Welcome to the iA Financial Group conference call regarding the acquisition of RF Capital. As a reminder, all participants are in a 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. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Caroline Drouin, Head of Investor Relations for iA Financial Group. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Bonjour tout le monde. Thank you for joining today's call regarding the acquisition of RF Capital. This conference call is open to the financial community, the media, and the public. There will be a question period at the end, and it is reserved for financial analysts. A recording of this call will be available for one week starting this afternoon. The archived webcast will be available for 90 days, and a transcript will be available on our website within the next week. Today's presentation materials are available in the Investor Relations section of our website at ia.ca. Now, before we begin, I draw your attention to the forward-looking statement information on slide 16, as well as the non-IFRS and additional financial measures information on slide 15. With that, I will now turn the call over to Denis Ricard, President and CEO.
Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased today to announce that iA Financial Group has reached an agreement to acquire RF Capital , the publicly traded holding company of Richardson Wealth. This acquisition marks a pivotal step in our strategic journey to expand and strengthen our position in the Canadian independent wealth management space. As you know, at the heart of iA Financial Group's business model, what we do is we build businesses with superior combined performance. This is how we've been consistently delivering superior returns to our shareholders over the years. Today's announcement perfectly fits our strategy and brings it in action. This transaction is fully aligned with our long-term strategy to drive scalable growth and distribution, as outlined in our February 2025 investor event.
Before we dive into the strategic rationale and benefits for RF Capital Group clients, shareholders, and advisors, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Dave Kelly, President and CEO of RF Capital Group, who joins us today. Also, joining me on this call are Éric Jobin, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuary; Pierre Miron, Chief Growth Officer of all our Canadian operations; and Stéphane Bourbonnais, Executive Vice President of iA Wealth. Turning to slide three. RF Capital adds more than CAD 40 billion in assets under administration, bringing iA Wealth's combined AUA to CAD 175 billion. This positions iA as the number one non-bank independent wealth manager in Canada. This acquisition accelerates our presence in the high-net-worth segment, and it increases iA Wealth's advisory network to over 2,750 partners across Canada.
RF Capital clients will benefit from iA's scale advantage, such as iA's wealth and insurance products and access to best-in-class managers. RF Capital advisors will have access to, yeah. And very important, iA offers a non-parallel combination of financial strength and independence. At the core of this transaction is a robust cultural and operational alignment between iA and RF Capital , driven by a shared client-centric philosophy and an entrepreneurial spirit. At our February investor event, we affirmed our capability to support our ambition for sustained growth. By combining our strengths, we are well-positioned to enhance service offerings, expand market reach, and deliver greater value to our clients, ensuring sustainable growth that benefits all stakeholders. This strategic fit is not only complementary; it serves as a powerful driver for unlocking growth opportunities. Our teams have identified significant cost and revenue synergies, which Stéphane will cover later.
We anticipate that this transaction will be nearly neutral to core earnings in the first year and accretive in the second year. I will now turn it over to Éric, who will go over the transaction details. Éric.
Thank you, Denis, and good morning, everyone. Let's move to slide four, where we've highlighted the key aspects of this transaction. First, iA is offering CAD 20 per share for RF Capital, including debt and preferred share redemptions. The purchase price is CAD 597 million. This represents an initial EBITDA multiple of 11.3 times and a fully synergized EBITDA of 6.7 times the EBITDA. This is an all-cash offer, which will be financed using cash in hand. I would like to point out that advisor retention is a priority, and we have a robust retention strategy in place to maintain and grow our national network of entrepreneurial advisors. Richardson Wealth will continue to operate independently within iA Wealth, retaining its brand and employees, with secure rights to the Richardson Wealth name for 30 months, ensuring a seamless transition with no repapering required.
The transaction is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, with closing anticipated by year-end 2025. I now will ask Dave Kelly to tell us more about this great company that is RF Capital.
Thank you, Éric. Good morning, everyone. I'm excited to be involved in this transaction and to contribute to this important milestone. I'll provide a brief overview of our company, but I'm particularly optimistic about the strategic alignment and synergies, which Stéphane will elaborate on shortly. Richardson Wealth is one of the largest independent wealth management firms in Canada, with CAD 40 billion in AUA. Slide five highlights RF Capital's national footprint, with 189 advisors across 23 offices and a strong focus on high-net-worth clients. It's a storied business, with roots dating back to the founding of the Richardson Business Group almost 100 years ago. With a focus on high-net-worth clients, Richardson Wealth is known for its high-touch client experience, and most of its AUA is discretionary, with over 90% of the revenues fee-based and recurring in nature.
