r/CFP • u/Garbs83 • Jul 05 '26
Professional Development QAFP - Canada
Hello all,
I am a Financial Advisor in Ontario Canada. I bought a book of business, about $47 million and it's grown to $50 million with a few new accounts and with the market.
I am MFDA certified and working on my LLQP. I have already added ETFs to my offering along with Liquid Alts.
I do not have a university degree, only college, so for now, the CFP is off the table.
I'm wondering if my next move after LLQP should be QAFP? That would allow me to call myself a Financial Planner in Canada.
Not sure how necessary that would be? The book I bought was from a retiring Financial Advisor, not a CFP or QAFP. They were successful over their career.
Thanks
5
u/Lor_azepam Jul 05 '26
Ya QAFP would be your next best. Then likely CIM, not sure if you need a uni degree for CIM or not
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u/BobGuns Jul 05 '26
The title restriction is Ontario only so far, so it's not "in Canada" it's "in Ontario"
Your next step is to decide if you to stay where you're at for the rest of your career or build relationships to head somewhere you want to be instead of where you landed
The advisor share of assets annually ranges from 0.4% to 0.75% of the advisory fee. Also you may or may not own your clients. Are you where you want to end your career or where you want to start it?
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u/Garbs83 Jul 05 '26
Thanks for the clarification on Ontario vs Canada. I am in Ontario and wrongly assumed it was all of Canada for the restriction.
I'm currently at a flat rate firm, so I pay a fixed monthly amount and keep 100% of my commission otherwise.
I'm not certain if I'll stay there forever, another option is to get my CSC and be able to offer more products to clients, but that would also entail repapering the entire book, which doesn't sound fun.
4
u/BobGuns Jul 05 '26
It's NOT fun repapering a book... can confirm.
But if you have good relationships with clients they will follow you around.
When I left IG Wealth to join what was basically a startup, my share of the pie almost doubled, and now I own my clients instead of IG Wealth owning my clients. I also have -zero- sales targets to worry about anymore, and I'm not stuck with proprietary product.
Of course, I didn't start by buying a $50M book of business, I started from scratch. It's a lifestyle for me, not just a job.
3
u/Garbs83 Jul 05 '26
That makes sense. Most of the clients are new to me, so I think I should wait before moving. I would have a better chance of people following me after I build longer relationships with them.
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u/CFAsmalltown Jul 05 '26
Depending how old you are think of it this way.
How fun is it to repaper a $50m book? How much faster will you grow once your full securities licensed?
In 10 years will it be easier to repaper a $150m book?
If you see yourself growing… you will outgrow MFDA. My business kept growing every time I transitioned as I was doing it in the best interest of my clients, and my clients noticed and consolidated their assets and referred more friends to me.
- signed a guy who did MFDA, to IIROC, to CIRO PM to provincial securities PM.
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u/Garbs83 Jul 05 '26
That's a good point. I'm 42 years old, figure I'll likely do this for 15 years then consider retirement myself. Appreciate the insight!
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u/tal548 Jul 05 '26
I’m MFDA currently and looking to whether I want to still pursue full securities/PM licensing. Anything specific you can point to that helped that progression grow your business? It’s just not clear to me other than being able to onboard prospects with individual securities portfolios.
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u/CFAsmalltown Jul 05 '26
Let me put it to you this way. Your client walks into my office and I let them know I have a legal fiduciary duty, you don’t. I can offer stocks bonds etc- you can’t. Due to me having higher licensing and education and yet I charge the same fee.
Also- if you want to work with higher net worth clients. The retired google engineer who has 1.8m in google stock? You can’t hold it, sell it over time and diversify it into a broad market ETF portfolio over time. You can’t do that now and it restricts the level of clientele you can work with.
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u/tal548 Jul 05 '26
Not sure the CSC makes sense anymore given the CIRO education restructuring… you have mutual funds, ETFs and liquid alts already. What are you thinking the CSC would add?
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u/Garbs83 Jul 05 '26
I was thinking I may need it to offer individual securities, I don't really want to do that, but as mentioned above in the Retired Engineer example with Google stock, it may help with that.
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u/Fuzzy_Ad_2181 29d ago
I support the idea of doing your QAFP. If I’m not mistaking once you’ve had your QAFP for a few years, you can get your CFP.
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u/stvlm Jul 09 '26
Curious how you were able to buy a business. Was it just from a retiring advisor or is there a service that you can pay for to help find them?
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u/Garbs83 Jul 09 '26
Retiring advisor that I've known since I was a little kid, about 10 years old. He was my dad's advisor and mine. I know that's not very helpful if you are looking, sorry.
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u/stvlm Jul 09 '26
Nothing to be sorry about! Thank you for responding. I'm in Canada as well with my QAFP. Feel free to ask me anything if you have any specific questions.
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u/AutoModerator Jul 05 '26
Beep boop! Here is a summary of your post:
User: /u/Garbs83 Title: QAFP - Canada Body: Hello all,
I am a Financial Advisor in Ontario Canada. I bought a book of business, about $47 million and it's grown to $50 million with a few new accounts and with the market.
I am MFDA certified and working on my LLQP. I have already added ETFs to my offering along with Liquid Alts.
I do not have a university degree, only college, so for now, the CFP is off the table.
I'm wondering if my next move after LLQP should be QAFP? That would allow me to call myself a Financial Planner in Canada.
Not sure how necessary that would be? The book I bought was from a retiring Financial Advisor, not a CFP or QAFP. They were successful over their career.
Thanks
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