When tech gives advisors their time back

Brodie Lawson  00:00:09 

Welcome back to WP TV. I'm Brodie Lawson. Now today, I am thrilled to be joined by Robert Francis, CEO and Chairman of Peak Financial Group, to discuss his recognition as one of the excellence awardees for the Trez Capital Award, Dealer of the Year at the 2025 Wealth Professional Canada Awards, Robert, we are so thrilled to have you here. Congratulations, and let's just dive in to what has made you so successful this past year. So why do you think that you were named an excellence awardees for Dealer of the year. 

 

Robert Frances  00:00:42 

Thank you, Brodie. We're thrilled. We are. We are quite humbled by by the nominations. I believe this is the culmination of work in the last few years to continuously improve things, but it's really a result of 32 years of being around and working for advisors. First. Our company was always built by advisors, for advisors, and we believe it's critical that those values be reminded, be upfront, and I think that's what's leading to these nominations and this recognition in different in different areas. I think our values of putting the advisor first, of ensuring full independence at the advisor level, but also at the dealer level, with no ownership ties to any product or manufacturing, has really set the stage for the other areas. Some of the other areas are heavy attention to compliance, making sure we do things properly, but doing it with a layer of technology to empower advisors, to make it easier for them to do that. Advisors have also told us they love the human connection, access to leadership and the way we go about building the company continuously with no sales quotas, no proprietary products, no distractions, which leaves us completely dedicated to the advisor and independent advice. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:02:06 

You've talked about putting your advisors first. What have you done in the past year to make your advisors lives easier? 

 

Robert Frances  00:02:13 

A bunch of technology advances. So just in the last year, we launched automated AI note taking. So this gives the advisor the ability to literally press a button, get the notes down, make sure they are compliant, make the changes, and it goes through the client file online, and they're fully compliant the moment they go in. One advisor told me, says I finally reclaimed my time in the evenings with my family, because that's when I had to do all these notes. So these are little examples where, when you put them all together, it makes a huge change. We set up, for example, a real time compliance chat bot. I mean, there's a lot of talk about AI and how to use it. So this chat bot gives instant answers, gives instant ability, and it's supported by humans on top of that too, so advisors can get quick answers to their compliance questions, which was an irritant for them in the last few years, with all the changes that have happened and improvements that have happened in regulatory areas, we launched. He said, Well, this is the last two years, but the E signature has been completely revamped, and now we have friction free onboarding of new clients as well as advisors. When they join us, everything is fully automated, and advisors find the administration really good. Now we don't just do it in the admin side. We also did it on the digital marketing side. Advisor says, look, I've got business to run now, so I need an online presence. What about my presence in social media? And what do I do there? So we have a full turnkey digital marketing package that's available to them that they could use, that is supported by material that they could use every month to update yourself. So again, we're trying to do things where advisors lives are made easier, where they can reclaim the time, the effort and the certainty around the tools they use, certainty that they are compliant, that they are effective, and they're curated by the firm. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:04:03 

You've touched on some ways that Tech has worked for you, but how are you going to keep pace with the ongoing regulatory and tech changes that dealers are facing? 

 

Robert Frances  00:04:12 

Brodie, you're touching on a topic that's very dear to us and to advisors. Regulation has gone through huge changes in the last 10 years, in the last five years alone, and it's not going to stop. We see a lot of things going on, and regulation keeps up with many of the technological changes, so we shouldn't be surprised when we see everything that's going on. But advisors often ask me, though, are regulators aware of what we face in the field every day with our clients, because we wonder when these rules are imposed on us, that sometimes regulators might not be aware of how it impacts us and how it may impact the client down the line. So what we've done at peak to keep up with this is we've become extremely involved at all levels, and it's something we've done for many years at peak, but in the last five years, we've put even more effort on it. So. We're involved in various committees. As you know, I chair, I sit on the board of Chiro. I've chaired various committees over the years on regulatory matters right across Canada. Many of our advisors are involved in special committees or standing committees of regulators or of industry. So by doing that, we have a seat at the table. We being the independent advice channel, along with other firms, to ensure that regulation continues to evolve, but does so also in a manner that is relevant to how clients and advisors work together, that gives clarity, that gives assurance, and it ensures our advisors stay ahead of what's coming down the pipes, not just compliance, but can really benefit from the compliance to turn their relationships into more efficient ones and even more profitable ones by using proper compliance. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:05:51 

What major challenges do you see advisors now facing? 

 

Robert Frances  00:05:55 

Of course, compliance continues to always be a challenge because of the volume of administration and and workload and paperwork. So that continues to be an area that that challenges advisors. I think that the onslaught of technology AI the change that's going on and competition continuing to always come in from alternate sources of advice. Because of that, advisors are challenged in ensuring that their value is always up front and center with their clients, is always they remind their clients of the value they bring. They articulate that. So to do that and to help them with these challenges, I think advisors need to use some tools. For example, we launched peak Connect, which simplifies everything into one. So I referred earlier, the AI notes, the chat bot, the automatic reviews of their files and their their not only their notes, but their physicians and their different portfolios. All those things need to be simplified for the client and for the advisor. I see it as a challenge. I see it as an opportunity for advisors. Clients are listening. They're watching more than ever. They're interested in their finances because of all this stuff that's going on. Like our advisors, they want it to be simple, so that they can have dinner with their families. Well, the same with clients and how they relate to their advisor. They say, please tell me everything I need to know, provide everything. Give me all the assurances, the documents to say I'm protected, but once the trust is established. Please do a lot of the work behind the scenes for me, and give me simplicity so I can also have dinner with my family. So that's what we're trying to do. So I think the challenges turn into opportunities for the advisors and for us at Peak. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:07:33 

