Wellington-Altus announces executive leadership change

Wellington-Altus Financial Inc. has promoted its two top executives.

Shaun Hauser, the firm’s co-founder and president, has been appointed CEO of Wellington-Altus Financial, the firm said on Monday. Assuming Hauser’s old position as president of Wellington-Altus Private Wealth will be Jordy Chilcott, who was also named president of Wellington-Altus Insurance. Chilcott will retain his existing role as executive vice-president of wealth strategy and enablement.

As CEO, Hauser will manage the firm’s growth, business strategy and potential acquisitions.

As president, Chilcott will take over as ultimate designated person of the firm’s IIROC business (pending required corporate filings), handling the day-to-day management.

One of Hauser’s priorities will be recruiting investment counsel portfolio management (ICPM) advisors and building out that segment of the business. While the firm’s growth trajectory with its IIROC business is “very well entrenched,” Hauser said, he sees opportunity on the ICPM side.

“We believe there are billions of dollars out there in Canada with ICPM advisors who need the same access to wealth management infrastructure that IIROC advisors who join us look for. We get pretty excited about those opportunities,” he said.

“Freeing up my time with this corporate evolution is going to allow me, in collaboration with others, to have more time to help find those ICPM businesses and allow us to show them where our wealth management infrastructure can help them — and, by virtue of that, continue to grow the business at an even more brisk pace.”

Hauser said building out the ICPM and IIROC businesses is equally important. He couldn’t provide a specific goal as to how many advisors the firm is looking to bring on. The firm has grown from 60 advisory teams in 2020 to about 75 presently, Chilcott said.

Hauser said the firm grew its assets under management by $6 billion in fiscal 2021, bringing the total above $20 billion, and he expects a similar level of growth in 2022.

“We have probably the busiest spring on record as far as onboardings that you’ll start to see over the next six and seven weeks,” he said.

The firm expanded into Quebec last year and received $85 million in minority investments from two companies in November to fuel its growth.