Stéphane will walk us through the strategic fit between iA and RF Capital and tell you about the synergy opportunities.
Thank you, Dave. Great overview and good morning, everyone. If we move to slide six, please. It highlights our leading position amongst a select non-bank wealth management firm in Canada, and we're using the measure of assets under administration AUA for this graph. With the addition of Richardson Wealth, we're not just growing; we are taking the lead. This acquisition will boost our assets under administration from CAD 135 billion between iA Private Wealth and Investia to CAD 175 billion. The addition of RF Capital strengthens iA Wealth's position as the leading non-bank wealth platform in Canada, offering additional reach in the independent full-service brokerage space. This added scale and depth of our offering will position our business for accelerated growth. On slide seven, here we focus on distribution, and we know that scale is very important in our industry. This slide was originally presented at our February investor events.
If we want to move to the next slide. A bit of delay here. The slide will highlight the iA Extensive National Distribution Network. By adding Richardson Wealth Advisor Network, we solidify our status as a national distribution powerhouse in Canada. Post-transaction, as Denis mentioned, we will have over 2,750 independent advisors with strong community ties across Canada. As you can see, Richardson Wealth Advisory Network complements our existing network, increasing our AUA outside of Ontario and Quebec by 47%. Now, at slide eight, it illustrates our three-complementary business model. We currently operate under two independent advisory models. On the left side, you have Investia, MFDA dealer with CAD 70 billion in assets under administration. In the middle, our iA Private Wealth full-service brokerage business with CAD 65 billion in AUA.
Now, the addition of Richardson Wealth corporate partnership structure will be highly complementary, providing advisors with greater flexibility to choose the business model that best suits their needs. I want to be clear; all three models will be separate and distinct business units within iA Wealth. We're not merging Richardson Wealth. We're going to leverage the corporate partnership model, which will remain intact. The intention that we have here is to grow all three lines of business as each caters to advisors with different preferences and needs. Let's now move to slide nine. As Denis highlighted earlier, there is a strong, robust cultural and operational alignment between iA and RF Capital. Therefore, it's no surprise that this transaction will unlock significant synergy opportunities, both in terms of revenue and savings, with most expected to be realized over the next three years.
On this page, we have listed for you some of the key synergies. On the revenue side, you have three complementary business models that will be enhancing the appeal to potential recruit and accelerate our advisory network growth. It's going to be your business, your way, and it's going to help us attract, retain, and on our succession plan with our advisors. The combined open architecture platform will create synergies across wealth management, capital market, insurance, and advisory services, accelerating our respective roadmap and unlocking greater opportunity for all of our businesses. Our geographic growth strategy is creating synergies through additional complementary regional offices, driving our strong organic growth that is driven by our entrepreneurial advisors acting as the backbone of our organic growth strategy.
On the cost synergy, there is a strong alignment in terms of strategic priorities between the two dealers and very little overlap, but very much complementary. Some of the opportunities that we have identified are with third-party provider consolidation, streamlining procurement, and shared services. On the corporate function side, integration could drive better operational alignment, increase flexibility, improve administrative efficiency, and synergies from no longer operating as a standalone public company. Last but not least, on the technology side, AI capabilities and digital platform alignment, which will boost our scalability, innovation, and improve advisor and client experience. On that, I will turn it over to Éric Jobin to walk us through the financials.
Turning to slide 10, the acquisition of RF Capital is a strategic move that will drive shareholder value. Let me summarize for you the key financial figures.
First, the purchase price of this acquisition is CAD 597 million, which marks a positive step forward in our prudent and disciplined capital deployment strategy. This represents a multiple of 1.5% of RF Capital AUA as of June 30, 2025. As I mentioned earlier, this transaction represents a 6.7 times last 12-month fully synergized EBITDA at March 31, 2025. CAD 60 million is expected for the transaction and integration cost before tax. The transaction will be neutral to core earnings in the first year and accretive by CAD 0.15 and more to core earnings starting in the second year. We have consistently exercised discipline and prudence in our capital deployment. As such, we will continue to maintain a strong balance sheet. The impact of this transaction on our solvency ratio is approximately 6%. We deploy the equivalent of CAD 600 million of capital available for deployment.
