Green explains that the firm’s approach to the Americas in general, and Canada specifically, will be to segment the market between managing assets for insurers, managing assets for institutions, and managing assets for retail wealth managers. He outlined exactly how he plans to build that retail channel and what Canadian advisors might expect to see from Aviva Investors as they expand in this market.
While he admits that the Canadian retail channel is a crowded space replete with asset managers, Green believes his firm still has a compelling value proposition. He believes that advisors need more institutional style asset management capability, whether to provide income, manage risk, or give investors access to private markets. Rather than building another team of wholesalers to knock on advisors’ doors, though, Green wants to partner with existing asset management platforms to distribute Aviva Investors’ strategies.
Green’s team will seek partners on the retail distribution side of the industry. He says he’s ready to compete with other asset managers but argues that a more collaborative approach to existing strategy distributors can be more beneficial for Aviva Investors as it seeks to grow. Achieving that, he says, will take time and investment into deeper relationships with those distributors to ensure that they are getting a set of products that complement their existing offerings.
“When I look at the distribution landscape, and I know how heavily skewed it is towards the bank, insurance companies and the strong independent distributors out there. I know I can partner with them a lot better than compete with them,” Green says.
Because Aviva Investors is a newcomer in Canada, Green says the firm doesn’t have the history, baggage, legacy product, or other issues that can plague a new approach to the business. They can instead build from the ground up. In his first ten months in the role, Green explains that he and his team have held several conversations with those potential distribution partners, seeking to understand where they could add value for retail investors.
