HQ

Toronto, Canada

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Founders

Miguel Fernando & Michael Valentine 

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The Problem

Only 7% of wealth management clients in Canada receive comprehensive advice and advisors must adapt to provide more holistic and truly differentiated services for their clients. In Canada, advisors are typically tied to financial institutions, often with outdated systems and limited flexibility in terms of how they run their businesses. These disparate systems create a substantial administrative burden for advisors, which diverts attention away from providing more dedicated client service. This operational complexity, combined with the high costs of working within financial institutions (i.e., revenue sharing platform fees), is increasing frustration among advisors, and now, more than ever, advisors are looking to go independent. 

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Motivations for advisors to go independent include increased earnings potential with the removal of bank platform fees, increased product flexibility (by not forcing through banks’ proprietary products), stronger digital experiences, and complete autonomy over business decision making. Advisors’ books of business also receive a higher valuation outside of the traditional ecosystem (not forced to sell within the bank / institution), making independence an attractive option for advisors as they consider succession planning and retirement. While this trend to full independence is well underway in the United States - the independent advisor channel is the fastest growing retail channel - the solutions offered to independent advisors in the US are not available in Canada due to regulatory discrepancies between the two markets and the associated complexity. The result is an absence of comprehensive software solutions for independent financial advisors in Canada.

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The Solution

Super Advisor is a digital platform for independent financial advisors to more efficiently build and manage their businesses. Super Advisor enhances the digital experience for both advisors and their clients by streamlining and automating key advisor workflows, enabling them to provide a tailored experience to each client, while taking full control over the economics and operations of their businesses. The platform incorporates historically disjointed tools into an all-in-one solution including CRM, dynamic financial planning, portfolio management, and compliance, among other key software requirements.

The Team

Miguel and Michael were both early employees at Purpose Advisor Solutions, with Miguel acting as the first product team leader. The Rhino team continues to be impressed by the founders’ efficiency mindsets, deep industry insights and long-term vision for Super Advisor. Their experiences in the advisory market make them extremely well suited to tackle this problem and is key to our investment thesis for the business.

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‍Rhino’s Perspective

Rhino is proud to be the lead backer of this ambitious team at this early stage of evolution. Our conviction in the opportunity is driven by the significance of the industry pain points, the trend toward independence, and a differentiated approach to solving these problems. With a large market facing shifting dynamics, limited competition, and uniquely experienced founders, we are excited to welcome Super Advisor to the Crash!