How Chris Arthur and Bold Wealth make financial advisors' lives easier

[00:00:00] David Kitai: 
Hello and welcome to WPTV. My name is David Kitai, Senior Editor at Wealth Professional. Of all the lists and forms of recognition that we publish at Wealth Professional, it's our top 40 under 40 rising stars that gives us perhaps the clearest view into the future of this industry. The names and achievements on that list show how the industry is advancing through technology, through innovation, and through client service. Today, we are lucky to be joined by one of those rising stars, Chris Arthur. Chris is the founder, CEO, and CIO of Bold Wealth Partners. Now, with Bold Wealth Partners, he is building a bespoke wealth management firm for independent financial advisors. Chris, welcome to WPTV. 
 

[00:00:52] Chris Arthur: 
Thanks, David. No, thanks for having me here. 
 

[00:00:55] David Kitai: 
Glad to have you. So right off the cuff, and I always love asking people this question, why do you think you were named a rising star? 
 

[00:01:03] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah, great, great question. I think being named as a rising star is a compounded effect. We have, and I say we, our team here at Bold Wealth, we founded the company in 2021, but it's really been since 2022 that we really have our foot on the gas. So I think it's a combination of not just myself, but our team behind us doing little things right year over year, and that sort of compounding effect of great habits sort of thing. So I don't think it was hey we did something this activity last year, I think it is sort of a compounding effect of doing little things right and continuing on those good habits. 
 

[00:01:43] David Kitai: 
So speaking of kind of that slow, gradual build the way that every great entrepreneur will probably describe their success. It begins with the origins of your own career. So, you know, you made an interesting step very early in your career, going from working as an advisor to working in the wealth technology space. Can you explain a little bit about why you made that switch? 
 

[00:02:07] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah, that switch was actually driven from our end clients, the real folks that are most important to us sort of thing. And how it came to be is we were using other wealth tech platforms. And every time we looked at a new platform or every time we were on a new platform, there were always flaws and we would hear it from our clients. So we knew very well what the end client would want to see improved, what they care about and what they really want to look for in sort of a tech stack or a wealth stack for the end user. So years and years, our frustration seemed to grow and grow and we really knew what our clients were looking for. So in 2021, we sort of took the leap to start the steps where. I had sort of the licenses to bring us to that next level. And I had sort of a group of advisors that I knew were having seen the same problems we were sort of thing. So the drive towards that next step and building sort of a wealth tech offering for independent financial planners came from the mistakes we saw being made in the industry and really came from a need of wanting to support our end clients and give them a platform that actually fits what they're looking for. 
 

[00:03:20] David Kitai: 
So through those that career that you've sort of built up to before you started Bold Wealth, you know, you held a lot of roles. You did a lot of different aspects of work in this industry. Can you talk me through a little bit of what you covered in the areas that you explored and built expertise in that went on to inform, you know, the decisions you've made as the founder and CEO of Bold Wealth? 
 

[00:03:41] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah. So really sort of interesting career trajectory where I started off very early on with Edward Jones, where I was out. knocking on doors in a province I've never lived before and had some great success in that space. And I think it was from that experience that I really knew wealth management was where I was going to be. Funny enough, I broke two records in Canada, most door knocks achieved ever across Edward Jones. I'm not sure if I still hold that record, but held that record at that time. And then the second step is when you're calling the leads most assets uncovered. So had a great, great time at Edward Jones. From there, I went straight into the WealthTech space. I went over to WealthBar. They were looking to sort of groom a portfolio manager that wasn't bilingual. So Montreal native myself got a job I was probably junior for, but again, technology company or WealthTech company where they didn't have to hire two people if they could hire someone that was bilingual. So I snuck in the door with hard work and sort of dedication, but I was probably one of the younger folks, but grew that, saw a lot during that time, saw thousands and thousands of client inquiries because they were on a robo advisory journey competing with Wealthsimple. And then took the leap to I got recruited over to Wealthsimple, was an early employee over there and helped build out their advisor division. So, again, really focused on supporting the advisor and the portfolio management side of building, again, a great portfolio suite and the technology the advisors wanted. So all throughout my career, a lot of experience adjacent to technology and a lot of experience directly speaking with advisors and supporting them. So. Over at Wealthsimple for Advisors, we had over 300 advisors on the platform. And I would be talking to them every day, learning what they want, what their clients like, and hearing every complaint under the sun. And then from there, took the leap and I actually purchased an advisor that I met on the Wealthsimple platform that was retiring, built up a book of business, bought the book around 40 million, grew it to around 120, and have since sort of shifted the focus. to Bold Wealth, where I have great staff members over at Dunbrook. They're taking care of the day to day. And my focus is really building out this sort of wealth tech offering for independent financial advisors. 
 

