IGM Financial Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 30, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Adjusted EPS rose 32% year over year to CAD 1.41, supported by CAD 2.2 billion of net flows, strong market returns, higher average AUMA and disciplined expense management. Total AUMA increased 19% to CAD 622 billion across all six wealth and asset management businesses.
  • Positive Sentiment: IG Wealth reported record second-quarter new-client inflows and its eighth consecutive quarter of positive net flows, while Wealthsimple AUA surged 84% year over year to CAD 155.6 billion after record quarterly net flows of approximately CAD 17 billion. IGM increased the fair value of its Wealthsimple stake 15% to CAD 2.6 billion.
  • Positive Sentiment: Mackenzie delivered improved retail and institutional momentum, including CAD 1.9 billion of second-quarter net sales, CAD 2 billion of institutional onboardings and approximately CAD 5 billion of additional awards expected to fund mainly in Q4 2026 and Q1 2027. Northleaf also continued growing, with IGM’s economic interest increasing from 56% to 60.9% and consolidation expected to produce an estimated CAD 187 million non-cash gain in Q3.
  • Positive Sentiment: IGM returned a record CAD 345 million to shareholders in Q2, including CAD 200 million of share repurchases, while retaining CAD 935 million of unallocated capital and reducing gross debt to EBITDA to 1.25 times. Management expects continued buybacks but plans to preserve financial flexibility for investment and future capital allocation.
  • Negative Sentiment: Fee-rate pressure remains a headwind: IG’s advisory fee rate fell 0.6 basis points in Q2 and is expected to decline another 0.25 to 0.5 basis points in Q3, while Mackenzie’s third-party fee rate is expected to decrease further as institutional assets are onboarded. Management also expects to reinvest structural savings into AI capabilities, which may limit near-term cost savings despite longer-term productivity benefits.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
IGM Financial Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IGM Financial Second Quarter 2026 analyst call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You'll hear a tone acknowledging your request. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kyle Martens, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Kyle Martens
Kyle Martens
Senior VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relation at IGM Financial

Thank you, Jason. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. On the call today, we have Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management; Luke Gould, President and CEO of Mackenzie Investments; and Keith Potter, Executive Vice President and CFO, IGM Financial. Before we get started, I would like to draw your attention to our cautions concerning forward-looking statements on slide three of the presentation. Slides four and five summarize non-IFRS financial measures and other financial measures used in the presentation. On slide six, we provide a list of documents available on our website related to IGM Financial's 2026 second quarter results. With that, I'll turn it over to Damon.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Thank you, Kyle, and good morning, everyone. Today is my 24th quarterly earnings call and my first as President and CEO of IGM Financial. I'm excited and honored to be leading this great organization. I want to thank James for his leadership and guidance over the past five-plus years. I look forward to working together in his new capacity as chair of our board. While many of you may know me from Mackenzie Investments and IG Wealth, let me provide a brief background for those of you who may be new to our story. I've been part of IGM's leadership team since 2014, including senior roles at Mackenzie Investments and nearly six years as CEO of IG Wealth. I've also stayed connected to the wealth and asset management businesses that are part of our strategic investments.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

I'm proud of what we've built as a company of team players united by a commitment to our clients, execution excellence, and shared success. We enter IGM's next chapter from a position of strength and momentum. Today, I will provide my outlook on the opportunities ahead and share my priorities, starting on slide nine. Since the planned leadership transition was announced in February, I've spent time meeting with employees, advisors, leaders, and partners. I've also stood back and looked at IGM as a whole. These conversations and reflections reinforce my confidence in our business and the strength of the leadership team across IGM. They also clarified where we can build on our strengths and advantages. To be clear, our strategy is working well. It's focused on the growth of our core asset and wealth management businesses, amplified by our strategic investments and supported by disciplined capital allocation.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

The markets we operate in are attractive but also highly competitive. Clients' expectations continue to rise and fee pressure remains a reality across the industry. That makes differentiation, productivity, and disciplined execution even more important. My role is to sharpen our focus, move faster, and concentrate resources on the opportunity with the greatest potential. That work is already underway. The actions we announced in June show this approach in motion and our trajectory, simplifying how we operate so we can direct more capacity to clients, advisors, and profitable growth. Let me take a few minutes to break that down. Firstly, IG Wealth and Mackenzie are the core of IGM, comprising 75% of our earnings. Each has distinct strengths and meaningful room to grow.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

At IG Wealth, our strength is rooted in our national network of financial planners, our deeply embedded financial planning culture, which fosters multi-generational family relationships, and our omni-channel approach to servicing our clients. These strengths are most relevant to affluent Canadians whose financial lives tend to be more complex. Profitable growth comes from two levers that drive advisor productivity. First is increasing advisor capacity by leveraging our omni-channel approach and using our industry-leading Planning First technology platform to ensure right client, right channel, and give our advisors more time to service their existing clients and acquire new clients. Second is increasing advisor capabilities by strengthening our value proposition around our key wealth drivers so our advisors can solve more complex family needs and our clients can benefit from our differentiated financial planning advice across various dimensions.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

