Advisor team moves to Canaccord from RBC DS

A two-advisor team managing over $200 million in assets has left Toronto-based RBC Dominion Securities for Vancouver-based Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management.

Jerry Basran, senior vice-president and investment advisor, and Sonia Taylor, investment advisor, started at Canaccord Genuity in Vancouver on Aug. 23. Their team, the Basran Wealth Management Group, includes investment associate Alicia Wu and serves a client base that includes ultra-high-net-worth families and not-for-profit institutional clients.

“The culture [at Canaccord Genuity] is very entrepreneurial and independent, and that’s exactly what I was looking for,” Basran said.

Basran left RBC DS after spending 19 years with the bank-based brokerage as vice-president and investment advisor. Basran began his career at the Royal Bank of Canada after graduating from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

Taylor left RBC DS after seven years as an associate investment advisor with the brokerage and following an earlier stint with RBC DS running from 1993 to 2004. Taylor also worked at Vancouver-based Odlum Brown Ltd. and Charles Schwab Canada, now owned by Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia.

Basran said that while Canaccord Genuity’s research capabilities factored into the decision to switch firms, it was “more so about culture than anything else.”

“I have a passion for the markets; I love the relationships I have with my clients,” said Basran. “I just want to be able to continue to provide independent, objective advice.”

Rudy Mezzetta

Rudy is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on tax, estate planning, industry news and more since 2005. Reach him at rudy@newcom.ca.