Matthew Evans
Q&A with Matthew Evans: Empowering Clients Through Better Technology
Based in Vancouver, Westmount Wealth is a wealth management firm whose mission is to guide its clients by delivering detailed financial planning and discretionary asset management. Westmount Wealth partnered with Advisor Solutions by Purpose in 2021 to accelerate its growth while providing an industry- leading digital experience to its clients.
We recently had the chance to sit down with Westmount Wealth’s Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager, Matthew Evans to get his insights.
What was your motivation to go independent?
There are three main reasons we wanted to launch our own firm:
The first was to be able to create a better client experience through technology. The world of fund custody is generally built on old but stable technology in Canada. Delivering a cutting-edge client experience requires building a suite of technology solutions that sits on top of and interacts with that custodial platform. This could include digital paperwork solutions, account monitoring (KYC / IPS) software, model trading solutions for portfolio managers, data analytics on portfolios, online portals for clients, apps for clients, financial planning tools, and portals for advisor teams to monitor their practice.
Most dealers use individual software providers to solve each requirement while Purpose has developed an integrative approach by either building the tools themselves or enabling custom integration for the features that are not part of their core software package. The result is a very seamless and cutting-edge platform that clients love and that has significantly eased the administrative burden of our team.
The second reason was to have an open product shelf as a firm. To us, the independent space aligned with the ethos of always wanting to achieve a better solution, a better investment process, and an open product shelf to deliver a better client experience. Part of our investment approach revolves around giving our clients access to institutional-grade alternative investments; this is an area where being independent significantly widens the investable universe.
The third reason was to have better control of our brand and messaging. As a practice within an IIROC dealer we always had to be co-branded. That sometimes- caused confusion for clients especially when the name of the dealer changed (and this happened 4 times in 12 years at our last dealer).
How has technology played a role in your decision to partner with Purpose?
Technology was the biggest determinant in us choosing to partner with Purpose.
Expensive and Time Consuming
We realize that technology is the hardest part to solve and very expensive to continuously update. Technology involves legacy software from a custodian that needs to work in a new world of digital paperwork, portfolio modeling and reporting, and portfolio trading software, which all need to talk to each other.
Complexity of Technology
As advisors, we chronically underestimate the complexity of the back office, and to have a partner like Purpose who can have the vision, focus, and budget to solve some of these problems and continually evolve them is important. By partnering with Purpose, we’re able to outsource part of our operations and leverage Purpose’s technology stack and processes, which helps us simplify the client experience.
