IAFP President Aaron Hector & IAFP Board Member Jen Schmid explain how independence helps them deliver a suite of services covering tax, investments, estate, and retirement
The service offerings at TIER wealth are right there in the name. Tax, investment management, estate planning, and retirement are all wrapped up in the team’s name, an acronym for those services. Newly launched as an independent practice under this brand TIER Wealth’s co-founders explained why they went independent and why they chose Q Wealth Partners as their platform partner.
Aaron Hector and Jen Schmid are the two founding partners and senior wealth advisors at TIER Wealth. Between them, they carry a set of credentials that enable them to offer such a broad scope of services. Hector is a B.Comm, CFP, R.F.P., and TEP. Schmid is an MPACC, CPA (CA), CFP, and R.F.P. their team also includes another wealth advisor — named Yaw Boadu — who holds the CFA, CFP, and FRM designations. Having worked as bank advisors for several years following the acquisition of their original boutique firm, Hector and Schmid decided that the best way for them to offer this level of service was to go independent.
“We wanted just to have a little more control as to exactly what our go to market brand was going to look like, what services we could offer, what pieces of technology we could use,” Hector says. “A lot of the work that we do is different from the vast majority of the investment industry, and we wanted to go somewhere that we're going to kind of be welcomed with open arms, with how we wanted to run our business.”
In pursuit of what Schmid prefers to call “freedom” she and Hector spent years seeking out the right dealer to partner with. Q Wealth Partners, they explain, a partnership rather than a dealer, kept popping up in industry circles, events, and in recommendations from friends and industry peers. They saw Q Wealth rubbing shoulders with the people they respect in the industry, which raised their esteem for the Q Wealth partnership. There was a direct referral, too, from a close friend and fellow advisor who had already been with Q Wealth for over a year.
On the operational side, the fact that Q Wealth already used Conquest as their planning software and had the same custodian as their previous bank firm meant the transition into independent practice could be that much smoother.
There was a deep philosophical alignment, too. Both Schmid and Hector believe in maintaining a fiduciary standard of client service. They both serve on the board of the Institute of Advance Financial Planners (IAFP) where they are actively working to articulate and promote a fiduciary standard among financial planners. In one conversation with a prospective dealer, Hector notes, they were told “we probably don't want you saying words like fiduciary in the public.” That dealer, he says, lost their interest with that one line.
Q Wealth, in contrast, featured the word fiduciary frequently and prominently across their website and materials. As they got to know firm CEO Jared Rabinowitz & Head of Partner Admissions Stephen Gasparek, along with the rest of the QW team, Schmid and Hector found personal alignment along with philosophical agreement.
They praise the fact that the leaders at Q Wealth are both ‘normal people’ and trustworthy business partners, as well as a dealer model that gives them both an equity stake and a voice in the operations of Q Wealth. They expressed their gratitude for the support they’ve received from the Q Wealth team in starting the new practice. Everything from branding and design through operational support and adaptation to emerging challenges, the TIER Wealth founding partners were effusive about their new dealer.
The decision to go independent, Schmid and Hector explain, was driven by a desire to offer the kind of service that this industry talks about as the future. The kind of holistic planning that TIER Wealth strives to deliver, they say, is rooted in the real needs of Canadian clients facing an increasingly complex future. Finding the right dealer to support their business model was not a simple or easy process. It took years to arrive at their decision. As other advisors consider how they can offer a similar level of sophisticated service, the TIER Wealth co-founders stress that due diligence is necessary.
“It took us two years to get here and to find the right fit. Sometimes it was frustrating, but we found the place that will allow us to do exactly what we want to do,” Schmid says. “Just take your time and really look at what's out there.”
