Macquarie ahead on plan to add 250 teams in 5 years

Macquarie Private Wealth is out in front of its plans to establish a strong presence in the Canadian market.

The Sydney, Australia-based firm purchased Blackmont Capital on January 1, 2010 with an eye toward gaining a footprint in the Canadian wealth management industry. In terms of assets under management, it was a $6-billion footprint – quite large by this country’s standards.

But plans were bigger still, calling for 250 high-end advisor teams to be working on the firm’s platform by 2015.

“The model was to get to 250 advisors with $20-to-$25 billion in assets and then supercharge the growth of those teams,” says Earl Evans, head of Macquarie Private Wealth. “At that point, we’ll stop the recruitment process and redirect resources to the advisors – inflowing assets and marketing activity and make them top of market.”

Having just added its 100^th new advisor team since the acquisition, though, it’s likely Macquarie will hit 250 inside of four years, rather than five.

Evans says that’s largely due to the number of advisor teams approaching the firm to hear its story. They’re up to scratch qualitatively as well, says Evans who refers to some teams he’s interviewed as the “Navy SEALs” of advisors.

“What’s fascinating is we’re getting the biggest and best books on the street – $500 million from three teams in the last week alone. We’ve had four advisor teams come in over the last day-and-a-half,” he says. “The word is getting out about our culture and style and we’re cracking that myth that international firms can’t make it in Canada.”

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Macquarie’s platform is agnostic in terms of business model. Some are fee-based, others transactional. Mike Philbrick, an advisor and portfolio-manager who heads the Toronto branch, says the goal is to give advisor teams joining the firm autonomy to do what they’re good at, noting large institutions in Canada don’t routinely provide that option.

“They’re not permitted to be unique,” he says. “We’re looking for those great businesses with thoughtful approaches.”

Once the 250-team mark is hit, Macquarie will concentrate on operational and qualitative improvements.

“We only want to be in 12 markets; we’ve had opportunity to expand and we’ve resisted it,” Evans stresses. “We want to maintain that flat management, anti-bureaucracy feel. That’s a boutique. We have hand-selected people who fit our culture.”

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