IAPW expects smooth transition for Laurentian advisors

IA Private Wealth expects to sign all 31 financial advisors associated with its deal to acquire the retail full-service division of Laurentian Bank Securities Inc.

Next week, the senior executive team of iA Private Wealth (iAPW) will visit six Laurentian branches to meet with the 31 advisors — as a group and individually — to understand their practices, said Adam Elliott, senior vice-president of iAPW.

Elliott praised the advisors’ entrepreneurial mindset, which “aligns perfectly with our value proposition,” he said.

He expects the transition to be relatively smooth, given the firm’s recent experience with recruiting both corporate and independent advisors.

“It’s not unusual for us to have advisors join from a corporate model to our independent model,” Elliott said. “We have a transitions team that, depending on the size of the practice, will go to the office of the incoming advisor and work with them for one or two weeks and get them familiar with all our platform tools.”

Elliott said iAPW and Laurentian use a lot of the same vendors, including Croesus. “So, the conversion [and] education process will be less than if they were joining from a firm where they used different software.”

IAPW will also work with the Laurentian advisors to help them find new office space, as they were previously working out of Laurentian branches.

Elliott said the Laurentian acquisition would boost iAPW’s already robust growth.

“We had a record year last year in terms of advisor recruitment, and we’re on pace to beat that this year, based on the number of advisors who joined us in the first quarter,” Elliott said.

IAPW added 39 advisors representing $2.3 billion in assets in 2023, as well as nine teams representing $1.3 billion in assets in 2024 so far.

The Laurentian deal includes about 16,000 client accounts and over $2 billion in assets under administration, which represents about 4% of iAPW’s AUA. The transaction is expected to close in the summer, subject to regulatory approval.

Katie Keir

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