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Artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere now, including wealth management. Chad Harmer isn’t worried about it. To him, AI will never take over his job. It is simply another useful tool to find the right answer for each individual client.
At Harmer Wealth Management, Chad Harmer’s visionary leadership promotes a holistic financial strategy that is both innovative and personal. He guides clients through a unified financial journey, aligning investments, insurance, mortgage, and real estate decisions with long-term life ambitions, setting a new standard for complete financial stewardship, and that’s where real professionals are essential.
Harmer’s financial specialists are skilled and experienced in many methods to provide each client with a sustainable retirement income based on that client’s unique needs. One tool does include AI, which helps investors begin determining exactly what their needs are.
“AI won’t work to tailor specific things. Let’s say a client needs a portion of their investment to be growth-focused, but they also need a portion to create an income. These aren’t things you can tell a computer,” Chad says. “ AI investing has its place. Absolutely. But when we start to get into more complexities, AI cannot do the job of a Financial Planner. And when it comes to the psychology standpoint, a computer cannot reassure the client that they’re okay and in the right place.”
“AI Advisors typically have a client complete a questionnaire to assess their needs. Based on the responses, the AI then selects a suitable investment portfolio for the client. This method is often perceived as a one-size-fits-all” Chad says. “So if you’re a balanced investor, you will be invested in portfolio one, with a limited mandate. If you are a Growth investor, you will be invested in portfolio two, and it has its own mandate. AI creates a uniform solution for diverse client profiles.”
Another distinctive strategy Harmer and his certified Financial Planners use comes from Chad’s background of working with Canada’s big banks. One thing he often saw was that an Advisor would start working with a client who would come to trust that Advisor. Then, for various reasons, the client would have to be passed on to another person.
“Trust, which takes time,” Harmer says. “The new financial planner may know the client’s retirement goals, their investment strategy, and, say, their mortgage scenario, but they aren’t able to incorporate how the clients’ real estate or insurance holdings would play a role in their overall financial plan. The trust is broken, and the client has to start over.”
With Harmer Wealth Management, Chad found a way to eliminate that risk by organizing his financial professionals into teams with a comprehensive and integrative approach to serving clients.
“What we do is incorporate financial planning and financial advising into a holistic approach. Each of our clients has one Financial Advisor who’s supported by teams, and they all deal with all aspects of the financial plan. We’ve found that it allows for better planning, implementation of strategy, and overall efficiency.”
Harmer says that the biggest problem many investors run into is the break in communications with their certified financial planners and what Chad calls “that hole in the advice picture for the client.”
“Here at Harmer Wealth Management, consultations tend to run much smoother, especially as it relates to, let’s say, retirement, when we’re able to say, ‘We have these investment assets, we have these pension plans,’ but we’re also able to look at everything else, including the client’s home equity and debt. This takes the guesswork out of the picture.”
When a client uses AI tools to look at different scenarios for managing their money and investments, as well as planning for retirement or other financial options, Harmer’s advisors are notified, and someone will contact the client.
“It’s a streamlined efficiency, so then we can reach out and say, ‘Hey, I know you were looking at this and inquiring about this. Do you want to have a conversation surrounding it? Or maybe they’re just wanting to see numbers, right? But it creates a more interactive piece with our clients.”
Harmer Wealth Management has grown into one of Ontario’s leading wealth management firms, known for its elevated client experience. By managing the entire financial portfolio, the firm and its clients are built on a foundation of trust, professional wealth management, and retirement planning solutions that align with the client’s goals.
As Chad Harmer says, “One size fits one.”
