Robo-adviser Wealthsimple is boosting its line of business for financial advisers with the addition of prominent wealth management executive Jean-Francois Courville.
Mr. Courville has been appointed chief executive officer of Wealthsimple for Advisors, the online portfolio manager’s business-to-business platform designed specially for financial advisers looking to offset a portion of investment management tasks.
Once seen as a major disrupter to financial advisers, many Canadian robo-advisers have recently been partnering with the wealth-management industry to combine services that will help build scale at a quicker pace while providing technology platforms to advisers and their clients.
Wealthsimple for Advisor was launched in May, 2016, and has approximately 300 financial advisers using the platform. Mr. Courville is the first dedicated executive appointed to the platform by the company. Previously, co-founder and chief investment officer of Wealthsimple, Dave Nugent, oversaw the adviser business.
Mr. Courville is well-known in the industry for several prominent positions at large financial institutions. Most recently, he spent four years as executive vice-president and chief operating officer of RBC Wealth Management.
RBC Wealth Management houses a number of client services including investment, trust and estate planning, private banking and credit and asset-management services, as well as Royal Bank of Canada’s asset-management arm, RBC Global Asset Management.
During his time with RBC, Mr. Courville was responsible for supporting RBC Wealth Management’s investment advisory and fee-based investment practices.
Prior to RBC, Mr. Courville was president and CEO at Manulife Asset Management from 2008 until 2013; and president and chief operating officer from 2007 to 2008. During that time, he oversaw offices in 17 countries and territories, with approximately 1,100 employees and helped grow Manulife Asset Management from $95-billion to $230-billion in global assets under management.
In addition, Mr. Courville spent 10 years at State Street, where he was appointed CEO for his remaining two years with the investment manager.
Mr. Courville joined Wealthsimple on Tuesday and will report to Wealthsimple’s co-founder and CEO Michael Katchen.
Wealthsimple manages more than $2-billion for more than 75,000 clients in the United States, Britain and Canada.
Clare O’Hara