Canada’s big banks have moved into Metro Vancouver’s financial planning market in a significant way, according to data from Business in Vancouver’s list of top financial planning firms in Metro Vancouver.
Some of the country’s largest banks including BMO Financial Group, CIBC (TSX:CM), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)(TSX:RY) and TD Bank Grouphave landed the top spots on BIV’slist, nudging out independent financial planning firms like Customplan Financial Advisors Inc.and Freedom 55 Financial, a division of London Life Insurance Company.
Customplan was founded in Vancouver and held the No. 3 spot on BIV’s list in 2017 with 116 financial planners, a number unchanged from 2016, when it held the No. 4 spot.
This year Customplan fell to fifth place on the list, behind the big four banks. The company was bumped out of its third-place spot by CIBC, which fell to the No. 3 spot in 2018 from the No. 1 spot in 2017. CIBC’s growth and absolute increase in financial planners were dramatically outpaced by the gains of BMO, which earned the top spot in 2018.
Customplan was not the only company to fall on BIV’s list in the face of BMO’s rapid growth. Five years ago when BMO was only the seventh-largest financial planning firm in the province, Freedom 55 Financial held the top spot with 316 financial planners in the Lower Mainland. Since then, the number of Freedom 55’s financial planners has fallen by 71.5%, or 226. Freedom 55 Financial hit a low of 76 financial planners in 2016. However, over the last two years it has raised its number of financial planners by 18.4% to 90.
BMO had the largest five-year growth of any financial planning firm on BIV’slist, raising the number of financial planners in its employ by 296%, to 392 in 2018 from 99 in 2014. The company’s growth has declined in recent years. BMO’s growth, at 10.1%, was the third-fastest among financial planners since 2016. TD Bank Group outpaced BMO’s two-year growth rate by raising its number of financial planners by 28% since 2016.