At Mackenzie, our advantages come from investment excellence across a multi-boutique model, a leading brand known for product innovation, and multi-channel distribution strength. This includes deep relationships with independent Canadian advisors, connections across the Power Corp. ecosystem, and growing global institutional reach. Growth comes from continued product innovation and bringing our strongest capabilities to more advisors, more clients, and more institutions. Secondly, our strategic investments expand and diversify IGM's growth opportunity. These ownership interests in attractive wealth and asset management businesses connect us into different business models, client segments, and markets, and also strengthen IG and Mackenzie. Together, IG Wealth, Mackenzie, and our strategic investments give IGM distinct and complementary sources of growth and drivers of shareholder returns. Lastly, our capital allocation priorities remain consistent.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

We'll invest first in our core businesses where we can strengthen competitive advantages and drive profitable growth. We will maintain financial strength and flexibility as we balance disciplined investment in growth with share repurchases and dividend growth over time. We will continue to concentrate on the wealth and asset management businesses we own today. To be clear, building on our strategy that is working, sharpen our focus, simplify how we operate, and invest with discipline. We will measure this progress in practical terms through better client and advisor outcomes, improved productivity, improved operating efficiency, and ultimately profitable growth and stronger earnings. I know this company well. I strongly believe in our businesses, and I'm ambitious about what comes next. Our leadership team has a strong track record of execution, and our second quarter results are the latest evidence of that.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

With that, let me turn to slide 11 and talk about our quarterly results. Adjusted EPS of CAD 1.41 per share was up 32% from a year ago. Higher average AUMA supported earnings reflecting CAD 2.2 billion in net flows and strong investment returns. We paired that growth with disciplined expense management and delivered operating leverage. Beyond adjusted earnings, the fair value of our 25% interest in Wealthsimple increased by 15% during the quarter to CAD 2.6 billion, reflecting continued growth in the business. We also returned record capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We did that while maintaining financial flexibility with more than CAD 900 million of unallocated capital and a conservative leverage profile. As shown on slide 12, the operating environment was supportive in Q2. Strong financial markets generated average client returns of approximately 9% across IG and Mackenzie, and industry flows remain positive.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Markets are at or near record highs, although we've seen periods of volatility this year. We remain prepared for a range of market conditions as we enter the second half. On slide 13, adjusted earnings increased across all three segments, with both wealth management and asset management up more than 30%. Slide 14 shows our asset growth, which was not concentrated in just one or two businesses. Total AUMA increased by 19% year-over-year to CAD 622 billion, with all six of our wealth and asset management businesses higher than a year ago. This brings me back to the actions we announced in June on slide 15. We designed these actions to create more meaningful capacity to invest in the future of our businesses without simply layering on more cost and complexity. That capacity will support the next phase of our AI investment.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

This investment will be in people, in process, and establishing the AI foundational platforms necessary to make it work. There are two principles guiding this work: simplification and personalization. Simplification means removing friction points and making it easier for us to work together, for our advisors and clients to work with us, and ensuring that we are working with our clients in the best way that fits their needs. Personalization means using better data, technology, and insights to elevate the client experience by enabling advisors to deliver more personalized advice, solutions, and service. AI is a critical enabler of simplification and personalization. At IG, AI at the onset is giving advisors time back to help them deliver a more personalized client experience. One example is how AI is supporting the client meeting flow, surfacing relevant meeting prep insights before meetings, and streamlining follow-up and documentation.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

At Mackenzie, AI is already embedded in parts of the investment process, helping teams process complex data and supporting idea generation, research, and client service. Across IGM, it can reduce repetitive tasks, eliminate manual work, and give people more time for high-value work that improves both the employee and the advisor experience. Our participation in the Sagard AI Fund complements the work by giving us another source of market intelligence and opportunities to engage with leading AI companies. The objective here is straightforward. Better client experience, greater advisor productivity and sales team productivity, improved operating efficiency in support of growth and investment returns. Now, with that, let me turn to slide 17 and talk about our wealth management segment's results. IG Wealth delivered another strong record quarter, including record second quarter new client inflows and the eighth consecutive quarter of positive net flows.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

That progress reflects our focus on mass affluent and high-net-worth Canadians, where comprehensive financial planning is most relevant and valuable. IG was also recognized in the quarter by Forbes as being one of Canada's best employers for company culture. Turn to slide 18. Gross inflows were CAD 4.5 billion, up 26% from a year ago, and our trailing 12-month net flows rate was 1.5%. Investment performance was also strong, with 97% of our investment solutions rated three stars or higher by Morningstar. That performance continues to support client and advisor confidence in IGM managed solutions, which represented 88% of our assets under advisement. Slide 19 shows that both mass affluent and high-net-worth clients contributed to our new client momentum, reinforcing the strength of our value proposition in the segments we are built to serve. Slide 20 covers mortgages and insurance, two very important parts of our comprehensive financial planning offering.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

I'll focus on insurance for a moment, where our new annualized premium has reached CAD 33 million, significantly higher than prior periods. This reflects our continued focus on estate planning part of the insurance market, which generally leads to policies with higher face values. Those higher policies are becoming a more meaningful part of the business as we strengthen our insurance capabilities and serve our client segments with more complex needs. While the timing of larger policies can make results uneven from quarter to quarter, our focus on insurance has led not to just larger policies over time, but to higher case count. The direction of the firm is clear. Insurance is becoming more a part of how we serve our clients and grow this business. Turn to slide 21.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

