Jessica Smith joined Designed Wealth Management as employee number two, before the firm had brought on a single advisor, after a coffee with co-founder Michael Konopaski and a meeting with CEO Gillian Kunza convinced her the chance to build a dealer from scratch was worth the leap. Five years later, she serves as vice president of strategic operations and growth at a firm that now counts more than 170 advisors, roughly $9 billion in assets under administration, and operations across all 13 Canadian provinces and territories. Her decade in high-net-worth client relations, capped by a vice president role, gave her the operations fluency she now brings to advisor recruitment, letting her talk about how a practice actually runs rather than leading with grids and fees. Away from recruitment, Smith is developing the firm's Women in Wealth program alongside three advisors, built around four pillars and centred on practical guidance, including a clear playbook for parental and family leave. Her leadership philosophy is equally direct: equip people well, then step back and ask what they need to succeed.
Designed Wealth Management has grown to more than 170 advisors and approximately $9 billion in assets under administration since its founding, and describes itself as Canada's fastest organically growing investment dealer. The firm operates across all 13 Canadian provinces and territories, employs more than 70 people, and maintains a seven-member advisor advisory board. Jessica Smith joined as employee number two, before the firm had onboarded its first advisor.
Smith had resigned from her previous role at a high-net-worth money manager while on maternity leave, without another position lined up, because she was ready for a change. A coffee with co-founder Michael Konopaski led to a meeting with CEO Gillian Kunza, and Smith was drawn in by the chance to help build a dealer from scratch. 'I'm ready for the adventure,' she recalls thinking at the time.
Because Smith spent her early years at Designed working in operations, she understands the technology advisors use day to day and where processes can become cumbersome. That lets her move past conversations about grids and fees and talk directly about how a practice is run. 'If all I ever did was talk to advisors about their grids and fees, I wouldn't have as strong a base of knowledge on any of this,' she says.
Smith says older, more established dealers tend to box advisors into fixed ways of doing things, while Designed will adapt the platform to suit an advisor's practice rather than the other way around. 'No is never the first answer. We will always try to solve it,' she says. Advisors with a problem can still reach senior management directly, which Smith points to as a feature that larger incumbents typically cannot offer.
Smith is developing the Women in Wealth program alongside three advisors at the firm, built around four pillars and designed to go beyond inspiration and into practical guidance. She wants a clear playbook covering how an advisor can take parental or family leave without losing continuity in their book of business, including who covers the book, what happens to registration status, and how compensation is handled. The goal is to have those arrangements in place before they are needed, not negotiated in the moment.
Smith says the firm's position on parenthood needs to be stated outright rather than left to assumption. She recalls one advisor who hid her pregnancy during recruitment out of concern it could affect whether she was brought on. Smith's response is direct: 'We view parenthood as an asset. Wanting to build a family is a positive signal. It should be promoted and celebrated.' She also credits having children herself with giving her a level of resilience in her career that she says did not exist before.
Smith draws a deliberate distinction between managing people and leading them. At Designed, where she came from a background of senior-led departments, she was pushed toward a different model: equip people well, then step back. 'It's the importance of building a team where those people don't necessarily need management,' she says. 'They need someone to lead them and say, "What do you need to be successful?"' She applies the same idea to retention, asking how an advisor, particularly a woman, can stay in the business through every stage of her life and eventually succession plan her own practice.
Jessica Smith — vice president, strategic operations and growth, Designed Wealth Management. Joined as employee number two before the firm had onboarded its first advisor; previously spent a decade at a high-net-worth money manager, rising to vice president of client relations; received her associate portfolio manager designation in 2021; leads advisor recruitment and the firm's Women in Wealth program; has run a community running club for seven years; trained extensively in yoga and Pilates, launched a movement practice during the pandemic, and has led hundreds of hours of classes.