Please note that the cost of implementing our retention advisor strategy, which will be deployed at a later stage, will be accounted for separately. I will now hand it back to Denis for the closing remarks.
Thank you, Éric. On slide 11, it is a strong reminder of the growth strategy we shared at our investor event earlier this year. At this call, the AUA is a compelling and winning value proposition for both advisors and clients. The acquisition of RF Capital is a natural extension of this strategy, reinforcing every pillar of our approach. The five key pillars that underpin our approach are described on this page. First, focus on organic growth driven by our entrepreneurial advisor acting as the backbone of our organic growth strategy. Second, foster advisor retention by enhancing our value proposition. We continue to invest in tools, platforms, and support systems that enhance the advisor experience. These investments are essential to retaining talented advisors. Third, leverage our unique positioning to attract business-minded advisors. Our positioning in the market is resonating.
We are attracting advisors who are aligned with our growth momentum, and we see the value of our integrated model. Fourth, on the manufacturing side, we are committed to expanding and diversifying our asset management capabilities. Lastly, five, seek acquisition opportunities in distribution and asset management. The RF Capital transaction is a clear example of how we are executing on this pillar. It accelerates our strategy and delivers on the roadmap we shared with you in February. Lastly, on slide 12, I would like to leave you with the following takeaways for what we have discussed today. First, the addition of RF Capital positions IA as a leader in the non-bank independent wealth space in Canada. It was clearly demonstrated in a slide presented earlier by Stéphane. Second, RF Capital and IA have complementary business models, adding to our platform in the large and fast-growing high-net-worth market segment.
Finally, this transaction is aligned with our long-term strategy to drive scalable growth and distribution, an area that we have been consistently focused on for many years. This concludes our prepared remarks. We'll now open the line for your questions.
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're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. The first question is from Gabriel Dechaine from National Bank. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Can I get a couple of basic questions out of the way first? Your synergies, are those mostly cost synergies from third-party suppliers and stuff like that?
Yeah, it's Denis here. I think I'm going to leave Stéphane and also Pierre, if you want to add on the technology side to explain a bit more in details if you want. The synergies, because this is a very important aspect of this transaction. Go ahead, please.
Yeah, Pierre, I'll start. Yeah, I'll start with it. This is Stéphane. On the synergy side, I think we're putting about equal weight between the revenue side and the expense side. As we mentioned, on the expense side, there is an opportunity with vendors. This industry, most vendors are common between different dealers. We think there's going to be an opportunity to streamline and consolidate things. On the technology side, considering the roadmap and priorities on which Richardson Wealth was on, and considering the work that we've been doing over the last three years, we see a huge opportunity to leverage some of the things that we've done and accelerate their transformation. This is really where it's going to be coming from in the next three years.
If I may add on this, if you remember when we did this investor day, we talked a lot about our digital journey. The thing that is very positive on this one is the fact that RF Capital Group will benefit from these investments that we have made so far. They are counting on us to continue on that journey. Like Stéphane said, we have the skill now to go a little bit further than that. Let's call that day one and day two. On day two, by keeping the three independent models that Stéphane presented, we will be looking at other synergies in terms of administrative work and everything else. More to come on this one.
Okay. My last two, if you don't mind, are more strategic in nature. RF Capital, old Richardson, used to be owned by GMP back in the day, but very high-net-worth wealth management advisor business. How does that fit into what you've got with Investia, the old Cartier business you bought years ago? Does it matter? I mean, it seems like they're fairly distinct businesses.
Maybe Stéphane might be more can add on that.
Yeah, I think where we show the slide where there's a three-distinct line of business, that's the point, right? We want to keep three different brands. We want to keep three distinct offerings to make sure that if an advisor is thinking, "I want to go independent," they're able to come to us, and we'll sit down with them to see which model fits best for their needs and what they want to accomplish, right? At the heart of everything that we do, our values are there, our beliefs are there about being independent and how we will do it. We've got the support of iA to make sure we're providing that support to our advisors and clients.
