The best practice management stories of 2024

It’s been a year of rising compliance costs, emotional client conversations and “pent-up demand” for mergers and acquisitions. Here are 10 must-read practice management stories from this year, in the order we presented them.

John De Goey argued that Canadian advisors need a do-no-harm oath. “If regulators won’t commit to requiring advisors to do what’s right, they could at least require them to refrain from doing what’s wrong.”

Opinion: Financial advisors require a Hippocratic Oath

Noushin Ziafati offered four recommendations to advisors thinking about switching firms. “Ultimately, the whole [payment] structure needs to be taken into account,” said Joe Millott, founder and principal of Acquatio. “Are you getting fair value for your practice, and does this really recognize the value that you’ll be creating for the firm you’re joining?”

Do your diligence when switching firms

“A client you’ve known for decades is behaving abnormally.” So begins Allan Janssen’s insightful piece on what to do when an elderly client may be at risk.

Wedding bells — or alarm bells?

Jonathan Got reached out for commentary on the cost of long-term care and how to help clients save. “Costs across the country for private care homes … can range anywhere from $6,000 to $15,000 [per month for full-time care],” said Stephanie Chan, founder of senior care advisory firm Home to Home in Vancouver.

Long-term care: How much it costs and how to pay for it

Got also covered the emerging compliance cost pressures driving MGA consolidation. “If I’m one of the big guys … I can afford a chief compliance officer, I can afford to put supervisory controls in place and so forth. But if I’m medium or small, it could be onerous on my firm,” said Byren Innes, financial services consultant and managing director with Jennings Consulting Ltd. in Toronto.

Increasing compliance requirements add to MGA consolidation pressure

Todd Humber spoke with Lisa Kramer, a professor of finance at the University of Toronto about helping clients whose emotions have gotten the better of them. “If you put the healthier items within reach and the less healthy items a little farther back … people tended to grab the apple instead of the chocolate bar,” she said.

Help clients navigate emotions and make good financial decisions

Akua Carmichael wrote a great piece for us on three court cases highlighting the pros and cons of assigning power of attorney to an adult child. “Careful consideration of an adult child’s skills and strengths is essential in determining who is best suited for financial decision-making during parental incapacity,” she wrote.

Appointing adult children to manage finances

Michelle Schriver assembled a collection of questions designed to move client discussions in a productive direction. “If you won $25 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?”

11 questions to ask your clients

Stephanie Holmes-Winton covered five scenarios in which clients may have to take on debt in retirement. “Failing to include existing debt or to prepare cost-effective debt options in retirement could endanger an otherwise well-crafted plan,” she wrote.

When clients need to use debt in retirement

Kevin Press prepared a report on the outlook for industry merger-and-acquisition activity in 2025. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand for transactions from both buyers and sellers,” said Michael Morrow, managing director, national leader, M&A and capital markets with BDO Canada.

The restart of the deals