These six industry wealth drivers capture the key financial challenges facing our target client segments, and the areas where our advisors can help clients navigate these challenges and add value through financial planning advice. One of those areas is high-net-worth family wealth. During the quarter, we added two new partnerships with Next Legacy and Tamarind Learning to strengthen our capabilities in the family wealth dynamics, education, and governance pillar. Together, these partnerships give our advisors more tools to help families build the confidence, knowledge, and structure needed to manage wealth across generations. Now let's turn to slide 22 and talk about Rockefeller. Rockefeller's client assets increased 31% year-over-year with market returns, organic growth, and additional new advisor teams all contributing. Its iconic brand and comprehensive high-net-worth platform continue to attract leading advisor teams across the U.S. Turn to slide 23 at Wealthsimple.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Wealthsimple AUA reached CAD 155.6 billion, up 84% year-over-year, and CAD 30.8 billion during the quarter. Record net flows of approximately CAD 17 billion were the largest contributor. Wealthsimple's strong brand, digital first experience, and pace of innovation continue to drive client and asset growth. With that, I'll turn the call over to Luke to discuss Mackenzie's second quarter results.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Great. Thanks, Damon. Good morning, everyone. If you turn to page 25, you'll see highlights for Mackenzie and the asset management segment for the quarter. We are pleased with continued momentum in the quarter across many dimensions. Our AUM is up 20% in the last year to CAD 269 billion, and during the quarter, we generated investment returns of 10.5% for clients. Our net sales continue to be strong, with CAD 1.9 billion in Q2 and CAD 3.6 billion year to date. This was our best second quarter investment fund net sales in five years and was driven by momentum in retail, which was up meaningfully from 2025. We also onboarded CAD 2 billion in previously announced institutional wins during the quarter, and we also had multiple CAD billion of awards in Q2, which we'll fund during the coming quarters. At the top of the page, we've reiterated our strategic priorities at Mackenzie.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Raise the bar in investment excellence, build better products, and deliver a great service experience. All of our initiatives to advance the business are focused around these three priorities. At the top right, you'll see that during the quarter, around this priority of raising the bar in investment excellence, we made important changes to our investment management organization that I'll review in a few slides. Also, at the bottom of the slide, you can see that ChinaAMC and Northleaf continue to grow, and I'll speak to both of these on coming slides as well. Turn to page 26. You can see the trend in the history of Mackenzie's net sales. On the left, you can see solid flows and continued improvement in our investment fund net sales. This is our best second quarter year and year to date results in the last five years, as mentioned.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

You can see on the right, it was driven by these improvements in retail. At the very bottom left, you can see the strong year to date overall net sales, which were at the same level as 2025, which was a record high net sales year for us, and this is driven by continuing inflows from institutional investors. We're expecting continued improvement over the coming quarters as we continue to have winning conditions in a number of places within our offerings. On page 27, I'd highlight first in the bottom left that the industry environment remains healthy and the mutual fund net sales rate for the industry peers is around 2%, and we're slightly above this.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

In the top right, we've highlighted the continued growth in retail with CAD 360 million in improvement year-over-year, as well as the CAD 1.8 billion in improvement in institutional separate account net sales. Our CAD 1.5 billion in institutional SMA net sales in the quarter included the CAD 2 billion in onboardings referenced earlier, partially offset by some net redemptions from other clients. These onboardings continue to reflect a good mix of some of the largest public pensions globally, as well as some advisory to financial institutions. In the bottom right, overall investment performance continues to be solid, and our share of assets residing in five-star funds remains at its highest level in four years, and we have compelling performance across a range of relevant strategies. Moving to page 28, I have two updates related to our strategic priority of raising the bar in investment excellence.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

First, on the left is a reminder of Mackenzie's boutique approach. We have autonomous teams with their own demonstrable investment edge who leverage a common support platform. This approach provides diversity and breadth in our capabilities with no groupthink while ensuring that our teams have the resources and support that they need to generate alpha and harness their respective investment edges. In the middle, you can see that in the quarter, we made a number of changes to bolster investment excellence, enhance talent management, and drive technology enablement. We've reduced our number of teams from 15 to nine through a combination of rationalization and coordination of kindred spirits franchises. Part of this was a rationalization of three boutiques and a reassignment of their mandates to our global quantitative equity team and our multi-asset strategies team. You can see this on the right, numbers three and four.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

We brought together a number of teams through coordination of talent and shared resources, and you can see this on the right, numbered one and two. These changes are designed to ensure that all of our capabilities have a clear edge and stand proudly on a world stage with a clear path to commercial relevance across client segments. The changes are also designed to bolster the scale, talent management, and resources of each team, and to foster AI and technology enablement. In the bottom left, you can see that we completed a multi-year initiative during July with the completion of our middle office and data foundation with our partner, BNY Mellon. This middle office platform provides a world-class operating environment for our investment teams to do their best work, and also provides a strong foundation for tech and AI enablement.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Turning to page 29, you can see the performance in net sales for our retail investment fund by boutique. I'd highlight a few things on this slide. First, in the third column from the left, we continue to see noteworthy retail flows into our global quant equity boutique. I'd note that we do not view these flows as being near their potential. We have over 15 retail mandates here in large categories, and the track records are exceptional. This holistic quant all-weather approach that marries AI and HI is compelling in terms of both the level of alpha and the consistency of alpha across different market environments. I'd also note in the middle, we reassigned responsibility for our growth SMID team to the quant team during the quarter, expanding our quant retail lineup further.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

