What happens when you take an employee-owned wealth management firm, diversify its client offerings with private securities, and then add some creative partnerships?
You get Harbourfront Wealth Management, an independent Canadian firm established in 2013 by CEO Danny Popescu. He started the company with a vision to expand investment offerings beyond traditional asset classes, and his focus on innovation within the wealth management sector has paid off.
After starting with an enterprise value of $11 million, Harbourfront Wealth Management has grown that number to $425 million in nine years. Popescu believes that offering private securities has been central to his firm’s success. Tie that to an employee-owned firm culture, and the result is an agile firm that represents a fresh approach for a traditionally conservative industry.
Here’s what Danny Popescu had to say about his firm’s relevance to the broader investment landscape.
Harbourfront Wealth Management has grown considerably. What do you think is the most important factor behind that growth?
The first thing we’re really proud of is that we’re changing the way Canadians invest. We have a big focus on pension-type investment solutions and our clients have embraced that element of our services. Over 25% of our assets under management are held in private securities, which is very rare in Canada right now.
I think the other significant factor is our management structure at Harbourfront Wealth. We have a unique model for advisors, where employees and advisors are partners of the organization rather than just employees at a big company where the shareholders are all external. So those are big things that set us apart and have contributed to our growth.
How would you describe the company culture at Harbourfront Wealth Management? What have you done to create the culture that you wanted?
What’s surprising to a lot of our employees is that I tend to be a very informal CEO. Often people have this perception of the gray-haired CEO sitting at the top in a corner office. I try to be very personal and down to earth, focused more on collaboration and relationship building.
I find that’s a great start. When people realize, “Hey, this is a transparent organization,” that really sets the tone. We have a culture that encourages advisors to choose a path that’s best for their practices and their clients, and we help one another along the way.
Many of our leadership team tend to take a similar down to earth management approach and it comes through across the organization.
Also, although we certainly work hard at Harbourfront Wealth, we also like to play hard. We have amazing conferences and AGMs and maintain a big emphasis on fun within the culture of the organization.
You’ve talked a lot about the importance of your employees to your firm’s success. Do you have any guidance, based on your experience, in how to find and retain the right people for Harbourfront Wealth?
Having the right people in place is absolutely critical. But it’s never an easy task to get right. Offering incentives and support to staff is a great place to start. For example, we recently launched an Employee Stock Option Program earlier this year, called our Grow Together Program, and that has been a real success. The idea is that our employees can share in the success of the organization they’re helping grow.
As far as finding the right talent for Harbourfront Wealth, oftentimes when I interview an executive, I ask them to put together a business plan before the interview. I really want to know how they envision the part of the organization they will manage. I ask them to put together a plan of what their first week, first month, and first 90 days will look like. What are they going to do during that time? What impact will they make? Given a great deal of autonomy within a supportive environment, how will they manage? Their ideas are telling, and I can then envision what their impact in the organization could be like and quickly tell if we’re on the same page or not.
Over the past ten years, what has made you most happy about Harbourfront Wealth Management’s success and growth?
That’s a good question. I think what really resonates is hearing advisors say they should’ve made the move to Harbourfront years earlier. It just tells me that we’re doing something special, giving advisors the ability to offer the best options for their clients. Seeing that kind of independence and happiness also validates the vision that we had when we started the firm. It was and still is to be independent. To help our purpose-driven advisors with improved access and the tools they need to make a real difference in their business and the lives of their clients.
Being able to continue to innovate and bring new investment opportunities to a greater number of Canadians — this is what really makes me happy in leading Harbourfront Wealth and what I want to continue to do.
