Manulife Wealth Simplifies Due Diligence with Advisor Workstation

The Client Focused Reforms regulation has been pushing advisors towards more robust Know Your Product, or KYP, practices to raise the standard of financial advice. 

The new standard drastically strengthened how much fiduciaries had to document to prove they were acting in clients’ best interests. 

Manulife Wealth financial planner Constance Viglas has trusted Morningstar investment data for years with her clients. She encouraged her compliance team to tour the new due diligence tools in Advisor Workstation. 

 Manulife Wealth and Morningstar worked together to create a custom solution for their advice and compliance needs. When the regulations took effect, Manulife Wealth could take off running. 

“Some companies weren’t ready,” she says. “Manulife was up to speed right at the start, and the platform is so easy to use.” 

Constance personalizes portfolios for each of her clients. She feels confident when she meets with clients, knowing that her advice has the backing of Advisor Workstation.

Conventional wisdom says that most financial advisors lose clients after four years. Constance doesn’t have that problem. 

Product and client due diligence are nothing new for Constance. At previous firms, she earned a reputation as a fixer. When clients had difficulties with other advisors, the compliance team sent them to her for support.

She truly enjoys getting together with clients, explaining the information behind her recommendations, and getting client feedback. Because her portfolios are reinforced by thorough due diligence and years of experience, she says she rarely hears complaints.  

“I tend to keep clients for a long time,” she says. “Whether or not they understand how their portfolio works behind the scenes, they trust that I’m working for them.”  

When she first meets clients, Constance does a lot of listening. She asks probing questions to gauge their comfort level with the stock market. After getting to know them, Constance opens Advisor Workstation. 

“Advisor Workstation is a wealth of information,” she says. “I don't understand how anybody does their job without using Morningstar.”

With the software, Constance can test combinations of funds or asset allocation percentages to build portfolios in a client’s best interests. She roots out overexposure to any one market or investment style.  

“I can tell clients everything they need to know about a portfolio with Advisor Workstation,” she says. “Any question they ask, I have the answer.”  

Then she explains her findings to the clients with the IIROC-reviewed Portfolio Snapshot report. She walks clients through investment charts, graphs, and data such as:  

• Total return over 10 years. 

• A correlation matrix. Constance can make informed choices for diversification. 

• Growth of 10K chart. Here, she digs into the history behind a fund or how multiple funds fit together with reliable data.  

• Stock intersections. Constance assesses top portfolio holdings to avoid excess overlap. 

The due diligence tools make it easy for Constance to document and store the reasoning behind her investment decisions. With a simple guided workflow, she can surface a reasonable range of alternatives across Manulife’s product shelf.

The platform creates an automatic audit trail with metadata stored securely in the firm’s compliance systems. Those KYP documents are just a few clicks away if Constance needs to reference them.

“I can use Advisor Workstation to back up any of my recommendations,” she says. And it’s always in my files, just in case.”

When Manulife Wealth chose Advisor Workstation as its due diligence platform, the Morningstar customer success team was there to help throughout the implementation process.  

Constance says that customer support has always stood out at Morningstar. Whenever I email with a question, I always get a very quick answer,” she says. Customer service has never faltered.”

Constance has been in the business for a long time. She’s familiar with flashy new platforms that promise to reinvent portfolio management.

“Over the years, I’ve been offered all these new products for making portfolios,” Constance says. “I’ve looked at them — none of them lived up to promise. Morningstar is the leader.”

With Advisor Workstation, she has the tools to advise her clients in the long term, without extra worry about compliance.

Neither Manulife Wealth Inc. nor the advisor have received cash or non-cash compensation from Morningstar, directly or indirectly, in exchange for this client success story. Manulife Wealth is a brand name for Manulife Wealth Inc, a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.