As you scan across the top section of the slide, you'll see we have very compelling performance in a number of relevant product categories at the moment where we're leaning in. This includes our multi-asset strategy team, our value team, and our resources and energy evolution Greenchip team, among others. Turning to page 30, a few comments on the Chinese investment fund industry. Industry long-term assets were up 10% in the quarter, driven by strong Chinese equity market returns in the quarter. Industry long-term fund net sales were very slightly paused in the quarter. As discussed last quarter, as part of robust equity market improvements, the industry had net outflows of passive ETFs of around CNY 800 billion in the quarter, reflecting activities by the national team. This was offset by net inflows into fixed income products.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

On the right, I'd highlight ChinaAMC maintained its rank of number two in the industry with a 5.2% market share. On slide 31, ChinaAMC ended the quarter with total AUM of CNY 2.9 trillion, up 3% in the quarter. At the bottom, you'll see ChinaAMC had CNY 145 billion in net outflows during the quarter, which like Q1, reflected participation in these industry passive ETF net outflows for the industry. I would remind that ChinaAMC is industry leader in the ETF space. Turning to slide 32, Northleaf continued to deliver strong asset growth, supported by CAD 4.3 billion of new commitments over the last year, and this included just under CAD 1 billion in the second quarter. I do want to make a few special remarks on Northleaf as we've reached an important milestone this quarter as we near the six-year anniversary of our partnership.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

First, I do want to highlight how very proud we are of Northleaf's development and success over the last five years. As you can see here, the business has grown at a compound annual rate of approximately 20% over this period, and is now 2.5x. The size that it was in 2020, with global investment reach across private equity, private credit, and infrastructure asset classes. Importantly, it has also expanded its clientele internationally over this time, reaching a milestone of having a majority of its commitments coming from outside Canada in 2024. The partnership is also helping fuel opportunities across IGM and the broader Power Group ecosystem, and we view private markets as a very important asset class across so many of our business lines. July of this year marks another important milestone in our partnership.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

As contemplated in 2020 and communicated publicly at that time, the original arrangements include the rights and obligations relating to additional equity and voting interests after five years. We could not be more pleased with the series of transactions that we completed in early July, which restructured the original arrangements with two very important outcomes. First, the Northleaf management team will continue to have this consistent, meaningful equity participation in the business over the long term, preserving the strong alignment that has been so important to the success of the partnership. Second, Stuart Vaughan and his leadership team will continue managing Northleaf, focused on serving its investors and continue to build the business over the long term.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

I'll now turn the call over to Keith Potter. Keith will cover the financial results. He will also cover the accounting implications as we start consolidating Northleaf as a consequence of these transactions.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

Thank you, Luke, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 34, the second quarter delivered strong broad-based results with adjusted EPS of CAD 1.41, up 32% year-over-year. Reported EPS was CAD 1.12. The main adjusting items were the previously announced restructuring charge and the typical adjustment for Great-West Life earnings. Adjustments also include a gain on partial sale of an investment in associate and a mark-to-market impact of the new Rockefeller management equity program. A few comments on the restructuring charge and our reinvestment priorities. As Damon commented, AI is a foundational technology for the future that will require meaningful investment. We challenged the leadership team to identify structural savings to create capacity for this investment without making it additive to our existing priorities.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

These savings will be reinvested in people, process, and technology to build comprehensive enterprise AI foundational capabilities and deploy AI responsibly and at scale solutions to make the business stronger and more efficient. The Rockefeller adjusting item related to a new management equity program that aligns management over the long term, which I commented on at a high level during the Q4 call. Under IFRS, the equity program will be expensed based on cash-settled accounting and remeasured quarterly based on their fair value. The impact is CAD 900,000 this quarter. Because RCM is growing rapidly, we believe future expense will be quite volatile. Therefore, are excluding it from adjusted results to improve comparability period-over-period and better reflect performance of the underlying business. This differs from IGM's other option programs, where expenses follow equity settled accounting and are generally expensed on a straight line basis.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

Turning to capital allocation, we returned CAD 345 million to shareholders in the quarter, including CAD 200 million in share repurchases. We also ended the quarter with unallocated capital of CAD 935 million and reduced our gross debt to EBITDA ratio to 1.25x, which leaves us with substantial financial flexibility as we continue to return capital to shareholders. Finally, Luke commented on the long-term partnership with Northleaf that we are thrilled with. As discussed, we've restructured the 2020 arrangement to preserve management equity participation while providing the flexibility to recycle ownership over time as part of succession planning. You will see in the financial statements, we have subsequent event disclosures related to the transactions that closed in July. If you have any questions on the accounting or other points of clarification, please reach out to the investor relations team, including Kyle.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

There are three things, though, I think you need to know. First, effective July 1st, we will consolidate 100% of Northleaf's revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities on a line-by-line basis within the asset management segment, with the portion owned by Northleaf Management and Great-West presented as non-controlling interests. As a reference point, we expect our reporting for Northleaf to be similar to how we presented IPC back in 2022. You can use that as a reference point. Importantly, this is a change in accounting presentation rather than underlying economics or how the business will be managed going forward. Second, as a result of the transaction, Mackenzie's economic interest increased slightly from 56%-60.9%. Lastly, based on current estimates, we do expect to record a non-cash gain of CAD 187 million or CAD 149 million after non-controlling interest in the third quarter.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

