Gillian Kunza explains how the firm’s wealth intelligence model aims to bring institutional resources and greater decision-making authority to independent advisors
This article was produced in partnership with Designed Wealth Management
Designed Wealth Management is working toward a model that combines the resources of a large financial institution with the flexibility of an independent dealer. Central to that ambition is the firm’s vision of becoming a wealth intelligence and decision-making platform, giving advisors access to a broader range of expertise, research and investment solutions while preserving their ability to make decisions based on individual client needs.
Co-founder and CEO, Gillian Kunza, who developed the vision alongside fellow co-founder Michael Konopaski, sees Designed’s role as bringing together the capabilities advisors need to deliver more comprehensive wealth management services.
Rather than prescribing investment models or directing advisors toward particular products, the firm aims to provide the information, specialist support and resources that strengthen their decision-making.
“We shouldn’t be making the decisions for their client,” Kunza says, emphasizing that advisors are best positioned to assess the circumstances and financial objectives of the people they serve. The dealer’s responsibility is to support that relationship and expand the range of solutions available to them.
With ambitions to exceed $100 billion in assets under administration in Canada over the next five years, Designed is looking to build on that approach as it expands. Kunza believes the firm can develop the infrastructure and specialist capabilities associated with much larger institutions without compromising the customization that defines its offering.
Standardize the process, not the advice
Kunza says scale versus customization comes up often in conversations with advisors. One of the challenges in expanding an independent dealer is accommodating different advisory practices without creating operational complexity.
“We still have processes and policies and procedures, but we have consistent application of those as opposed to deciding for people the outcome,” she explains.
Advisors follow the same operational requirements but can arrive at different solutions depending on their clients and business models, provided those solutions fall within the firm’s capabilities. This allows Designed to maintain a consistent operating structure without requiring uniformity in the services advisors deliver.
Designed has developed ten types of advisor working groups, covering interests such as alternative investments, portfolio management and artificial intelligence. They allow advisors from different regions to exchange experience and discuss developments relevant to their practices.
Alternative investments are an example, advisors with experience in the asset class can share their knowledge with colleagues who want to understand particular products or the risks involved. These discussions also provide a way for advisors to identify common needs and bring more considered proposals to management.
“They come to you with the solution that they want. So they do half the work for you,” Kunza says.
To make that feedback useful, Designed has distributed decision-making authority throughout its team. There is little value in inviting feedback if every proposed improvement gets caught in an approval queue. This structure is important to maintaining responsiveness as the advisor population increases. It also gives advisors a more direct role in shaping the resources available across the firm.
What $100 billion would make possible
Advisors serving wealthier clients with more complex financial affairs, require resources that large financial institutions have spent years building.
Major banks offer institutional research, substantial technology resources and specialist expertise in complex financial planning. Their established brands also carry weight with affluent investors.
“If you’ve got a bank in the background, that can be very comforting to clients, affluent clients especially,” Kunza says.
Recent research points to weaknesses in existing dealer infrastructure. A 2026 survey of more than 300 Canadian advisors, reported by Wealth Professional, found that 59% rated their dealer’s support for AI and emerging technologies as fair or worse. Another 45% indicated that their technology fell short of providing a comprehensive view of clients’ finances.
For Designed, a larger asset base could provide stronger negotiating power with external partners and greater capacity for internal investment. Kunza identifies private banking, securities lending and dedicated tax and estate expertise among the capabilities the firm could eventually expand.
“It’s not about bigger ego bragging rights,” she says of the $100-billion target. Scale opens doors.
Beyond the portfolio, a more demanding client relationship
Clients no longer need an appointment with their advisor to obtain an explanation of their investments. Financial commentary arrives through their phones throughout the day, while AI tools can produce portfolio assessments in seconds. The information may be inaccurate or poorly suited to their circumstances, but it is increasingly part of what advisors must contend with.
“A client can scan their document into ChatGPT and say, tell me about my portfolio,” Kunza says. “They don’t need the advisor to do that.”
She believes advisors face greater pressure to demonstrate the breadth of their expertise, particularly when clients arrive with financial opinions formed elsewhere.
“I might be the expert for them, but I’m not the only one that’s feeding them information,” she says, describing the position an advisor now occupies.
Kunza wants Designed to remain receptive to emerging technologies, including AI, while strengthening the resources advisors need to maintain their credibility with clients. She also sees room for dealers to apply their experience to decisions advisors face within their own businesses, particularly when it comes time to sell.
An advisor may negotiate the sale of a practice only once during a career. A dealer that has seen multiple transactions can offer a more informed view of valuations and deal structures. But Kunza also believes these arrangements deserve closer consideration from the client’s perspective, given that the value being sold rests substantially on existing relationships.
Greater transparency is particularly important when a change in ownership could affect the relationship clients have spent years developing with an advisor.
The same emphasis on transparency extends to the relationship between advisors and their dealers. With independence now claimed by firms operating under widely different models, Kunza believes advisors should pay closer attention to how openly a dealer communicates, how it responds to feedback and whether its commitments translate into action.
For Designed, the ambition to reach $100 billion will put those commitments under greater scrutiny. Kunza wants the firm’s advisors to have more resources at their disposal, but also the authority to influence how those resources are developed.
