This article originally appeared in Wealth Professional

Ambitious independent platform expects to announce more partnerships through 2021

Q Wealth Partners has continued its expansion strategy after joining forces with OneLife Wealth Management.

Based in Ottawa, OneLife is a $223 million AUM firm that also provides a “robust group benefits offering”. Marc Ouellet will act as COO, with Chris Bockstael as president, while Nick Bockstael will function as associate portfolio manager under the direction of Deborah Frame, currently a registered Q Wealth Partners PM.

For Ouellet, when he began looking for a new dealer structure, it hadn’t dawned on him that OneLife could jump from MFDA to PM in one restructure. He said: “When we saw how significant the savings on MERs would be for our clients, it was an easy decision to make. And that’s not even getting into the enhanced client experience and technology upgrade.”

Jared Rabinowitz, founding Executive Partner Q Wealth Partners, said: “One of the key things we look for in a partner firm is the potential to unlock growth opportunities. OneLife has already completed the purchase of a sophisticated insurance practice and, with our help at Q Wealth, those clients can now be introduced to the entire wealth management suite of our offering.

“With OneLife’s team and customer base, we see a clear path to tripling revenues, plus we’ve already been able to trim operating costs fitting out their office with the QW’s managed IT and tech suite.”

Q Wealth anticipates its partnership announcements will continue at a rapid pace throughout 2021 and believes its superior technology offering will continue to attract firms. Bockstael enthused about Q-Connect, the Q Wealth portal, and praised its ability to show clients all their assets, regardless of custodian, aggregated in real time.

Q Wealth Partners is a partnership by portfolio managers, exclusively for portfolio managers, with "well-established practices and an entrepreneurial spirit". Each partner owns and operates their own practice under their own brand.