This gain stems from moving from equity accounting to Northleaf's consolidation accounting. I'll hit on remaining highlights from the quarter on upcoming slides, including Wealthsimple and capital management transactions. Turning to slide 35. You can see our AUM&A and flow trend. Average AUM&A increased 4.3% relative to Q1, but period-ending assets are up 9.4%, which sets us up well for the third quarter. On slide 36, higher assets at IGM drove revenue growth of 18.6% year-over-year and adjusted EPS up 31.8%. Results were well diversified across wealth management and asset management and across our core businesses as well as strategic investments. Turning to operations and support business development expenses, we are maintaining expense growth guidance of 4%. Slide 37 presents key profitability drivers for IG Wealth Management.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

On the left, you can see average AUM&A was up 3.9% from last quarter, on the right, our advisory fee rate decreased 0.6 basis points in line with guidance provided last quarter. As a reminder, the decrease in fee rate was driven by advisors working with clients during the quarter to reinvest cash into long-term investment solutions. As a reminder, cash spreads are higher than the standard advisory fee rate. We expect this to continue in Q3 at a more moderate rate and expect fee rates to come down a quarter to half a basis point. The asset-based compensation rate was up slightly in the quarter and expect a modest increase in Q3.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

On slide 38, IG's overall earnings of CAD 174.7 million is a record quarter and up 32.9% year-over-year on revenue growth of 19%, demonstrating strong growth and positive operating leverage in the business for consecutive quarters. On point two, other financial planning revenue continues to demonstrate growth year-over-year, supported by strength in the mortgage and insurance businesses. Other product commissions is up in line with the growth of insurance sales. As we look forward to Q3, we do expect growth to continue in insurance relative to last year, but perhaps not at the same pace we saw in Q2. With respect to expenses, as I mentioned on the last call, Q2 is a seasonally high quarter and expect expenses to come down in Q3 with a seasonal pattern that looks similar to 2024. Moving to Mackenzie on slide 39, average AUM was up 4.4% versus Q1.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

On the right, the third-party rate, excluding Canada Life, decreased 3.9 basis points, which is in line with guidance. As a reminder, we had three main items impacting the rate this quarter. First, the success of our strategic partners in institutional onboarding. Second, the impact of previously announced fee changes that became effective April 1st. Third, the non-recurring performance fees earned in Q1 that did not repeat in Q2. As we look to the next quarter, we expect the third-party fee rate, excluding Canada Life, to decrease approximately one and a half basis points and the overall third-party rate to decline approximately 0.7 basis points, primarily due to the continued success of these strategic partnerships and the institutional onboarding. This includes a full quarter of what was onboarded in Q2, as well as new wins we expect to onboard in Q3, which Luke spoke to.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

Turning to slide 40, Mackenzie's earnings of CAD 75.3 million are up 30% year-over-year, Q2 illustrates the operating leverage in the business with the revenue up 14% and earnings up 30%. Operations support and business development expenses growth came in at 3.4%, in line with expectations. Turning to ChinaAMC on slide 41, Luke already commented on AUM, earnings were CAD 43.9 million in Q2, up significantly from Q1 and last year. With strong Q2 performance of the Chinese equity markets, the company did benefit from ChinaAMC capital fair value gains, excluding the impact of these gains, earnings would have been in line with Q1 results. Slide 42 has earnings contributions from each company. First Rockefeller earnings are in line with expectations. Northleaf had earnings of CAD 6.2 million net of non-controlling interest for the quarter.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

As part of the Northleaf July transactions, we did receive a CAD 45 million dividend comprising a customary annual dividend and a special dividend representing distribution of excess cash. On slide 43, we continue to make progress against our capital allocation priorities. We returned CAD 345 million in capital to shareholders in Q2, which is an all-time high. At the same time, we've maintained CAD 935 million in unallocated capital, our gross leverage ratio for the quarter is lower at 1.25x. We also saw the cash dividend payout ratio drop to 53%, excluding the special dividend from Northleaf. Finally, in June, we issued CAD 400 million in debentures and subsequently redeemed debentures maturing in January of 2027. Because the redemption settled on July 2nd, both the new debt and cash from the issuance are recorded on the balance sheet for Q2.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

We presented our unallocated capital and leverage ratios on the slide net of the redemptions that settle on July 2nd, which is the comparable baseline for Q3. Turning to 44, IGM's indicative value is approximately CAD 94 per share. As a reminder, we derive the indicative value of our core operating companies using average P/E multiples from a diversified group of wealth managers for IG and asset managers for Mackenzie as of market close on July 24th. In the quarter, we increased the fair value of Wealthsimple from CAD 2.26 billion-CAD 2.59 billion. The company performed exceptionally well, as you've heard, with record net flows of CAD 17 billion in Q2 and AUM growth of over CAD 30 billion. The fair value considers Wealthsimple's business performance, driving upward revisions to revenue expectations.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

We also consider public peer valuations as well as the third-party transactions that closed at the end of last year. The value of Northleaf has been adjusted to reflect the transactions that took place in July at fair market value. That will end our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We will pause momentarily as callers join the queue. Thank you for your patience. Our first question comes from John Aiken from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

John Aiken
John Aiken
Analyst at Jefferies

Good morning. Damon, a couple questions on the AI strategy. Was wondering, the Sagard AI Fund, you said that has benefits. Is this just being able to take a look at what the companies are doing that Sagard is investing in that you get access to as an investor? Is that the theory behind that?

