IGM Financial Inc. announced a multi-year restructuring this week that the firm says will deliver $70 million in annualized savings by year-end 2028.
“We are building an AI-enabled organization that enhances, not replaces, the trusted relationships at the core of our business,” James O’Sullivan, the firm’s president and CEO, said in a media release.
It is a theme that came up repeatedly in Investment Executive’s 2026 Brokerage Report Card. AI will transform the wealth management business, but advisors remain at the centre of the business model.
Mike Floyd, CEO of ThinkForces Advisory Group, describes this as the centaur model — advisors working with AI to serve clients better than ever.
That is a plausible forecast. It may even be the most likely one.
But there is another part of this conversation that deserves attention. The industry’s investment in AI is not solely about improving client outcomes or advisor productivity. It is also about efficiency.
IGM’s media release promised three outcomes from the restructuring. First on the list: “Further consolidation of team structures and streamlining workflows to drive efficiency and increase alignment with strategy.”
Two things can be true simultaneously. Advisors will serve clients more effectively with AI. And it will probably take fewer, smaller advisory teams to do so.
It’s understandable that firm executives are reluctant to speak plainly about this. The technology is evolving so rapidly that we cannot know what headcounts will look like at the end of this decade.
Value judgment
Jonathan Got has a piece for us on the risks inherent in AI financial advice and how advisors can help clients navigate confident-sounding chatbots.
“As AI comes to play an ever greater role in clients’ lives, there is a growing need for advisors to teach clients how to use it responsibly and demonstrate the unique value of tailored human advice,” Got wrote.
What’s clear from his reporting is that a growing number of clients have already constructed their own hybrid model, drawing financial information and advice from multiple sources. According to a TD-sponsored survey conducted in February, 55% of Canadians prefer human support for financial planning and 53% prefer it for retirement planning.
The industry has largely settled on the view that AI will augment advisors rather than replace them. The reality is probably more nuanced.
In the near term, AI appears more likely to reshape support functions than client-facing advisory roles. Beyond that, however, the future is unpredictable.
The argument that Canadians will reject fully automated financial advice still feels right. But let’s call that what it is — a feeling.