You may feel that you've touched on this, but I'll give you an opportunity to add on. How are you equipping them to deal with these changes? You've mentioned a few, but are there any additional 

 

Robert Frances  00:07:42 

Yeah, so we provide advisors the tools that we believe they need, and we continue to invent and create and find ways for those tools to be useful. The priority is to find ways to simplify things, using the data, the information that's already there internally, and that is the way that I think we can make a huge difference in advisors lives. We do it in small in small increments. Rather than having one software that does everything we do, we launch many different modules every year that they can pick and choose from and integrate into the whole we've worked on the digital marketing pieces so that they have tools for social media that are turnkey. Last three years, we've developed a pretty robust succession planning and monetization department. We call it peak capital solutions. This gives the advisors the ability to work with our finance department, our corporate finance area, if you'd like to do internal M and A to buy and sell parts of businesses, to monetize their existing business, to ensure that they can run their practice like a long term business that is prepared for succession one day, which is another area that they feel it's really, really helpful in knowing that it's there then, obviously, through our different touch points and our annual conference, our regional meetings and various levels of access. And I'd say that the the biggest area where advisors say that we're equipping them is that they have a direct access to everyone in management, especially senior management. I often get calls or emails from advisors directly. Fortunately, if it's anything that has to do with with entering an order, I am not the best person for that, but I do speak with them regularly about strategy where we're at, and in some cases, they do call me on areas where they believe I can be helpful in getting things figured out internally so that access is available all time. And that's something we've kept no matter how big we became, and we want to maintain that in the future. Again, that comes because there's no distraction with manufacturing parents, an outside parent of the company. There's no distraction that comes from in house product. We're fully dedicated, 100% from the CEO all the way down to any employee does that entry to the. Advisor that's so important. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:10:02 

Can you share a recent example of a digital innovation that solved a real advisor pain point? 

 

Robert Frances  00:10:09 

Every advisor tells us there's various innovations that we have that help them, and it's I treat it like a buffet where you come in and take the ones you want. So advisors have told us, obviously, the AI note taking tool has probably been the biggest innovation for those advisors who were taking a lot of time, having to type in their notes right into the system. The compliance chat bot has seen some lots of use in the last year, so we're seeing all right. There are many basic questions people have. They need an answer right away. They get it from that, and then humans can take over right after if it's warranted and needed. They help participate in the creation of these. These were not done in a laboratory internally by a bunch of AI scientists. These are things done with advisors on the various committees that help develop these things. So this innovation, I think, has been solving pain points and has been validated by advisors who are on it. There's many more such innovations that we have, but the rule of thumb we apply is, does it save time? Does it reduce stress? Does it raise confidence while remaining compliant in the company? And if it does, we roll it out and advisors choose from the buffet what they can use. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:11:12 

What advantages do you have as an independent, nimble dealer? 

 

Robert Frances  00:11:18 

Well, at peak, we are what we offer as an advantage is we are truly fully independent with no ownership ties, direct or indirect, with any product manufacturing. The company is privately owned, privately managed. Our vision has not changed in 32 years. That becomes a big advantage for advisors, as they tell their clients, here's a firm that is truly dedicated only to supporting true independent advisors with a model that is itself fully independent. So they never have to worry about product shelf, about a certain product being recommended more than another one, or offered or not available at peak, because directly or indirectly, it causes some friction with other problems with other products. They never have to worry about priorities being different, about issues that may come up with ownership or succession. As I mentioned, the succession plan for the company has already been set up into the next generation of owners, so all that has been taken care of, so they end up with getting this, all this as a background, and then you add to that good technology, AI coming online, dedicated and very competent and experienced management team after 32 years, got many employees who've been there for 25 years and more, who understand this industry. They get the advantage of being represented at various levels of regulation by people who are committed like them to true independence, without any conflict of interest, without any internal bias, and they own their book of business. They own their clients. So you put that as a package along with the tools that I mentioned earlier, and I think what people find is that those together are a pretty compelling advantage for a truly independent advisor. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:13:02 

Finally, what do you hope advisors and the industry take from your approach? 

 

Robert Frances  00:13:07 

Well, I My hope is that there not only continues to be a place for truly independent advisors and dealers, but that the industry and others in the industry also take that to heart, that they understand, not only is it a model that can survive, but it is thriving. It is growing. There are many parts of the world where that is the dominant model. Canada is one of those areas where the product side of the industry has dominated the advice side, by buying distribution. And what I hope is that if we were to look out 10 years, we we have an industry that continues to move towards putting the client first and then putting the advisor second before after the client, and then putting the dealer third, where all three are integrated fully in an environment of full independence, no bias, making all products available, and now we move to the advice, rather than the product selection as a differentiator. We've often told advisors that what will make you very powerful with your clients is not the access to the product. If you have access to all products, what will make you different is that you access all these products with absolutely no difference in Outlook with a firm and dealer that makes them available, with no vested interest in any of them. Now you have full integration of that independence, and clients are starting to notice that. So I'm hoping that it continues to grow in that area, but that through better media, through attention from from people like you and others that this independent model continues to not only thrive, but take, you, know, reclaim the place that it should hold as it holds many other parts of the world. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:14:54 

Well, Robert, thank you for sharing your wisdom and insights today and all the great things that are happening at Peak Financial Group this was wonderful.  

 

Robert Frances  00:15:01 

Thank you very much, Brodie. 

 

Brodie Lawson  00:15:02 

And to our viewers, thanks for joining us. Keep an eye out for more great content on WP TV.