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Yeah, John, that's one of the benefits, is to get access to companies that are excelling in the AI field and their leadership and learn from them. It's much broader than that when you think of it. It's much like Portage on the fintech side. You take a look at example IG and the number of commercial partnerships we have with fintech companies, a majority of them stem from Portage. There's an opportunity for both Mackenzie and IG to work with Sagard AI Fund and talk about our strategy and where we want to go and for them to align the companies that they are invested in with where we want to be so that we can ultimately drive both top lines.

John Aiken
John Aiken
Analyst at Jefferies

Thank you. You mentioned broader, I guess, integration in with the Power Corp of companies. Can you let me know in terms of is this just scalings cost effectiveness or is there actually learning that you can get from the various companies to import into IGM?

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

I just want to confirm your question. Broader relationship with Power Corp group of companies?

John Aiken
John Aiken
Analyst at Jefferies

With the AI strategy, yes.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Yeah, 100%. One of the benefits of being in the Power ecosystem is that you get to learn from a number of different leadership teams, a number of different organizations. Whether it's Portage on the fintech side or Diagram on the fintech side, they are two different types of fintech companies under Sagard. Their private asset management arm under Sagard or now under their Sagard AI Fund, we get to benefit from that, both Luke and IG and IGM to work with these companies. The connectivity is thought leadership, it's learning from their leadership teams and how they're thinking about things, not just today, but about the future.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

That as we envision our future, we can ensure that there's some little bit of alignment, talking about how we can fill our gaps. Ultimately, we come to them with business problems, they would come back with a fintech or AI solution to help fit that gap.

John Aiken
John Aiken
Analyst at Jefferies

Fantastic. Thanks, Damon. I will route you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Scott Fletcher from CIBC. Please go ahead.

Scott Fletcher
Scott Fletcher
Analyst at CIBC

Hi, good morning. I wanted to ask a question on the institutional awards and the pipeline for what that could look like going forward. I think you have obviously had some great success attracting those assets, curious whether there is more to come there or if this is sort of a good opportunity at this point in time.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Yeah. No. Thanks, Scott. This is building momentum. We have had some awards over the past quarters funding Q1 and Q2, and now the awards at Q2 were roughly CAD 5 billion. Most of it is going to fund during Q4 and Q1. The fees are respectable. If you look at slide 39, somewhere between the high number on that page, which is the overall throughput fee rate and the low with IG and Canada Life based on their scale. Yeah, the Q2 awards really reflect a lot of what is in the pipeline for us that we are working on. The Q2 awards were a function of many clients. A lot of large sovereign wealth funds, public pensions, traditional institutional, some financial institutions. Many clients, many mandates. It reflected awards to four of our teams.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

The largest part of that is obviously Quant right now, where we do have a very compelling story. Heading into the back half of the year, the pipeline is feeling very good. We've certainly got enough to fuel us into 2026 and into 2027.

Scott Fletcher
Scott Fletcher
Analyst at CIBC

Okay. That's really helpful color. Thanks. Staying with the asset management side, on the changes you made at Mackenzie, just wondering if there's potential for additional operating leverage looking forward in that segment, or if this is a case similar to the June announcement where any savings you'd generate there would be reinvested in the sort of AI or other efficiency tools.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Yeah. On page 28 on the changes we made. Those changes were made in May, those are Q2 changes. We have declared a large part of them is really reinvesting in talent and technology to improve our platform over time and our competitiveness. On operating leverage, that's one of the features of Mackenzie's P&L. We've got a lot of operating leverage here. You could see that in our Q2 earnings growth of 30% year-over-year. As the business scales, there's a lot of leverage in it.

Scott Fletcher
Scott Fletcher
Analyst at CIBC

Okay, thanks. I'll pass the line.

Operator

The next question comes from Tom MacKinnon from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Tom MacKinnon
Tom MacKinnon
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Yeah. Thanks very much. Good morning here. Just a question with respect to ChinaAMC. The industry shows 14% growth in last year in terms of assets, yet ChinaAMC is just up 2%. I think you had mentioned strong performance. It's just what's driving all the money coming out of ChinaAMC versus what may not be the same kind of net flow issue with respect to the investment fund industry. If you can help me understand the seed capital gain, or the seed gains you got out of ChinaAMC, just given the fact that there hasn't really been a lot of growth in the assets. Is it just really good performance, but everybody's just taken their money out of ChinaAMC? Thanks.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Yeah, good question. Actually, I'll address some of the same, referring to the transcript from Q1 as well. Over time, and by time I mean the last 3 years, it's been reported China's national team has engaged in a market stabilization program, and the way that they did that was by investing in passive ETFs with a number of providers, and ChinaAMC was one of those. What we saw in Q1, and again in Q2, is in Q1, based upon the strength of equity markets during the fourth quarter, we did see the national team, and it was reported the national team removed about half of the investment that they had in passive ETFs, and that impacted ChinaAMC, given that they have leading market share, and they would've been about 20%-25% of that activity.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Once again, in Q2, equity markets in China increased by 10% in the second quarter. As a consequence of that, the national team did reduce its holdings of passive equity ETFs further. I don't have transparency into what's left there. What I would say is we view this as real signs of confidence. Based upon that activity, it is really a bullish sign, the equity market's improving and really the stabilization money's coming out. On the seed capital, it reflects those same trends. The equity markets were up 10% in the quarter, and the seed capital on the balance sheet of ChinaAMC participated in that. Does that make sense?