[00:06:14] David Kitai: 
Absolutely fascinating journey. And I think the word that kind of comes to mind as you describe it for me is, you know, opportunism and not in the sense of you have clearly identified areas of opportunity and forced yourself to kind of take the leap into that next set. And, you know, jumping into areas where maybe you're a little bit, you know, it's not necessarily your comfort zone, but it's somewhere where you've managed to, you know, sink or swim and you've swum and you've managed to go further with it. So I guess the question that emerges out of that is, you know, when you started Bold Wealth, what was the kind of the opportunity you saw there? What's the opportunity you see in the industry that Bold Wealth can kind of capture? 
 

[00:06:57] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah. So initially when we started Bold Wealth, like you said. a lot of new things. So we spent a lot of our early years sort of building and beefing up our tech stack, our processes, compliance regimes, investment portfolios, and really, really just spending a lot of time not throwing it out to market before we were happy and we're all perfectionists, that sort of thing. So we wanted to really build something solid for our internal clients before we started offering it more broadly to outside advisors. So currently, today, we're only working through referrals for new advisors coming through the door. They have to be vetted by one of our existing advisors. At some point here in the future, we will open up those doors and we will seek to work more broadly with sort of independent financial advisors across the board. In terms of what areas I really think or why we founded Bold Wealth is and where we saw mistakes being made is the advisor experience should be. easy and seamless and the client experience should be easy and seamless. And that was sort of a big thing coming out of the different locations where I worked was there was always confusion. Platforms were too difficult for the advisor to sort of get accustomed to or on the client side, it wasn't clear where they could sign in how to do that it wasn't built and customized to them. So we spent a lot of time on making things very intuitive and very easy to use. It shouldn't be complicated. getting in and viewing your account, or again, on the advisor side, seeing the health of your book or seeing metrics related to XYZ. So we want to build something very easy to use. But we also wanted communication. So over at Wealthsimple for advisors, if you have 300 advisors, you can only imagine how tailored you can make that service and how much you're speaking with those end advisors. We hope to work with 20 to 30 providers at the maximum. Today, we work with five firms. But again, as we expand that out, we want to know our advisors, we want to know everything about them, what do they like, we want to customize things specifically for them. And then beyond that, with that type of communication, we want to work very collaboratively. We don't want to surprise the advisor by, again, sending a message directly to the end clients. We want them to be in the loop. We want them to be a champion of what we're doing as well. So we want to work quite closely with them. communication, strangely enough, it sounds like such an easy thing to do, but something we see done wrong across the board. If you keep your advisors in the loop, they help keep the clients in the loop. And then there's less problems overall, because everyone's working towards the same goal sort of thing. And then I think integration is sort of more of a background item. And all this is you can have the best tech tools in each category. But are they speaking together? Are they cohesive? Are they looking for synergies across the different categories. So... Integration is time we've spent a lot with is finding systems that work well together, not just being best in class in different areas. 
 

[00:10:01] David Kitai: 
You've laid this out already, I think, in some detail, but just to put an explicit point on it, you know, what do you hope to achieve for advisors? What do you hope an advisor reflecting on the year that was or the career that was says, Bold Wealth did this for me? 
 

[00:10:17] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah, that great, great question. So our goal is to take time off their plate, take stress off their plate, so they can focus more on what they like to do, whether that be growing their business, whether that be spending time with family. Our goal is to take stress and time off their shoulders. And sort of how we do that is by delivering sort of best-in-class wealth tech that is easy to use, their clients will love it, and then implementing sort of pension-style asset management, so world-class portfolio management, and then great service. So by integrating those three layers of an integrated tech stack that is best-in-class in Canada, arguably very, very high caliber. portfolio management. And then also, again, a great service team behind there where you know their phone numbers, they're real people, not AI chatbots. They're there to help you out. By sort of combining those three layers together, we hope to sort of help that advisor experience where they can focus on their relationships, growing their business, leave every other complexity to our firm, and we'll take care of the rest. 
 

[00:11:26] David Kitai: 
That sounds pretty nice. But There are a lot of other firms who are making similar promises and making similar arguments or claims, and you've got to stand out in that field. How do you do it? How do you work to differentiate your firm and your brand in a pretty crowded industry? 
 

