After commuting for years from Simcoe County, Grant Moyle and Steve Rowley saw a generational shift northward in wealth
Grant Moyle and Steve Rowley have been driving up the 400 from Toronto to Muskoka and Georgian Bay for most of their lives. Both advisors grew up in cottaging families and knew the area well. They’d seen firsthand how the population of Simcoe and Grey counties was expanding, and how more and more wealth was moving into cottage country. In 2016 Moyle’s wife got a position with Bell Canada, working on management of Indigenous land claims, run out of an office on Bayfield St. in Barrie, Ontario. Moyle decided to move the family up to Midhurst, just north of Barrie. Rowley and his wife moved north around the same time, relocating to the Collingwood area, seeking a smaller community to raise their children in. For a time, the two advisors commuted, down to their office in North York.
When COVID hit, and their office was closed, Moyle and Rowley witnessed the rapid growth of the region they lived in and knew so well. Property values skyrocketed, especially cottages. Remote work and hybrid jobs brought thousands more commuters to Barrie and the surrounding area. They saw three key markets emerging for wealth management: high earning mass affluent commuters, high net worth retirees in cottage country, and a growing cohort of business owners serving those markets.
In 2024, to capture that market, they moved north. The two advisors opened an office in Barrie, a place they saw as the ‘hub’ of the region. Not content with just a relocation of their practice, they went independent at the same time. Moyle and Rowley made the switch from TD Wealth to Wellington-Altus, going independent as they went north.
“I always said to Steve that it would be amazing, especially with the new affluence coming up here, to just operate a practice straight out of the hub of Simcoe County,” Moyle says. “We came to a decision over the years that not only were clients in general not being well served at the banks, but that the banks really weren’t serving this new affluent market we saw here.”
Wellington-Altus, they explained, offered what they saw as a platform for better wealth management service across the market segments they served. They could refer to other firms for credit cards and mortgages, but Wellington-Altus, they explained, gave them the means of serving those upwardly mobile affluent commuters, local business owners, and cottage-based retirees. Serving those different client sets, along with some of the existing Toronto-based high net worth clients they brought with them from TD Wealth, requires a high degree of customization.
“We have a few different service model offerings,” Rowley explained. “We have an abundance of access to investment strategies, in some cases that includes strategies exclusive to Wellington-Altus. We’ve been able to successfully partner with the Independent Advisor Solutions division to bring our clients institutional strategies and a greater breadth of investment choices. Because we’re not at a bank firm, and we’re not selling credit cards or doing loans, we can cater to the mass affluent and high net worth markets through our service offerings.”
The goal, Rowley explained, is to provide clients in their region with a family office level of service. Getting there has required building out a team. Currently Rowley and Moyle have a growing team of associates and specialists. Those team members allow for better customization of service and the ability to meet the needs of both high net worth and mass affluent clients. They also leverage access to estate planners, tax lawyers, and other specialists who can help deliver real value to their clients.
While Rowley and Moyle have longstanding ties to the region, and have lived in the area for longer than they’ve run a business there, establishing themselves has taken a great deal of work. Add to that the challenge of going from a bank to independent firm and giving up some of the immediate brand recognition that comes with a big six label. On a business level, they built a marketing strategy aimed at reaching their region through local media and entrepreneurial networks. They rolled up their sleeves to volunteer, as well, supporting causes like Barrie Cares and Hospice Simcoe.
Advisors in major cities across Canada may see similar trends in Rowley and Moyle’s story. Ex-urban regions, on the way to recreation, have become hotbeds of activity as commuters seek affordability and retirees seek a slower pace of life. Rowley and Moyle emphasize that, in their experience, making a move further out can be a source of broader fulfilment and a springboard for future success.
“The biggest thing that we’ve learned and hopefully that we can share is that you have a choice. You have a choice in where to operate your practice,” Rowley says. “You have to be comfortable that you’re at the place to operate your practice with your clients that is the best fit for them and the best fit for you. That doesn’t necessarily need to be at the same place where you first built your practice, quite frankly, or even where you want to transition your business from a succession planning standpoint.”