Tom MacKinnon
Tom MacKinnon
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Okay.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

As far as the main headline is because of ChinaAMC's leadership in passive ETFs and the participation that they enjoyed as part of this stabilization program, that's what explained the outflow in Q1 and Q2.

Tom MacKinnon
Tom MacKinnon
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

No, that's very helpful. Other question with respect to just any kind of guide as to how the advisory fee rate. You've given kind of what you think it would be at IG Wealth for the next quarter. How should that be trending over the next 24 months, if you will? Just continued pressure? Same with the third party excluding Canada Life fee rates, that you've provided a guide just for the third quarter, but how should we be thinking about that line going forward? Thanks.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

Hi, Tom. It's Keith here. I'll start with the IG advisory fee rate. Really what's been driving the fee rate last quarter and this quarter is the move from cash into long-term investment solutions. I think we'll see a bit more of that in Q3 and Q4. Then we have distributions at the end of the year where cash increases again. You'll see that rise. I'd guide to, as I mentioned, a quarter to half a basis point coming down in Q3 and probably less so in Q4. We also did take. Just adjusted how we manage the advisory fee rate. There was that auto reset that we've moved away from to provide more stability in the rate. We think a lot of that change is going to come from just a change in cash.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

As we do acquire more high-net-worth clients, they're generally going to have lower fee rates, but I don't think you're going to see as much pressure on that rate as what you've seen over the past couple of years. At Mackenzie, the fee rate that we're seeing in the third-party rate, it's really been driven by institutional onboarding. If you just neutralize that, the only other real pressure in the fee rate is the mix between mutual funds and ETFs, where we don't charge an admin fee on the ETFs. As that rate comes down with more institutional onboarding, it's going to come with more revenue.

Tom MacKinnon
Tom MacKinnon
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Great. Thanks.

Operator

The next question comes from Bart Dziarski from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Bart Dziarski
Bart Dziarski
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Great. Thanks for taking my questions and good morning, everyone. Wanted to just ask around kind of capital allocation framework. You're ramping up the buybacks and dividends paid, but leverage keeps ticking down and you're at about 1.25 on the gross basis. Is that the right leverage ratio we should be thinking about maybe longer term, or can we see that leverage ratio continue to tick down or maybe would you look to increase it? Thanks.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

Yeah, it's Keith here. I think we've said in the past, we're pretty comfortable with a debt-to-EBITDA ratio that in the long term, stays under two times. We have a lot of flexibility here. To the extent there's an opportunity that came up, it does provide us with significant flexibility. I wouldn't say we're at the target. We're not planning to bring it down. It's just happening with the performance of our business and the growth in EBITDA.

Bart Dziarski
Bart Dziarski
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Okay. Thanks, Keith. Just on Rockefeller. We're seeing the organic growth kind of decelerating, the inorganic growth is accelerating. Could you maybe unpack those trends? With the inorganic advisors you're bringing on, where are you bringing them on from, and maybe geographically, and I know it's within U.S., but maybe you could dive into those details. Thanks.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Yeah. It's Damon. I'll start. What you'll notice with Rockefeller is it's seasonal. Q2 tends to be a slower season for organic growth at that firm. That was true for this year. On the inorganic side, they have a very unique offering. In a country where there's a lot of conglomerates that are asking wire house advisors to focus on a lot of different things, Rockefeller brings not just an iconic brand, but a chance for corner office investment advisors to focus on what they do best and then surround them with the services that come from with the oldest and the largest family office in multi-family office in the world. That's quite compelling. They're very targeted on who they select for their offering, and they're focused on staffing up in the offices where they have a presence.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

They have a number of offices across the country. Their goal is not to be everywhere. It's to be very specific as to where they feel like their advisors can truly build the brand and build up a significant amount of ultra-high-net-worth clientele. That organization is built to service clients from $25 million to $100 or $200 million. That's exactly what they're doing.

Bart Dziarski
Bart Dziarski
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Got it. Helpful, Damon. Thanks.

Operator

The next question comes from Graham Ryding from TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Graham Ryding
Graham Ryding
Analyst at TD Securities

All right. Good morning. Just as a follow on, does Rockefeller have a presence in Canada? If not, does it make sense to consider this market?

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Rockefeller obviously does not have a presence in Canada right now. They're clearly focused on continuing to build their footprint in the U.S. They do believe they have a long runway there. As I said, they have a number of offices, and they focus on opening an office and then scaling that office one by one. That's what their strategy is focused on right now. I do not see that deviating in the short term. You never say never as it relates to Canada, I know that they're clearly focused on the U.S.

Graham Ryding
Graham Ryding
Analyst at TD Securities

Okay. Great. Luke, just on the ChinaAMC piece, do you have a visibility on what the flows in the quarter would have been if this government intervention was not a factor?

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Yeah, I think close to add an extra 600 or 700 billion yuan to the Q2 result.

Graham Ryding
Graham Ryding
Analyst at TD Securities

Okay, you would have had positive flows then at ChinaAMC?

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

You're saying for us or the industry?

Graham Ryding
Graham Ryding
Analyst at TD Securities

For you. Yeah, for you.

Luke Gould
President and CEO at Mackenzie Investments

Well, actually, yeah. Say it'd be slight net positive excluding the government outflows.