[00:11:45] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah, so when we look at sort of the industry of sort of being an independent provider to financial advisors, we only see a few true competitors. And I know there's a lot in the area, but where I think we stand out and where we think we add extra value to advisors relative to the folks in this industry is really, again, on the technology side. I'll start there is we are finding the best in class in each each category. So we are not going with a tier two or tier three. So looking across at every firm I know in Canada, their tech stacks. I can say once we are finished implementing this last little piece that I think we have the best tech staff in Canada across those providers. And being a more nimble firm, we can make decisions fairly quickly. So if a best in class provider comes to be, we can be quicker to use it than, let's say, a big five, where, again, that might happen the year later sort of thing. So I am very, very proud of what we're doing on the technology side of things. But I think... Further down is sort of that communication level. Do you want to sort of have a seat? And do you want to have the ability to shape how the firm is going to grow? And for advisors coming in, they actually have that ability. We are going to listen to you. We're going to learn what you want, what your clients want, and sort of shape our processes to that rather than you coming into a firm, everything's cookie cutter. You have no say. This is the way or the highway sort of thing. So that's where I think the advisors will appreciate. a voice and actually being heard and their ideas actually getting implemented into our technology. And that's also speaks to again, choose technology that is very responsive, very customizable sort of thing. And then adding the human touch. I think we have a fantastic team behind us, world class. And I think they're that third layer where I think that's something that we bring to the table is we spend a lot of time on hiring our team is that we work very well together and great culture behind us there. I think that human aspect will also shine through when we're chatting with a new advisor. 
 

[00:13:55] David Kitai: 
So as we as you look at the industry today, you've already hinted at a few of these issues and a few of these kind of pain points. But what are a few kind of core issues you see advisors facing now that you want to help resolve, that you want to offer a meaningful solution to? 
 

[00:14:12] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah, I would say for most advisors, technology is actually and I know I've spoken on this quite a bit and I'll have other items on this subject. But. Technology is an item where if you are a, let's say a smaller team, it is very hard to implement some of these technology providers where some of them only work with firms, some of them the minimum cost is 50,000 this, that and the other where the barriers for an individual advisor are quiet high and then are you gonna spend $100,000 to integrate them all together? And are you going to have a technology person on staff sort of thing? So that's where I think technology If you want to go best in class, it's very hard for a smaller firm, an individual advisor, or even a small team of advisors to take that step sort of thing. So that's where I think technology is a big one that I think it's there, but you need a certain size to be able to go after it sort of thing. And that's where we leverage our size and then pass the benefits on to our advisors. So I think we're never going to charge you more for any provider or any software that we use or that we can access given our size. So the second item that I would say on this is that also has a little bit to do with size is portfolio management. Such a complicated area. Some advisors love it. Some advisors would be very happy for it to be off their plate. And this is an area where, again, we hire, again, world-class folks behind the scenes, behind those Bloomberg portals, managing the portfolios. But one piece I like to highlight is, again, Our philosophy is very much more similar to a pension style portfolio, i.e. an OMERS, a teacher's versus a standard 60-40. We want to have alternative asset classes, private equity, private debt, infrastructure, real estate, mortgages, because we truly believe over a long period of time, the client will be better off with those and it'll be a smoother ride throughout the way. But given our size and our buying power, we're able to work with some of these managers that. don't work with financial advisors, don't work with, again, end people, they only work with pension fund providers and large asset managers, where minimum orders can be 50, 100 million, just to get in the door and use their product. And this is where again, we're able to leverage our size to get better pricing, and also access to typically inaccessible opportunities. So I would say portfolio management is a big piece of things. And again, because we're a registered portfolio management firm. we can trade like a pension fund. We can have a pool of capital, go in with that large order, and then split it upon our clients sort of thing. So that's a big area where I don't see done well. The next is service. Again, you don't know how many advisors I speak to where they're like, I can't get anyone on the phone, or I don't have a direct line of communication to the custodian, or I need to put a message into a queue, and then two days later, someone replies. So. I dealt with this as a financial advisor and I know that pain. So we have cell phone numbers for all of our employees. They can be reachable. Our custodian, a big thing with us is we want to make sure we have a phone number. Something happens, I want to be able to call three people sort of thing and escalate items when they do come up. So I think that's a big piece is with our advisors. It doesn't feel like you're just a number. It doesn't feel like you're putting a question into a queue. You know who you're chatting with. You know their names, whether it be Sam, Ashley, Tanya on our administrative team. You'll get to know them. And again, that's where, again, you have that direct line of communication. So I think by eliminating some of those bottlenecks in that communication, just making sure we have enough staff to fill that need will be a step ahead. And we don't leave that bad experience. If you throw a ticket in there three days later, someone replies, you got to wait another three days for something that should have been a quick phone call. So communication is an area that we really take pride in. And again, it really comes from what are the mistakes we've seen done at other firms. 
 

