I had a pretty interesting week last week, as I attended Banff School in a ‘Faculty’ capacity, or as a speaker. Banff School is one of the Regional Schools put on by volunteers connected with Advocis. The event was quite good:  well-organized with a solid focus on learning. There were lots of quality speakers (Jamie Golombek, Dr Bruce Empringham, and John Natale were all highlights). I got to see a lot of old friends and meet a lot of former students.

Tami Romanchuk, one of the first people I ever worked on a project with when I started volunteering with Advocis more than decade ago, was the conference chair. She did an amazing job. She was an exemplary host, making sure everybody felt welcome, keeping the event learning-focused, and partaking in the social activities that are so important at conferences like these.

The setting, the Banff Centre, which is a retreat-type setting overlooking the town of Banff, is incredible. I was lucky enough to be able to bring my wife and our young grandkids along. The grandkids will have memories to last a lifetime from seeing deer up close, walking in the woods around the Centre, and visiting Crescent Falls on our way to Banff.

Some of you are likely to recall that, right about the time the School made its public announcement that I was one of the Speakers, a post I had written that could be interpreted as critical of Advocis was published. This made for interesting timing. I didn’t have the intention of in any way casting a cloud over Banff School – the timing of that post deliberately preceded the Advocis AGM.

During my 5 days there, I heard mostly positive comments from a lot of folks about what I had written, but there were those who took exception to some of my comments. I think most members are frustrated with finding out about struggles in the media rather than via internal communications. Looking from the outside in, it feels like not much has changed. Talking to people who attended the AGM, there was some dissatisfaction with disclosure.

There were a couple comments made from the stage to the effect of ‘critics shouldn’t criticize unless they are willing to do the work.’  I have spoken to the person who made those comments since, and it was indicated that this was meant as encouragement for the members in the room to volunteer in some capacity. It’s a better world when we volunteer and don’t just complain.

I was concerned at the time that this might be directed at me (a vocal critic?) and possibly Jason Pereira. Jason is my co-contributor to the FP Collective, fellow member of the Regulatory Affairs Committee of the Financial Planning Association of Canada, and friend. Even though the comment wasn’t meant as an attack on Jason, I do wish to demonstrate that we’ve both acted, and not stood back and complained.

No single person has done more volunteer work to professionalise this industry than Jason, and I spent a decade as an Advocis Volunteer, running Update locally from 2013 to 2023, and serving on the Edmonton Chapter Executive, including a term as treasurer. BCC, under my leadership, sponsored many Advocis Chapters and activities during those years. Jason and I are both regular commenters on various industry consultations, and he is an active volunteer with the Institute for Advanced Financial Planners, a founder of the Financial Planning Association of Canada, and a member of the CIRO Proficiency Committee. While the rest of us in Canada are trying to figure out what financial planning is, he is a thought leader sharing the stage with some of the very best in the world at industry events.

I had some useful discussions and experiences in Banff, and I’ll contrast those with points I made in my original post:

1.        Consumer Advocacy. A few folks at the event still take the approach that DSCs are necessary for young advisors to succeed in this business and for middle-market clients to get decent service. My fellow FP Collective contributors Sam Lichtman and Aravind Sithamparapillai are proving this wrong every day, as are tons of the young planners I meet at FPAC.

2.        Chapters and Regional Schools. Banff School did well this year, by all accounts. It seems to stand on its own, financially, and volunteer wise. (I’m honestly not sure what the connection with Advocis National is, as the school seemed to operate pretty independently.) There were about 180 people in attendance, from what I could tell. On the other hand, the Atlantic School seems to be in some difficulty and grappling with lower attendance, in the range of 50 or so. The School was, likely appropriately, told by National to make sure the event didn’t run at a loss, as no reserves were available.

3.        Recent Legal Troubles. There was a frank conversation from the podium about recent legal troubles, and some of the thought processes around communication with members. A lot of Advocis members are loyal to the organization and will discount anything they read in a publication like Advisor.ca or the Globe or anything I write as muckraking. As long as they continue to pay $1,000ish of annual membership dues, the organization can survive. Not communicating with those folks means their membership dollars keep flowing. The tradeoff, of course, is that new advisors have little reason to trust this organization. This approach to communication is tantamount to willfully becoming a zombie. The entity might survive, but only as a shambling entity with no possibility of growth.

4.        Cash Value Life Insurance. Of all the items that became clearer to me, this is perhaps the only one that I got something of a direct explanation for. Prior to about 1995, when the organization was flush with cash, it bought several cash value policies on key employees. If I were a member, I would still want to know something about these policies. Will the deaths of a bunch of key persons from decades ago provide the organization with a degree of financial salvation?

5.        Permanent CEO. It seems that a permanent CEO should be in place this year sometime. I hope this person is given enough authority to address issues and isn’t handed an impossible mandate.

Overall, I had a great experience at Banff School. I spent a lot of time with a bunch of great volunteers. If you’re looking for some advisor-focused, quality education in a beautiful spot, it’s an event worth attending, and registration is open for 2025.