Graham Ryding
Graham Ryding
Analyst at TD Securities

Okay. That's helpful. The value that you show for Northleaf in your sum of the parts, is that pro forma, the incremental 5% stake that you've acquired?

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

No, that would be just the 56% ownership. That we'll be increasing that next quarter to reflect the 60.9%.

Graham Ryding
Graham Ryding
Analyst at TD Securities

Okay, understood. My last question, just Damon, IG Wealth, you sort of been trending at a 1.5% roughly net flows rate since about the beginning of 2025. Is that an appropriate level for the IG Wealth platform, or would you want to target a growth rate above this?

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Yeah. I would say that that is an appropriate level for where we are today, where the markets are. When the markets have been flying for the last 3.5 years, and our new client acquisition has been very, very strong. Generally, what happens is there's a lot of apathy from advisors and from clients to move because everyone's making money. I think when you look over a normal market cycle, I would expect the 1.5% to increase over time given the value that we're providing to the marketplace and ultimately the demand for the type of advice that we provide is there. I would say part of the market cycle we're in right now, we're very well-placed, and we'll continue to have this strong momentum, but I expect it to increase over time.

Graham Ryding
Graham Ryding
Analyst at TD Securities

Okay, great. That's it for me. Thank you.

Operator

Once again, if you have a question, please press star one. Our next question comes from Jaeme Gloyn from National Bank [Financial] Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Jaeme Gloyn
Analyst at National Bank Capital Markets

Yeah, thanks. First question, just on the Wealthsimple revaluation. Can you break down the driver of that valuation between the strong performance of Wealthsimple, and the valuation of public peers you mentioned? If you could, who are those public peers that you're focused on when looking at the Wealthsimple valuation marks?

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

Yeah. Hi, Jaeme. It's Keith here. Maybe I'll just kind of step back and a little bit of the broad view of valuation. The first thing we would look to would be, is there a third-party transaction in Wealthsimple? There were two that closed in Q4, and we think it's still a relevant mark to look to. A big driver, I would say, for the reset here is just the performance of Wealthsimple to your question about why the reset here. When you look at Q1, Q2 performance for the business, it does drive to reforecast cash flows, AUA up 25% in the quarter, CAD 30 billion in the quarter with net flows. Really since the last fair value mark, assets are up over CAD 50 billion. That's clearly a key driver. To your point, we do look at peer multiples and how peer multiples are trading.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

When you look at Wealthsimple's business, it is unique. It's a Canadian-based business. It's a very well-diversified business. They have an invest platform. They have a trade platform. They have a crypto platform. They have a checking and save platform. They're pretty broad relative to any model line peer group. Just to demonstrate the performance of the company and where they're moving, in Q2, they opened up more new checking accounts than they did investment accounts. That just demonstrates the diversity of Wealthsimple. In the peer group, we would look to a variety. Obviously, a lot folks point to Robinhood. There's certain similarities there. There's eToro. There's Interactive Brokers, but there's many others as well. We would look at a pretty diverse group of peers.

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

When you kind of look at where the business performed, where peer multiples are, you look back to the key metrics that existed at the time of these third-party transactions that really drove the increase in value of 15% this quarter.

Jaeme Gloyn
Analyst at National Bank Capital Markets

Okay, thank you. Very detailed. The second question, just on the unallocated capital. You're continuing to buy back shares aggressively, but that unallocated capital at close to CAD 1 billion, and it's been this way the last few quarters. Elevated versus, I want to say, where you would prefer to have it and where we've seen it in the past. What's the strategy for that? Is it to continue to accelerate buybacks at these levels, or are you just going to be comfortable holding that in that excess cash for other purposes, I guess?

Keith Potter
Keith Potter
EVP and CFO at IGM Financial

Jaeme, it is Keith here again. After the first half of the year, we were just under 50% of the NCIB for the total year. You can expect us to continue to repurchase shares. When you look at the repurchase level, CAD 200 million this quarter and a dividend of CAD 145 million, that is in excess of the cash flow we are generating. I think you will see excess or the unallocated capital come down over Q3 and Q4, but our focus is going to be on repurchasing shares. We do expect to have a pretty reasonable balance of unallocated capital at the end of the year, which gives us flexibility as we head into 2027.

Jaeme Gloyn
Analyst at National Bank Capital Markets

Okay, thank you.

Operator

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Damon Murchison for any closing remarks.

Damon Murchison
Damon Murchison
President and CEO at IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management

Thank you, Jason. Let me close on three points. First off, IG Wealth and Mackenzie have distinct strengths, strong momentum, and significant room to grow. Second, our strategic investments expand and diversify our growth opportunity and add additional sources of long-term value to IGM. Third, our financial strength and cash generation allow us to invest in profitable growth opportunities within our business while continuing to return capital to shareholders. We will judge our progress through better client and advisor engagement and outcomes, profitable growth, and stronger earnings. I want to thank our employees and our advisors for their hard work and our clients for their trust. Thanks for joining us today and for your continued interest in IGM, I hope you have a nice rest of your summer.

Operator

This brings to a close today's conference. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

Executives
    • Kyle Martens
      Kyle Martens
      Senior VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relation
    • Damon Murchison
      Damon Murchison
      President and CEO
    • Keith Potter
      Keith Potter
      EVP and CFO
Analysts
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