[00:18:23] David Kitai: 
Such a fascinating answer. And in some ways, you know, you highlight this tension in the industry between scale and independence, where on all of those fronts, scale gives you such an advantage. But advisors, so many advisors want to retain their independence. And I guess I'll ask, I mean, is it fair to say that a lot of your goal here is to balance the advantages of scale with the necessity of independence in so many advisors business models? 
 

[00:18:49] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah, so definitely can become a balance. And it's definitely going to be more challenging as as we scale. But our goal is not to to be a bank, our goal is not to be a firm ad, let's say a hundred billion dollars. Our goal is never to get there. Our goal is to work 20 to 30 independent financial planning firms. I think where do I wanna see this firm go to? I would love to bring this firm to $10 billion under management. That's my goal. Again, once I reach there, I might have further goals, but we never want to sacrifice service. We want to know our advisors, each one of them is individually important to us. They are not just a number in the system. We want them to be very, very happy about the services they have. And we want to always be best in class. technology, portfolio management, we really want to deliver something special and charge a reasonable fee while doing it. When we do look across the industry, and we look at some fees being charged by similar service providers, We are not, we're not going to charge an excessive amount. We're not going to pad our pockets. We'll charge what we need to keep the lights on and have a safety buffer. But we're not here to gouge our advisors. We want to charge a fair, fair fee for an extraordinary service. And so that's how we want to go about things. But I think as time goes on, I think our philosophies of hiring the right people, over hiring. So when a deal comes in, don't hire one. When the deal is there, hire a few months before the deal is there and sort of keeping that sort of check and balances in place among our staff members. And I think that's one thing that I've seen at previous firms where you were there always understaffed. They're always, again, asked to work long hours. Staff was unhappy. Staff would leave. We've never lost a staff member today, and I hope to never lose a staff member over time. So I think a big piece of scaling this business is. among hiring good folks and hiring early. And I think that will alleviate a lot of the growing pains that we've seen other firms hit along their journeys. 
 

[00:20:57] David Kitai: 
By way of a final question for the advisors who are watching this conversation today, what do you hope their takeaways are, not just from the service offerings at Bold Wealth, but from your own personal journey and this career that has gone through so many different sides of the wealth management industry and the wealth tech industry? What do you hope the advisors who are listening to our chat, what do you hope they take from that story? 
 

[00:21:17] Chris Arthur: 
Yeah, so as a fellow advisor myself and a fellow advisor that's always had pain points at platforms that I've worked with is I would say take the time. And again, this doesn't need to be something done right away, but take the time to assess the marketplace and really ensure the provider that you're working with today is the best fit for your needs. So evaluate the tech. What kind of tech is out there elsewhere? Could tech be helping you more? What sort of platform? platforms are available to your current provider? Or would you need to change providers to access a better provider? So I would go through your technology suite and really assess like, hey, where are my weak points? How could this be improved? Why is why am I being bogged down by admin tasks? And can these be handled by a better quality system? And then I would also move along the lines to again, on portfolio management. Are you doing all the work yourself? How are the portfolios being managed? What is the fee being charged there? And what is that relative to, again, maybe an independent provider? And then service? Are you just a number? What happens when you send in a ticket? How long does it take to get answered back? Do you have cell phones? So I would say those would be my big three as a fellow advisor is, hey, how is my life being made easier? What's my technology like? Is it easy to use? Are my clients really happy with it? Is there something better that my clients would like even more and make my life easier? portfolio side of things. Again, performance is one thing, but what's the philosophy behind the portfolios? Do you have good exposure to alternatives? Is it a standard 60 40 that you're in, and really evaluate what's in the broader market, and then your service as well. Again, you know how your how your service model is how you're being treated by your current dealer or provider. And it does that align with your goals for the business down the line. So I would spend a lot of time evaluating those areas. There's some really, really cool platforms, technology providers out there these days that I really think are augmenting that sort of advisor and client experience that we found to be great partners for us. So I would say to spend some time, challenge where you are today and assess that where you are, your current platform, is that your best fit and really take some time to evaluate that and make sure it's aligned with your future goals for the business. That's the advice I would give advisors is really, there's some really, really cool things and great platforms out there. I think it's a great time in the industry to go over and have a look and see what else is out there. 
 

[00:23:53] David Kitai: 
That is a beautiful note to end on, Chris. With that, I will just say thank you so much for your insights and your time for sharing such a fascinating story about your own career and this company that you're built. 
 

[00:24:05] Chris Arthur: 
No, really appreciate it, David. Just want to say a big thank you to our team over at Bold Wealth. We wouldn't have gotten this award without your hard work and dedication. So big thank you to all of you as well. 
 

[00:24:19] David Kitai: 
Another great note to end on. Thank you so much, Chris. And thank you to all of our viewers for WPTV. I have been David Kitai. Thanks so much.