Pros
Good benefits, comparable pay rate compared to competitive salaries at OFIs. Hours are good, depending on which branch you work at, so if you have kids, its favorable.
Cons
The role wasn't advertised as it is in reality. As an AFA, you have your own book of clients, and the way it was explained to me was that I would be doing everything for my clients, mortgages, investing...ect. However, mortgages are referred to Mortgage Advisors, you still credit for it, however as they are your clients, if the MA isn’t good / upsets your client, then you are spending your time cleaning up the mess. Mortgage renewals are completed by the Mortgage Retention Office, you might get one or two leads a quarter, however you will have clients in your book that are just mortgage clients, and you can’t remove them. When booking investment appointments, you are expected to invite an Investment Specialist to your meeting. While they are knowledgeable, it seems unnecessary to have them for every meeting. I would have preferred to have them in meetings for funds over 50-100K. I did mention this to my manager and was told that I had to invite them regardless. I feel that having all these different referrals and people in your meeting takes away from the point that YOU are the dedicated advisor to your clients. It doesn't create a good impression, when you can't / are encouraged not to do half the things that your clients need.
Here’s a break down of the goals
Outbound calls - 30/ weekly ( You had to have SPOKEN to 30 ppl, not just called, voicemails don’t count)
two CGPs - CIBC goal planner tool, which has a quality assurance team that grades the quality and accuracy of your advice.
Annual money in and money out goal - these aren't bad, very similar to OFIs, but you are graded on Net sales, not gross. So if you had a mortgage with a value of 500K leave your portfolio, or clients cashing out their investments maybe to pay off their mortgage, that means that you would have a negative sale. The goals are purposefully set low because of this.
There’s also insurance sales components which are measured in units and Credit card, chequing and overdraft which are measured based on revenue.
The most pressure is put on meeting the 30 client connects a week, they will get on your case about it, I know of people that were put on PIPs for not meeting it. If you are having a quick chat with your co-worker about weekend plans, you will be told that you could have made 3 calls in that time. If you come out of your office, the first question you will be asked will be “how are calls going?” It feels very much like a call centre at times with how intense the management team is about it. I hadn't even finished my 6 months of AFA development program, when I had a performance evaluation meeting, the invite was sent 10mins prior to the meeting and I was not told prior that it was a performance evaluation or given as time to prepare. During the meeting I was asked why I wasn’t performing, and was told to pull up the reports and recount week over week my numbers, and at the end I was asked “what I saw”, when I said that I see positive growth as week over week, as my numbers were getting closer and closer to the goal. It did not matter that I was stressing myself out, trying my hardest, or that I was showing positive growth, it wasn’t satisfactory because I didn't have the 30 connections that they were looking for. There is no opportunity given to learn, to ask questions, to grow.
If you are considering interviewing for this role, please ask the management team very specific questions on what your training will look like, and what is expected of you during the development program and how they will approach your training.