After that, in terms of your day-to-day and where do you want to be sitting and where do you want to and how you want to operate your business, you'll have three channels to decide and pick the one that best suits where you want to go. We think it's very much possible.
Maybe Gabriel, one thing that I would like to add, sorry, Gabriel, is that in terms of strategy and strategic fit, and you have seen it through the history of iA over the last, let's say, three or four decades, we have broadened the distribution scope with different networks and different, let's say, target markets. Here we are in a situation where we are very, very strong on the mass market, the mid-market, and even we started on the high-net-worth market. Now we are really solidifying our market presence in that market because, as you know, a large proportion of the wealth in Canada is within that market.
Yeah. No, I get that. Last one, and this is maybe probably far down the road. Your pie chart that showed the wealth of the revenue split of the business. Interest is fairly small. A lot of the money made in these advisory-type businesses is on deposits. I'm wondering if there's any thought into the future of some sort of arrangement with a bank or setting up your own thing and creating some deposit-gathering capabilities to earn some of that margin type thing.
Yeah, the only thing I'm going to say on this is that it's already being provided in the plan that we've set for Richardson within the iA, let's say, family. You should just keep in mind that we already took care of that.
Okay. Anyway, thanks for the call.
The next question is from Lemar Persaud from Cormark. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. I'm wondering if you could talk about whether or not this was a competitive process and provide some color on how this deal came about because there was at least kind of one other bid that didn't materialize in the sale of RF. I wonder if you could address that.
I think I'm going to keep it very short, Denis here. There are going to be details that will be provided in the documents that will be sent to the shareholders of RF because the shareholders have to vote on this transaction. You will see a bit more details in that document. At this point, I do not have more details to provide to the market.
Okay. And then just, you guys mentioned that equal weight on the synergies, revenue, and expense side. I heard you guys talk about the expense side. Can you talk about the revenue side and where the bulk of that is going to come from? I know you identified a couple of areas in your slide here, but I wonder if you could just expand on that piece.
Yeah, Gabriel already mentioned one of them. Maybe one to complement. Yeah, I do not know if it is Éric or Stéphane at this point. Maybe Stéphane, you can go ahead.
Yeah, I could take it. I think one of the things that we see is the combined open architecture platform synergies that we will have. If you think from a product support, I mean, I think there's a lot of things about iA that Dave and the team had on their list that they wanted to build, and we already added, right? We're going to be able to leverage the expertise that we have internally with some product platform and solutions that we have combined with the ones that are already at Richardson Wealth. I could think of the UMA, for example, where we've been able to have preferred pricing with some other partners that are on our platform, and we'll be able to combine that. I think capital market will be a huge opportunity, insurance, advisory services.
We are very excited about adding and bringing upfront what we have to the Richardson Group, and I think this was a gap in their offering. I think from a recruiting perspective, when I look on our side, because of our iA independent model and not offering corporate offices, it was a bit of a challenge to recruit bank advisors that were looking maybe for more of an assisted model. That model will now be available through the Richardson. We think this is going to be accelerating our recruiting opportunities and some of the discussions we've had with prospects. I would say those are the two main opportunities that we see that we're going to be able to quickly leverage in terms of revenue growth.
Okay, thanks. Final one for me, and kind of just sticking on this synergy side. Can you talk a bit about the timing of these synergies just for modeling purposes?
It's going to be fully realized over the next five years. Most of it, let's say, after three years.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. The next question is from Tom MacKinnon from BMO Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks very much. Maybe you can share with us. You've made other acquisitions in wealth management in the past. Thinking a high-net-worth one might have been Jobin. Maybe you can share with us what you were looking for with respect to that. In terms of cost and revenue synergies. Maybe what your retention was there, just so we can have a little bit of a gauge here as to your past performance in that. Thanks.
Yeah, I'm going to start, and I don't know if maybe Stéphane would like to add on after that. Yeah, I mean, advisor retention is a very key important assumption here. With iA Wealth, I remember that we had an assumption, and we were quite pleased with the results afterward. Obviously, we know how to do that. We know how to manage distribution. We know what it takes to retain advisors. This is really a key part of the strategy to make this deal profitable over the years. I mean, yeah, we know how to manage distribution. I don't know, Stéphane, anything you want to add on this.
