Reports

Insight Investment Funds Report

Insight Investment Funds Report

This research service thoroughly examines the investment funds industry. The foundation for Insight is the only comprehensive historical investment funds database in Canada. Subscribers receive a flow of provocative industry research produced on a monthly basis, as well as preferred database access. Insight is not only about data or the production of research reports; it is fundamentally about service. Investor Economics is committed to providing all subscribers with unparalleled hands-on support, responding to their needs with a sense of urgency.
Insight Investment Funds—Gisted Report

Insight Investment Funds—Gisted Report

The Insight Investment Funds—Gisted Report is a synthesized version of our monthly Insight report. It is produced in an electronic format, and is available on an annual subscription basis. Designed to address the needs of those who lack the time to pore over the wealth of information contained in each issue of Insight, the Insight Investment Funds—Gisted Report delivers executive summaries of the feature research article, the Trend Lines story, and vital industry statistics with commentary—all in a tidy six-page package.
Insurance Report

Insurance Report

The Insurance Report represents Investor Economics’ flagship research on insurance. This recently-launched service builds on a decade-worth of research into this specialized dimension of the wealth management industry and the legacy of the Segregated Funds Report.
Fee-based Report

Fee-based Report

Fee-based assets represent the largest and fastest-growing component of Canada’s wealth market. The Fee-based Report is a detailed study that tackles key issues facing competitors in the rapidly growing fee-based market. Entire sections of the report are devoted to fund wraps and the discretionary management side of the market. Key products, competitors, growth leaders and laggards, pricing and cost trends are all examined. The personal trust market and universal life insurance are also featured sections of the report.
Group Retirement Savings and Pensions Report

Group Retirement Savings and Pensions Report

The Group Retirement Savings and Pensions Report focuses on the $3.0 trillion Canadian retirement market and provides extensive coverage of the various retirement funding models. There is extensive discussion on broader retirement issues (aging population, savings adequacy, DB plan conversion) as well as competitive pressures for participants in the group market that has become more relevant given the size of the retirement market and number of relationships with individuals in Canada. 
Financial Advisor Channel Report

Financial Advisor Channel Report

The Financial Advisor Channel Report provides a comprehensive view of the financial advisor landscape. Subscribers will be able to immediately assess the size, scope and the progression of financial advisor channel firms, while gaining a direct understanding of the key players, ideas and regulatory considerations that are shaping the future direction of the industry. Each issue will provide an in-depth analysis of topical research and its strategic importance to industry participants.
Retail Brokerage and Distribution Report

Retail Brokerage and Distribution Report

The Retail Brokerage and Distribution Report looks at developments in the Canadian retail brokerage industry and provides brokerage executives with a multi-faceted yardstick for measuring their firm against the industry at large. By giving a sense of what is happening in the industry, the report aids the decision-making of manufacturers, such as mutual fund complexes and life insurers. The report systematically identifies emerging trends and subsequently monitors them on an ongoing basis, allowing companies to efficiently track the role of the brokerage industry in managing the wealth of individual Canadians.
Deposit Report

Deposit Report

The market for deposits and deposit substitute products is significant, both in size and importance. It is essential for financial services providers to have a comprehensive understanding of this key category, as the continuum of fixed income investment options constitutes a major proportion of the balance sheet of Canadian households. Households are presented with numerous options, from money market mutual funds to high-interest savings accounts, all positioned as providing safety and yield.
Fintech Report

Fintech Report

With a particular emphasis on wealth management, the Fintech Report was created to provide a comprehensive view of the Canadian fintech landscape, size the market potential for emergent business models, and interpret the impacts their entrance will have on the broader industry. Subscribers to this research will be able to immediately assess the size, scope, and the progression of fintech firms in the wealth management space, while gaining a direct understanding of the key players, ideas and innovations that are shaping the future direction of the industry.
Investor Economics Household Balance Sheet Report

Investor Economics Household Balance Sheet Report

The Household Balance Sheet Report has become a widely accepted research tool that allows financial services providers to assess the retail market and consider future opportunities and competitive challenges for their businesses. Investor Economics examines and quantifies the wealth market from crucial vantage points, such as distribution channels, product trends and business lines. High-level projections for key financial wealth segments (e.g. the future size of the $1 million-plus market) are an important feature of the report.
Global Research White Paper Series

Global Research White Paper Series

Our Global Research Whitepaper Series establishes a common analytical framework for evaluating global themes including regulation, technology, retirement and more. The research approach is anchored in three core principles: measuring the facts; developing and maintaining an analytical frame with which to benchmark the progress of the various market participants against; and fostering industry insights by engaging business leaders, regulators and industry observers in a comprehensive discussion of key issues.
ESG Report

ESG Report

The ESG Report provides evidence to assist financial services providers in answering practical questions as they consider incorporating ESG considerations in their investment process, and introducing, wholesaling, marketing and tracking their products. This report covers multiple topics related to ESG investing, including demand factors, investment performance, risk management, business retention, fees, sub-advisory, wholesaling considerations and ESG mandates.
2021 Investor Economics Household Balance Sheet Report

2021 Investor Economics Household Balance Sheet Report

2021 Household Balance Sheet Report

Welcome to Investor Economics’ 2021 Household Balance Sheet Report.


