management. Drawing on McKinsey's consumer and money in motion research, he will start with a review of how consumer behavior and expectations are changing. Then he will move on to how key components of the industry's value chain are being disrupted by new fintech entrants, comparing the Canadian experience to those in the United States and globally. Next, he examines how financial and non-financial services firms are increasingly embedding financial services - including wealth management - within broader consumer journeys. He concludes with a discussion of how established firms are adapting, what they can do in the future, and what's ahead for the industry now that early fears that advice delivery could be entirely automated have begun to recede.
Patrick Mercier, Junior Partner, McKinsey & Company
1:30PM – 2:30PM
The Impact of the Evolution of Advisor Platforms on Portfolios, Scalability, and Product Development
The movement from commission-based to fee-based to discretionary and finally to "all-in-one" platforms is creating opportunities for advisors, manufacturers, and dealers to re-think the way they scale their businesses for the future. In this session, we will hear different perspectives on the evolution of dealer platforms, the impact on the way advisors do business, and how product manufacturers are responding to rapidly-evolving "shelf" opportunities.
Moderator: Stuart Thompson, Vice President, National Accounts, Invesco
Panelists: Christine de Lima, Director & Portfolio Manager, Investment Solutions, Scotia Wealth Management
Tamara Peres, Vice President, Director, Advisor Managed Solutions, Wealth Management, BMO Nesbitt Burns
Charles Smith, Executive Director, Ernst & Young LLP
2:30PM – 3:30PM
Cutting Through the Hype: How is AI Really Being Used in Wealth Management
AI has been the hottest topic in technology this year and shows no sign of cooling down. Parlour tricks like beating humans at chess, Jeopardy and Go have unleashed a powerful wave to hype that has evoked fears of unprecedented market dislocation and job losses in everything from doctoring to driving. Wealth management is sure to be impacted as well. Experts from two leading firms with AI solutions specifically targeted to the wealth management industry discuss what's real, what's science fiction, and how it will impact your world.
Moderator: Rami Thabet, Vice President, Mobile, RBC
Panelists: Amir Hajian, Director of Research, Thomson Reuters
Robert Stanich, Global Wealth Management Offering Manager, IBM Watson Financial Services
3:30PM – 3:45PM
Refreshment and Networking Break
3:45PM – 4:45PM
Advisor Spotlight: Embracing Change
Advisors represent the front lines of the advice experience. They are under constant pressure to adapt - and at an increasingly rapid pace. Faced with compliance and regulatory pressures, market dynamics, disruptive technologies, and evolving investor appetites and expectations, advisors must stay nimble and embrace change. This panel of distinguished advisors will share the ways they continue to push themselves to succeed as practitioners, and as champions for thier clients.
Moderator: Michael Lynds, Executive Vice President, Head of Business Development, IRESS
Panelists: Craig Machel, Portfolio Manager, Investment Advisor, Richardson GMP
Mary Seto, Portfolio Manager, Scotia Wealth Management
Terri Szego, Investment Advisor, Portfolio Manager, Financial Planner, BMO Nesbitt Burns
4:45PM – 5:00PM
Closing Remarks
5:00PM – 6:00PM
Networking and Cocktail Reception