Yeah, Denis, I would add, I mean, obviously, each transaction is different. As you mentioned, I think we're known to be great integrators and operators. I think with this transaction, again, it was highlighted that we want to keep the business distinct. This is key, right? We're not merging this business with another business that we have. We wanted to make this as seamless as possible for the advisors and for clients. The good news about how we're going to do it is they're going to retain their platform. Their platform will remain the same. The office will remain the same. The brand will remain the same. The relationship that they have with their branch manager will remain the same. We're not creating any disruption for them. We're not creating any repapering. I see it as being all upside. It's always going to be the same thing.
We need to be visual. We need to tell our story. We're hitting the road as of today, Dave Kelly and I, to make sure that we're going to be meeting with the advisors in their offices and sitting down with them one-on-one and telling them their story and show them how we think this partnership will go down the road.
Can you share with us the dollar amount of the synergies for both revenue and expenses separately?
You can do the math with Éric. Comments when he provided you with the multiple of EBITDA currently and post, let's say, fully synergized. Those information are already available in the market.
Sure. The leverage, 14.8, when you're taking on this additional debt, what does this leverage move to? I assume your deployable capital of, whatever, CAD 1.4 billion, is going to fall by CAD 600 million. If you can just the pieces of this. Thanks.
I don't know, Éric, if you have the leverage ratio post, but regarding the capital for deployment, obviously, you know that we are going to disclose our results very soon. You will get the update. For this transaction, for this call, I guess what we decided is to tell you the marginal impact of the transaction, and you will get an update, including the addition of the last issuance, in a couple of weeks. Éric, do we have the leverage post?
No, Denis, we don't have it at this time. We'll let you know.
Yeah, we can follow up. Yeah.
The next question is from Mario Mendonca from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Good morning. This might be best for Éric. Deployable capital at the end of Q1 was CAD 1.4 billion. You're saying it'll drop to, I think you said, CAD 600 million. So there's a CAD 800 million delta. I'm trying to understand how this transaction absorbs CAD 800 million of deployable capital. The price is CAD 600 million. Not all of that is goodwill, I presume. Help me understand that difference, please.
Eric?
Yes, sure, Mario. In fact, what's happening here is that there is intangible and goodwill, as you know, Mario. On top of that, there is regulatory capital, with some specific internal target at RF Capital as well. When you factor in everything, we estimate that the impact on deployable capital is about CAD 600 million.
Yeah, Mario, you said 800. Mario, you said 800, but it's 600.
It's CAD 600, Mario.
Okay. Just so maybe I'm confusing the math there. Was the deployable capital at the end of Q1 CAD 1.4 billion?
Absolutely.
Post this transaction, are you down to CAD CAD 600 million, or did you say it absorbs CAD 600 million?
It absorbs CAD 600 million. Pro forma Q1, it would be CAD 800 million less.
Okay. I misunderstood. I thought it reduced your deployable capital to CAD 600 million.
No, no, no.
Sort of. Another relevant question for me is retention is the whole ballgame on a transaction like this, especially for a company where there's been some change. There's been maybe some cultural challenges and management change at this company over the years. Can you talk about retention more specifically, like the amount, the nature of the retention, and then finally, how that retention will be accounted for? Going forward, will it be accounted for as a change in the purchase price, or will it be expensed?
If I'm not mistaken, Éric, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's going to be in the purchase price. So whatever we decide to, let's say, to add in terms of retention amount will be added to the purchase price. I mean, there are obviously going to be a lot of efforts over the next days and weeks to meet all the advisors by Stéphane's team and obviously solidify the relationship. As Stéphane has mentioned, the fact that we keep the company separate will diminish significantly any risks of, let's say, departure.
Is retention just such a competitive bit of information that it's not something you want to discuss on a call like this?
You got it.
Thank you.
It will be known later on this fall, Mario, but at this point. We keep it for us as it's a strategic information. The other thing maybe to add on what Denis mentioned is that we have made an assumption on the retention. Of course, we know that it may not work. Some advisor may decide to go, but we have the plan in place. We're confident to deploy our plan. We have to keep in mind that Stéphane was very successful with retaining 100% of the advisor of Laurentian Bank.
