Staying proactive leads to better practice management, says five-star advisor winner

Brodie Lawson 00:00:00
Welcome to Wealth Professional TV. I'm Brodie Lawson, and with us today is Chris Arthur, Head of Financial Planning at Dunbrook Associates. Chris was recently recognized by wealth professional as a five star advisor in their annual awards. Chris, welcome and congratulations.

Chris Arthur 00:00:22
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Brodie Lawson 00:00:25
Brodie, 2025 has been filled with uncertainty and volatility. How have you dealt with the ever changing market situation, and how have you proved your worth in these turbulent times?

Chris Arthur 00:00:36 Yeah, great question. I think 2025 when we were finishing the 2024 year, we expected it to be a bit different. We thought there were going to be many ups and downs, a very volatile year, some surprises coming this year. I don't think any analyst will tell you. We know how it's going to finish at the end of the year, but I think what we thought coming in was, hey, this is going to be vault. It's a year where we're going to be talking to our clients quite a bit, producing a lot of communications along the way. And I think it's really important to really know your client base, whether your client base is really young and they can really lean on growth, or our client base is primarily approaching retirement. So preservation of capital, smoothing out those rides was really important. So we tailored in and sort of leaned into that where 2024 we were leaning in on the growth. 2025 we really went to the defense in January, because we expected quite a lot of volatility throughout the year and throughout different moments throughout the year. We really leaned in on that, and that's really helped our clients protect on the downside.

Brodie Lawson 00:01:36
You mentioned your strength in door knocking in your early career. How has that experience impacted the way you operate as an advisor?

Chris Arthur 00:01:45
Yeah, I would say that experience in door knocking with Edward Jones taught me a few things, and I think how it comes into play today is very natural, and when I see something, I'll mention it, it's sort of given me the confidence to really, sort of act really just purely in the client's best interests. Not afraid to voice my thoughts if I see a plan that's not going to work, or a client suggesting doing something that I think is going to hurt their plan over the long term. I'm not going to be shy to mention it sort of things always really, there's one driver here is it's that client their goals and helping them get there, and that they propose something that I think this might not work for, that plan, that secondary house, or something of that nature, and I don't think it's the time I won't be shy to mention it. So although today, we are mostly working through referrals from our existing clients, so less door knocking on, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on someone may look at it, but I think it's given me the confidence to not hold anything back, and that's really just a bonus to the client that we see something we're not gonna be shy to mention it.

Brodie Lawson 00:02:47
With the industry constantly changing, what strategies do you use to keep up?

Chris Arthur 00:02:52
Yeah, great question. So I know AI is sort of always at the forefront of a lot of conversations like, how are you using AI? We as financial planner get asked quite a bit, I think, on the organization side of things, and let's say a recapping a client meeting notes and helping our staff make to do's and staying organized. I think AI and technology really has, has its place there and has really improved over the coming years, of sort of helping us keep organized. I think is a really good place for AI and technology right now where we're not using it is inside of the trading things and making decisions there, I think, I think there's still a little bit of runway for it to come, for it to be leveraged in areas like that. Again, a very young staff, a very, a very tech forward staff that will look at sort of using these ideas, implementing more technology, more AI as it sort of proves its worth, sort of thing. But in a very sort of compliance driven, privacy driven industry, we're going to give it slower remover than other industries. We want to see proof of concept first see it in action, because we're dealing with client funds at the end of the day. So we're not going to make cars decisions. We're going to use it right now where it makes it makes sense, which is just sort of helping us stay organized and helping our administrative staff. And again, we'll be slow movers, but we'll be adopters, possibly later on when it makes sense. But we really want to see that proof of concept, especially when you're dealing with people's money and their retirement savings.

Brodie Lawson 00:04:19
How do you maintain long term relationships with your clients, and what sets you apart in your approach to interpersonal relationships with clients?

