"No one does it quite the way we do"

One of Canada’s financial giants has just entered the investment advice market. Sun Life, which has long maintained a mutual fund dealing business, has recently expanded its services through their new CIRO-registered securities dealer Sun Life Canada Securities Inc. (SLCSI). It’s a push to capture a new client base for Sun Life and to expand what they can offer to their existing clients, explains SLCSI’s President.

Jack Mastromattei is the President and Ultimate Designated Person for Sun Life Canada Securities, as well as Vice-President of Retail Wealth Enablement. He told WP about his firm’s growth goals among Canadian clients, including how they plan to attract and retain established Canadian advisors. Mastromattei explains that the firm’s value proposition to prospective clients centers on their ability to offer “holistic protection and planning solutions.” While he accepts that “holistic” has become something of an industry buzzword, bandied about by almost every wealth management firm, he argues that Sun Life’s scale and presence means it’s uniquely positioned to help SLCSI advisors deliver on that promise.

“Holistic means something different to so many and I agree with you there are many that are trying to use the term loosely, but I would say no one does it quite the way we do in Canada,” Mastromattei says. “Because we have the three pillars of holistic service. We've got the wealth management, we've got the protection traditionally known as insurance, and we've got now the health part of the business. To me the part about being holistic is being able to provide a unified solution.”

Mastromattei notes that in conversations with advisors at other dealers, he’s heard complaints of being “pigeonholed” into just providing wealth product for clients. He says he’s heard of issues around overall understanding of insurance and how the insurance products offered at certain dealers mesh with clients’ wider financial plans. He contrasts those issues with the claim that the majority of SLCSI advisors are dual licenced in both insurance and financial advice.

Those advisors, he says, will have access to an open product shelf beyond what is provided by Sun Life Global Investments. He notes, however, that there will be controls in place around product and firm assistance with portfolio construction. He stresses that SLCSI will trust their advisors to build the right portfolios for their clients.

SLCSI advisors will be able to leverage some of Sun Life’s product and expertise in the annuities and structured products business. In the midst of baby boomers’ mass retirement, these products may provide a particular advantage for advisors seeking to manage the challenges of decumulation for their clients. Mastromattei says there are opportunities for SLCSI to leverage some of the expertise and solutions on the firm’s group retirement benefit side to apply to the wealth management space.

With that value proposition in hand, Mastromattei is now trying to recruit advisors to SLCSI. That includes upskilling an existing cohort of Sun Life mutual fund advisors who want to move into a securities dealer. He stresses, though, his firm’s goal of “partnering with the best advisors in Canada,” emphasizing both the capacity of SLCSI and Sun Life, the firm’s brand, their compensation program, and the ability to provide a full succession plan for advisors. When asked about specific bonuses or incentives for recruitment, Mastromattei acknowledged that there is an ongoing chase for advisor talent in this industry and that his firm plans to “be competitive.”

SLCSI is going to be agnostic around the type of advisor they want to recruit, Mastromattei says. He wants advisors who “put the client at the center of everything they do,” but beyond that philosophical foundation he says the firm is looking at advisors at various career stages. Planning is another prioritized skill, and Mastromattei says that CFP designations are particularly prized by his firm. He says that in addition to more traditional recruitment strategies, SLCSI will also be leveraging their existing cohort of sales leaders to turn a massive network of advisors and wholesalers into a recruitment team.

In outlining what this push into the investment advisory space means for the wider industry, Mastromattei contrasted the work of advisors against an increasingly murky world of online advice. He wants advisors to help protect what he sees as an increasingly vulnerable cohort of Canadians.

“Our world is rapidly evolving and people's needs are becoming more complex. We understand that those are some of the challenges in front of us. The other part of it is that the lines continue to blur between finfluencers, do-it-yourself, and holistic financial planning,” Mastromattei says. “This new securities dealer is only one pillar in our overall Sun Life wealth management ecosystem that's really set up to service all types of investors… This is a trust business and we have to be able to put our advisors in a position where they earn the trust of their clients, keep that trust, and protect their clients from others who try to take advantage of that trust.”