Melissa Shin
Joseph Bakish began his career as a financial advisor in 2005 as a fresh graduate of Montreal’s McGill University, sporting braces, a $200 suit and scuffed shoes.
“I still have the suit and shoes, but lost the braces,” joked Bakish, who is now portfolio manager and director of wealth management with Bakish Wealth (a unit of Richardson Wealth Ltd.) in Pointe-Claire, Que.
Bakish, 38, received the 2020 Top Under 40 Award from the Investment Industry Association of Canada in December after being nominated for the accolade in each of the three preceding years. (
Investment Executive sponsors the Top Under 40 award.)
Bakish’s first advisor job was at Investors Group Inc., where his older brother, Nick who was nominated for the Top Under 40 award in 2015 and 2016 was a branch manager. The brothers teamed up in 2010 and moved their practice to Richardson Wealth in 2015. Bakish acquired his elder brother’s book in 2020, and Nick became Bakish Wealth’s relatio
The Globe and Mail Published December 24, 2020 Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account
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The financial services industry was already facing disruption from various directions prior to the arrival of COVID-19, but the pandemic presented novel challenges and opened the door to even more significant changes.
From more diverse and inclusive advisory teams, to new rules affecting many financial professionals, to even greater adoption of technology among both advisors and their firms, to an increasing shift toward advisor independence and greater levels of stress among advisors, these themes are likely to persist well into 2021 and beyond.
James Langton
Accurate labelling is Consumer Protection 101. Yet, in the retail investment business, this principle proves fiendishly difficult to implement.
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has undertaken the latest effort to ensure that individuals who call themselves financial advisors or financial planners are qualified to provide advice or planning services.
In August, FSRA published a proposed rule that sets out minimum standards to qualify as a “financial advisor” or “financial planner.” The proposal also establishes requirements credentialing bodies must meet in order to be recognized by FSRA as approved administrators of the titles.
Comment letters on FSRA’s proposed regime suggest the regulator isn’t having much more success than predecessors that sought to clean up the messy jumble of industry titles.