Retail Brokerage and Distribution Report—Canada Spring 2020

COVID-19 Accelerates Technological and Behavioral Shift in Advice

As COVID-19 brought global economic and social activity to a halt, remote client engagement rapidly became business as usual for the advice-based wealth management businesses around the world. This research focused on three key financial advice-oriented distribution channels in Canada; the full-service brokerage channel, the dealers in the financial advisor channel and the dedicated financial planning offers in the branch advice channel delivered through the network of Canada’s banks.

Through in-depth interviews, we explored critical facets of the crisis of relevance to those firms, including, the technological challenges of transitioning to a fully remote engagement model and how firms managed the critical communication and information flow through that transition and market uncertainty. Throughout, the questions of what might happen next and what the current changes could mean for the future of the business are touched upon. This research provides valuable perspective for advice firms competing in the wealth management space as well as the suppliers of technology, products and asset management services.