The current edition—our 15th— is the compendium of our best thinking, analyses, and data on the financial services industry in Canada. Importantly, each study reflects the expansive input from you, our loyal readers.


Over the past 29 years, you have shaped the Household Balance Sheet Report’s fact base and storylines by sharing data and insights about your own growth and successes, and by offering your valuable comments on the report itself. In this fashion, the study is truly the fruit of teamwork on a massive scale. The report encompasses data and ideas from organizations and individuals representing financial services providers, regulators, industry associations and public policymakers, both Canadian and global, and weaves this collective wisdom into a single narrative of the state of the union—and the state of the future—of the Canadian household wealth market.


As subscribers to the Household Balance Sheet Report, many of you know that the publication of this biennial report is, most importantly, an invitation to debate the future of the Canadian financial services industry. Key to the report’s potency is the application of its ideas and projections to address specific strategic and tactical dilemmas facing your businesses. As always, the Investor Economics team is ready to help you mobilize this research to uncover opportunities and to prepare for challenges through in-person and online discussions. Through these interactions, the single map of the financial services industry outlined in the Household Balance Sheet Report becomes nuanced into multiple perspectives, made relevant through firm-specific applications of its content. You help us transform the map into an atlas of new maps.

Wholesaling Key Metrics Report

Wholesaling Key Metrics Report

The 2022 Wholesaling Key Metrics report provides an analytical, fact-based framework for asset managers to measure and benchmark their wholesaling infrastructure against peers and optimize it using a holistic set of quantitative and qualitative metrics exclusively developed for the users of this research.
Private Investment Management Pricing Report 2021

Private Investment Management Pricing Report 2021

2021 Private Investment Counsel Pricing Report provides valuable insight into private investment counsel industry pricing trends, attitudes and methodology and enables subscribers to benchmarks their fees against peers.  The report leveraged our online survey capability to gather insights about pricing models and the influences of pricing on the competitive landscape. Additionally, more than 60 fee schedules submitted by participating firms were analyzed to segment the data in terms of asset classes and portfolio sizes. This report is the most extensive and detailed assessment of PIC investment fees available in the Canadian market. We could not have achieved our goals without the active participation of PMAC and many of its members. For those firms that submitted a schedule, a customized dashboard is also available. The dashboard can be used to set competitive pricing based on data-based analysis by product type and asset classes.
State of Wholesaling Report

State of Wholesaling Report

The State of Wholesaling Report study aims to establish and maintain an analytical, fact-based framework for asset managers to measure and benchmark their wholesaling infrastructure against peers and optimize it using a holistic set of quantitative and qualitative metrics exclusively developed for the users of this research. The study features insights from sales leaders on the early impacts of the global pandemic and expected changes to the wholesaling model going forward.
2018 Sales and Service Models for the Mass Affluent–Canada

2018 Sales and Service Models for the Mass Affluent–Canada

This report provides a strategic and competitive assessment of the branch advice delivery models employed by each of the Big Six banks. As such, the report serves dual objectives. The first is to provide an in-depth analysis of the strategic objectives, the structure and the success of individual bank models. This is done both on an individual bank and cross-bank comparative basis. The findings of this detailed analysis are mobilized to identify key success factors in establishing and managing a branch advice organization. The key perspectives addressed in this detailed view include: -Branch advice personnel profiling (the types, qualifications and number of personnel) -Product composition -The product shelf and responsibilities docket -Financial planning capabilities and degree of commitment to the financial planning process -Branch advisor compensation models -The client relationship management structure -The client triage process -Referral strategies -Individual bank asset rankings and degree of vertical integration
Life Insurance Segregated Funds Report

Life Insurance Segregated Funds Report

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the growth and emerging product trends in the individual segregated funds arena. It monitors the development of seg funds from a variety of vantage points, including assets and net sales, asset class composition, competitive landscape, MERs, loads, compensation and product structure, including the importance of wrapped and sub-advised funds. The latter part of the study contains competitive intelligence capsules on key competitors in the segregated fund segment.