Chris Arthur 00:04:28
Yeah, great question. I think, sort of being around the block and working at a few large firms here in Canada, we try to model our model our firm, off of what we see do wrong what we see done wrong at other firms, and a lot of our staff members have spent a lot of big times at the big banks and large institutions here in Canada. And I think sort of one big thing that we really like to do is sort of make sure we're getting in front of our clients a few times a year and making that systematic so that is, again, tracking our meetings, making sure we're in front of every person. Line again, because if we just sort of went out through the year, yes, clients would reach out to us, but are we proactively reaching out to all of our clients a few times? And that needs organizations, that needs sort of project management, that's a task of itself to be organized in that area. So I think that's one really important piece, is sort of really being proactive with their client base, and not reactive. Because what we find by doing that is we uncover things a client is looking to buy a home sooner than we thought. That's really important for us to know sort of thing. So by being active with that communication, we learn a lot of things in saying that we can't work with 1000s of clients per advisor. We the bank model sort of doesn't work with that proactive touch. So we are going to work with less clients per financial advisor, and that's okay. We're comfortable with that. We'll get to know our clients really well, and we'll deliver a higher level of service. So we quite like that model, but we can never sign up 1000s and 1000s of clients per advisor. The Bank model of the sort of doesn't fit a big second part to that question would also be sort of getting front of your clients with really good communication that's important to them. There's a lot of communication providers out there, a lot of material, but what we really find as an important piece of our job is what information is really important to that end client, and how does it affect their day to day, their finances, their week, their month, and not just throwing out any material. So we're trying to cover topics that are important to their taxes, their finances, retired clients approaching retirement, new accounts coming to Canada, talking about what's happening down south, and just sort of the week by week, evolution of what's going on there. So that's what we try and put out there. And then I think a lot of material out there here, into the news is they want to get you to read the article. So a lot of it is sort of, sort of very harsh points trying to grab you, and maybe it's not sort of the full story. So we're trying to dig in there, find the facts, find what's really happening, and if something's being exaggerated somewhere else, we really want to sort of lay out why we think this is maybe not as important, or you're not as effective. A big point being is, whenever we hear us markets covered, generally, they're referencing the s and p5 100. And if a client doesn't have a very high weighting to the s and p5 100, or those companies in there, a client might assume, hey, I have new exposure. I must be down 15 20% like the index was, sort of thing. So it's sort of letting clients know, hey, we're approaching things a little bit differently. This isn't our primary exposure. Of the US. These are the kind of stocks, these are the kind of products we have in the portfolio, and this is how you're being protected, sort of thing. So it's sort of knowing what the news is coming out there to the client, and then letting them know, sort of what we're doing, why they need to be less conserved, sort of thing. I think this year is really important to get out there with a lot of material. Get out there and talk to your clients, and get out there with information that's sort of very informational to your client, but then also, again, easy to understand, and sort of covers things that are important to them.

Brodie Lawson 00:08:02
What are you looking forward to in the coming year, and what areas are you looking to focus on?

Chris Arthur 00:08:06
Yeah, great question. So I think some big areas of focus for us, especially this year again, is sort of improving our client communication, creating more systems. This is a year where I came into the year and let our staff know our goal this year is to improve our system, improve our policies, our procedures, get out there with really good material to our clients again, this year again, knowing it's a bit of a volatile year, we're here to meet with our clients, probably more than average, because we know, again, things in the markets might spook a client. They want to know they're okay. They want to know the plans on track, sort of thing. So we knew this year we're going to be meeting with our clients more than average, so we sort of factor that into the year. But we really want to sort of expand our sort of client base by sort of hiring really quality financial advisors, not overworking them, having that really proactive touch, and expanding our service models in terms of having accountants close by, having legal staff close by and different areas to really sort of have a full service approach to a client. And one thing we take very seriously is referrals. Our clients are. We always say any question regarding dollars and cents, flow it through our staff, we'll have someone very close by that we trust be vetted, because all too often we hear our clients say, Oh, I use this ex mortgage broker, or I use this accountant, and it's not a good news story. So we have a list of referral partners that we personally vetted. Clients have vetted that are experts in their areas. So we want to be bothered more than often by our clients in terms of, hey, if they have a question whether it's related to their mortgages, their accounting, whatever it may be, it might be outside of our scope, but we have an expert that we trust in those areas, so we know the clients not going to get a bad experience, get scanned or whatever it may be, sort of thing. So we want to expand that have more service providers close. Us by and really sort of elevate our experience to really being a true small family office shop. Rather, we're sort of in between both models right now. We really want to get to that end stage. So that's sort of a long term goal of us is really just sort of having a full service offering for our clients here.

Brodie Lawson 00:10:18
What are the most important attributes for a successful advisor to have?

Chris Arthur 00:10:23
Great question. So I think at the forefront is really knowing your client. If you know your client, I feel like you can deliver a very good service. And I think a second piece to that is not stretching yourself too thin. I think new advisors coming out there, maybe they'll be trying to work with as many people as possible. When I would say, stream down your focus, find sort of your your niche, find what client group you want to work with, and be selective. And I think you can build a really, really good practice where, again, you're not overworked. You can deliver proactive service, because your time's not stretched. But I think the first piece of really knowing your client really comes into multitude of areas. Because if you know your client, you know you have to be proactive. You can't be reactive. And you know the client's only going to want to have multiple touch points throughout the year. You know they're going to want to get good material throughout the months, whether that's monthly, quarterly, throughout the way, I think the piece of, let's say, performance of as long as it's not radically different and you're using good quality products and researching them, markets have bad years. One out of five years is usually a negative year. So it's not about trying to avoid the negative year. It's about setting your clients up for success on the long term, knowing their plan, knowing their different goals, segmenting their goals, and really just trying to learn as much as you can about that individual person. And you can't really do that if you're working with 1000s of people, sort of thing. So I would say, find sort of your niche. Be selective about who you work with. Really get to know those people, and have a really strong emphasis on the planning. If you plan really well, know their goals again, segment their goals, have everything laid out. It's hard to set yourself up for failure, sort of thing. So ask too many questions really. Get to know the people that you're in front of.

Brodie Lawson 00:12:17
Thanks for those invaluable insights, Chris.

Chris Arthur 00:12:20
No. Thanks to you Brodie. Great chatting with you.

Brodie Lawson 00:12:23
You are most welcome and thank you for watching.