iA Private Wealth has been named Best Independent Dealer at the SPi Canada Awards 2026, recognized for the rapid build-out of a dedicated structured notes platform under the relatively new iA Capital Markets Structured Notes Team.
When the team was established, structured note usage at iA Private Wealth was low. The mandate was straightforward: build advisor understanding of the category from the ground up, then support implementation end to end education, product access and hands-on service, delivered as one function rather than three.
“This award is meaningful because it reflects the momentum and the dedicated, innovative platform we are building with advisors across the country. Structured notes have become an important portfolio construction tool, and our focus has been on giving advisors the education, analytics and hands-on support they need to use them with confidence,” said Deven Shah, Managing Director and Head of Structured Products, iA Capital Markets.
Managing Director, Head of Structured Products, iA Capital Markets
The approach shows up in the numbers the firm reports: sales grew at a double-digit pace in 2025 and accelerated sharply in 2026, which the team attributes to deeper advisor engagement and the growing role of notes in portfolio construction.
Education First, Then Breadth
Advisors need to understand the building blocks of structured notes: the risk-return trade-offs, and how different structures map to a client's objectives and horizon, before they'll use the category with confidence. That's the starting point for the platform: one-on-one guidance, educational resources, and ongoing engagement through events and conferences, aimed at advisors at every stage from first exposure to experienced users comparing structures.
Choice matters just as much. The Canadian market spans a wide range of issuers, structures and asset classes, and the team's role is to help advisors weigh trade-offs across that range rather than push a single issuer or product. It also works with issuers directly on customized ideas and analytical tools that make structures easier to compare - innovation framed as usability, not just novelty.
Working With Issuers, Not Around Them
iA positions its role as complementary to isuers rather than competing with them: issuer sales teams remain the primary source of product-specific knowledge and structuring expertise, and the team sees its own function as helping advisors evaluate how different issuers' solutions fit specific client portfolios.
Scale, and the Richardson Wealth Integration
iA Wealth manages over CAD 214Bn in assets across iA Private Wealth, Investia, Richardson Wealth, iA Clarington and iACapital Markets, making it Canada's largest non-bank wealth platform. That scale funds the team's investment in education, product breadth and issuer relationships, and underpins how it delivers a specialist structured notes function consistently across a national advisor base.
The recently completed Richardson Wealth acquisition extends that reach. Richardson Wealth continues to operate under its own brand and advisor community, but its advisors now have access to the iA Capital Markets Structured Notes Team — the same education-first, issuer-inclusive model applied to a new advisor base, and the clearest near-term growth lever for the platform.
Looking Ahead
The team frames the award as recognition of progress rather than a finished job: the plan is to keep building on the same model — education, product breadth, and direct advisor support — while continuing to work alongside issuers. The stated goal isn't higher note utilization for its own sake, but better-informed advisors making better portfolio decisions for clients.
iA Private Wealth was named Best Independent Dealer, Canada 2026 at the SPi Canada Awards, presented September17 in Montreal.
