Since reentering the financial services business in 2003, Richardson Financial Group became an industry juggernaut, adding to the Richardson family’s already successful empire.

After years of competition, the operating division Richardson Partners Financial Limited – which had about $7 billion of assets under its management – and GMP Private Client L.P. banded their respective wealth management businesses together to form Richardson GMP Limited. The deal also made the Richardson family a major shareholder in GMP Capital Inc., the parent company of GMP Private Client, buying $87 million of common shares under the agreement.

“It really was a recognition of the opportunity to bring them together…and build the preeminent wealth management company in the country,” says Hartley T. Richardson, president and CEO of James Richardson & Sons, Limited, of the merger.

Kevin Sullivan, CEO of GMP Capital Inc., explains how he and Richardson used their companies’ similarities to their advantage when the idea of a merger first came into fruition. “We were building very similar businesses with very similar cultures,” he says. “We realized that our businesses were very much alike and that by combining them, we could achieve our respective goals a lot quicker, in a better way and with better service levels to our clients, ultimately fulfilling our shared vision…of building a great wealth management firm.”

Though the recent economic crisis impacted much of the financial services industry, Richardson stresses that it was by no means the reason for the merger. Instead, it sparked discussion between the two men. “We both felt that the world would see its way through this recession,” says Richardson. “And we both felt very strongly that we could have continued down our respective paths and been successful, but we fundamentally believed that it was better for both organizations to merge.”

Sullivan says the economic situation also allowed him and Richardson to compare notes about how their respective companies were going to achieve their growth objectives. “It provided a bit of a catalyst to 1) generate some thoughts on both sides, and 2) sit down and start talking. It was then that we realized that we were a lot more alike than different and shared the same goals, so (the recession) had an interesting impact on making this merger happen.”

Richardson GMP currently oversees in excess of $12 billion in assets, though it hopes to almost triple that figure by 2015. “The intent was clearly to grow the business quite significantly over the next five years,” says Richardson. “We have a strategy and a plan to do that, and we’re executing it now.”

The merged entity employs several hundred wealth management professionals within 114 investment advisory teams, who dish out financial planning and wealth management services to high net-worth clients across the country. “We’d rather be smaller and more efficient than have a massive head count,” says Sullivan. “We’re looking for quality, not quantity.”

The number of advisors is not the only way in which Richardson GMP aspires to differentiate itself from other financial institutions. “Certainly in wealth management, we feel that the relationship between the advisor and the client is paramount,” Richardson says of what he dubs “very much a people business.” Indeed, much of the company’s competitive advantage stems from the importance it places on the human relationship.

“One of the things Richardson GMP does so well is a tailored approach, advice, services and products, client by client,” adds James Werry, CEO of Richardson GMP. “There are similarities between clients, but no two clients are exactly the same. A lot of the larger financial service organizations are more about the packaged product, which is less tailored to individual need.”

Also playing a role in Richardson GMP’s success is the fact that its investment advisors and management team hold 30 per cent ownership interest, with GMP Capital Inc. and Richardson Financial Group owning equal stakes of 35 per cent. “For the investment advisors, it’s an opportunity to own equity and have a really meaningful say in the enterprise where they work,” says Sullivan.

And that, Richardson adds, has contributed to the company’s mandate to provide the best possible service to its clients. “It was our belief that in having advisors who were partners, working with us to build the organization, we could create a very client-centric philosophy. At the end of the day, it’s about what we deliver to the customer.” It’s for that reason the company sticks to wealth management rather than branching out into broader financial services. “We would rather be known as the best purveyor of wealth management advice as opposed to the best seller of financial products,” says Sullivan.

The ease in which the two companies merged is hopefully a sign of things to come for Richardson GMP, and, according to Werry, things have been running smoothly since the firms first announced the merger last summer and closed the deal on Nov. 12. “We’ve been working through some of the post-integration things that occur…when you bring two firms together and form a new head office,” he says. Sullivan adds, “We can now focus on growing the business as opposed to the nuts and bolts of putting the infrastructure of the two businesses together.”

As the Richardson family sold its brokerage firm to the Royal Bank of Canada for more than $400 million in 1996, the merger also left some wondering if this was Richardson’s way of bowing out of the financial industry once more. Not so, he says. “With this merger, we brought together our two respective organizations, we are equal partners along with our advisors and we have been provided with an opportunity to become a shareholder of GMP,” he says. “This is significant investment by the family in the financial services business. We’ve chosen our partner and we’ll be there to support them – we’re very pleased to have been able to do that.”