Following firm's first team acquisition in Saskatchewan, Cameron Passmore explains why "oneness" underpins his firm's growth ambitions
Last month, PWL Capital completed the acquisition of TCM Financial Studio, a boutique advisory team based in Regina. This brings PWL to the province of Saskatchewan for the first time, and follows on from PWL's own acquisition by US-based wealth consultancy OneDigital. While TCM brings a new team of advisors and presence in a new area of the Canadian market for PWL, the firm’s CEO says that the move was driven primarily by a shared philosophy.
Cameron Passmore, CEO of PWL Capital, explained that his firm plans to maintain a shared philosophy among the advisory teams it brings onboard. PWL has growth plans and ambitions and they want to bring on advisory teams across the country, but they want to maintain a sense of ideological “oneness” within the firm. Passmore explained why that matters to him and how he plans to attract advisors despite the constraints that approach may place on future growth.
“We can rally around this common agreement on philosophy to try to make a difference in a marketplace that is full of what I call ‘Frankenfirms,’ firms that are bolted together to enable individual advisors to maintain their independence. But what you end up with is a situation in Canada, where the majority of long-term financial assets are in the banking or insurance industry somewhere,” Passmore says.
Core to that philosophy, he explains, is a belief in the power of index funds to capture market value and deliver long-term growth prospects for clients. Passmore notes that Canada has shown to be a relative laggard in the adoption of index funds, something he attributes to the legacy of the advisory business as a distribution arm for mutual funds. He argues that much of the industry still promotes higher margin products, and PWL doesn’t want to do that. In the conversations Passmore has had with prospective advisory teams, alignment on that philosophy has been key.
Passmore admits that this focus on shared philosophy limits PWL’s market for growth. He notes, though, that their ‘oneness’ has enabled them to articulate a value proposition across conventional and unconventional channels.
Through their podcast Rational Reminder, several YouTube channels, and a cohesive communications strategy, PWL has established a presence and what Passmore calls an “institutionalization of lead flow.” Where in the past people might have gone to personal networks for information and recommendations on investing, which might have benefitted the advisors in those networks, in 2025 people go online for information. By establishing a presence across online channels, PWL can articulate their philosophy in the places where prospective clients are seeking answers, thereby driving growth.
While most firms might profess to seek philosophical alignment or cultural fit in the advisors they bring onboard, Passmore argues that amounts more to simply getting along as colleagues. While that’s important, it doesn’t amount to unity of believe in how client portfolios should be managed. That, in turn, limits what a firm can say about itself.
“The only marketing we can do as a firm is basically a couple on a dock with a Labrador retriever,” Passmore says. “Because you can't say ‘we believe in index funds,’ ‘we believe in asset class funds,’ or ‘we believe in something,’ and that is, I think, the opportunity that we have.”
Articulating that philosophy, Passmore says, has allowed PWL to attract many young advisors successfully. They’re now engaged in conversations with advisors across the country interested in joining the firm. The firm remains small, with around $6 billion in AUM, but Passmore continues to see avenues for growth where philosophical agreement can be found.
While Passmore and PWL are seeking alignment on core principles like index investing, he notes that they do not want to create an echo chamber. Arguments made by and within the firm are backed by evidence. Disagreements, when voiced, are invited to be substantiated by more than just anecdote. Evidence will be considered and brought onboard and critical voices are encouraged as a means of countering the ‘groupthink’ that Passmore says typified the mutual fund sales days of the ‘90s and 2000s.
PWL’s prioritization of alignment seems to run contrary to a firm growth model that is currently focused on scale. Acquisitions in this industry seem largely to revolve around the importance of scale in providing cost-effective wealth solutions for clients. Passmore accepts that scale matters in the “plumbing” of an advisory firm. Things like online onboarding can benefit from scale. Passmore notes, however, that consensus around client experience can be impossible to achieve at a giant firm. Scale can run contrary to standards when a firm seeks to create a consistent model of client experience.
As AI poses new questions to advisory firms about how to restructure that client experience, how data can be protected, and how advisors should be trained, Passmore believes that consensus can provide advantages that scale cannot. He says that advisors may want to ask themselves if that kind of alignment might serve them and their clients.
“A oneness puts a stake in the ground and says this is what we believe in. It’s not just to sell and be compliant,” Passmore says. “if you're on the nerdy side and you want to bring these kinds of ideas and financial planning solutions and decision making frameworks to people, I would argue that it's a lot better to be together.”
