KATE PAL Principal PAL INSURANCE Age: 34 Years as a financial advisor: 8 Certifications: CLU, FEA, CFP
RICHA HINGORANI Senior director, digital strategy RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT Age: 35 Years in wealth management: 14
Now a senior director of digital strategy at Canada’s biggest bank, Richa Hingorani started her career with another of the Big Six. After working as a financial planner with CIBC Imperial Services, Hingorani made the move to RBC Wealth Management in 2010, and her abilities ultimately led RBC to choose her to lead digital innovation for the firm. Not surprisingly, Hingorani believes her background as an advisor gave her the platform to succeed in her current role. “The years of experience working with clients and advisors at various levels really helped me to plan our client journeys digitally,” she says. “Our work with fintech experts in Silicon Valley to develop a new innovative platform called MyAdvisor will be the way of delivering advice for RBC in the future.”
Although she now works for her family’s business, Kate Pal’s career in financial services began much farther afield. Soon after graduating from Queen’s University in Kingston, she took a job as an analyst in The Hague with Dutch development bank FMO, which supports private companies in developing markets. Pal’s next position would continue in that vein, but at a much closer proximity – she spent the next year in Sierra Leone with private equity firm Manocap. In 2010, she left West Africa and returned home to Pal Insurance, the Toronto-based firm her father, Joe Pal, founded in 1976. The company provides financial and estate planning, and Pal found a natural teacher in her father. Since joining the firm, she has added CLU, FEA and CFP designations to her title and is now fully committed to the advisory profession. “In my view, an effective advisor must
be able to both educate and motivate his or her client to action,” Pal says. “An effective advisor will also use technology to enhance the service offering that is provided to the client.” Having the skills to use technology effectively is a real asset for an advisor in 2018, but technology isn’t always welcomed by clients. When speaking about the parts of the job that frustrate her, Pal is unequivocal: “Clients who are not open to new ideas or who have trouble making decisions.” Specializing in life insurance and estate planning, Pal believes advisors should commit to educating themselves on some of financial planning’s more complex areas. “I think the certification program creates a solid baseline foundation for advisors in terms of knowledge and professionalism,” she says. “The higher the standard we hold ourselves to, the more reputable our industry will be.”
Now in a management role, Hingorani believes the industry can do more to make itself a more attractive proposition for young advisors. “The time to take courses and become proficient with accreditations is two to three years and typically after university, which might be a barrier for some,” she says. “It would be easier to have parallel paths while in university that may shorten the time to proficiency.” Now that she has moved on from the day-to-day task of providing financial advice, focusing instead on leading that advice on an institutional level, Hingorani has seen the industry shift in a number of significant ways. “It has tremendously changed as emotional intelligence has become key, in addition to the technical skills of providing tax, retirement or investment advice,” she says. “Client preferences of connecting with advisors and the amount of information that is now available to clients have also led to a need for higher capability of advisors. Robo-advisors have also put some positive pressure on financial advisors, as now they have to ensure they
prove the power of human advice – that is, in connecting the different goals, life events and complex financial situations for a client, which is harder to accomplish through algorithms and robots.”
www.wealthprofessional.ca
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