Scaling Holistic Advice Across a 55-Person Firm
A Toronto-based independent advisory firm with 55 employees set out to expand beyond investment-led services — delivering comprehensive financial, tax, and estate guidance typically associated with much larger institutions.
Challenge
The Challenge
Planning wasn't keeping pace with the firm's growth ambitions.
As the firm expanded, client expectations evolved — particularly among high-net-worth clients requiring more integrated, sophisticated advice across financial, tax, and estate planning.
Operational Barriers
- No dedicated in-house planning capability; reliance on outsourcing
- Advice primarily centered on investments, with limited planning depth
- Difficulty addressing complex financial, tax, and estate scenarios
- Inconsistent delivery of planning across advisors
- Limited ability to differentiate from larger competitors
- Time and resource constraints across a growing team
Costs & Risks
- Constrained to investment-led positioning
- Missed opportunities to deepen client relationships
- Difficulty moving upmarket into higher-value segments
- Growth tied to hiring rather than operational leverage
At the same time, competition intensified — from larger firms offering integrated services and from self-directed alternatives.
Turning Point
The Turning Point
The firm reached a clear inflection point:
To continue growing and competing effectively, it needed to deliver comprehensive, planning-led guidance — without adding operational complexity or expanding its planning team.
Selection
Why Planworth
Rollout
Implementation
Deployed quickly with minimal disruption to advisor workflows.
The firm integrated planning directly into its existing client engagement model — enabling advisors across the team to deliver more comprehensive guidance without changing how they worked with clients.
Transformation
What Changed
Before
- Investment-focused conversations
- Planning outsourced or inconsistently delivered
- Limited ability to serve complex client needs
- Reactive, one-time advice
After
- Advisors understand full client context — financial, personal, and aspirational
- Proactive, forward-looking guidance across all aspects of a client's life
- Faster updates and responsiveness to changing client needs
- Consistent delivery across all advisors
- Confidence to address financial, tax, and estate planning holistically
- Ability to serve high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients
Results
Outcomes
Impact
Strategic Impact
"It's helped us elevate the impact of every client interaction through more tailored planning."
— Head of Client Services
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