Right. So one other quick thing just popped in my mind. Denis, is this the largest transaction, like the CAD 600 million? Is this the largest in industrial history? I can't really think of another larger one.
You mean in the wealth management space?
No, no, for the company as a whole.
No, no, IAS was the biggest. It was at about CAD 1 billion.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
That's the second. I would say that's the second highest one. From my 40 years in the company.
I forgot how big iA is. Okay. Thank you.
The next question is from Gabriel Dechaine from National Bank. Please go ahead.
Sorry, that was a mistake. I did not have another question. Anyway.
No problem. This concludes the—oh, pardon me, there is one more question now from Darko Mihelic from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you. Good morning. Just two really quick questions. What happens after 30 months with the Richardson Wealth brand?
Stéphane, do you want to comment on that?
Yes. Right now, we'll sit with the team, and we'll make sure to think of what the future could look like. Like I said, the objective is to keep three distinct businesses. Right now, we've got Investia, iA Private Wealth, and we've got Richardson Wealth. The objective after 30 months would be to move with the same approach in terms of identifying three distinct offerings.
Yeah, it's not because there's a 30 months for the name that it means that there's going to be a merge in 30 months. You should not deduct that conclusion.
Okay. Great. Thank you. The other thing I just wanted to go back on, you had mentioned that if you had advisors that were looking to go independent, I just want to make sure I understand this. Are you suggesting, for example, that if somebody is in the MFDA channel and they choose to maybe go independent, or maybe they want an IIROC license or something like that, is that what this is? Is that what you're suggesting, that maybe now you can offer them a spot at Richardson Wealth, or were you speaking of something different?
If you look at slide eight, maybe Stéphane, you can comment on the fact that we already have that option for those guys who are in the MFDA and want to go IROC, right?
Right. Did I misunderstand? Essentially, what you're saying is this is more about recruitment from other potential, especially the bank channel. Is that how I should read that? When you were discussing about if an advisor wanted to choose to be independent, you had three channels. Is that what this was all about?
Yeah. That's the right way of looking at it, right? If you look at the Canadian landscape, as you know, it's dominated by the banks, right? 90% are with the banks, 10% is in the non-bank sector. When you're attracting advisors and you're recruiting them, what we want to offer is three different models for them to choose from, right? If you take the example of iA Private Wealth, an advisor joining us in iA Private Wealth, they need to open their own office. They need to hire their own staff. They need to do a lot of things that you don't have to do if you're part of a corporate partnership. Sometimes we get advisors who say, "You know what? I want to go independent, but I don't want to take care of all the things that are around it, managing my own office.
I'd love to come along and join an organization that offers that flexibility for me to choose from." That's what we want to offer. That's why we want to keep the three offices across Canada as a new way for us to recruit a new profile of advisors to join iA.
Okay. Perfect. That is where I was really going with this, is essentially, maybe you can give us a sense of the success of recruitment. How successful has Richardson Wealth been recruiting versus the success at iA Private Wealth? Can you give us some figures to sort of back this up? How many advisors on a net basis over the last year would you have seen come to iA Private Wealth, and what would the difference be for Richardson Wealth?
I think if we take the 2024 number as an example, we shared during the investor event that we had brought in, between Investia and iA Private Wealth, CAD 6 billion of new recruits. Again, between Investia and iA Private Wealth. The number that was shared for Richardson was CAD 1.8 billion in 2024. Definitely a good complementary opportunity here between the three dealers to accelerate that recruiting.
Okay. The concept is conceptually that the addition of Richardson Wealth makes it that instead of being the addition, like the CAD 7.8 billion, conceptually, the idea will be that in 2026, you're targeting, I don't know, CAD 8 billion, CAD 9 billion, something like that. Am I thinking about that correctly?
I think we'll need to review how we go to market, definitely. 2024 was a fantastic year on the recruiting side. You never know, right? This year was a bit softer with everything going on. In the U.S. and the market volatility. It is different every year. Obviously, part of the plan for us is to accelerate the growth on the recruiting side. We think we'll see a delta with this because now, if you're thinking of leaving, you know there's one organization that's offering all the models, and you could sit down with them and make sure you've got a full conversation and know where to go and know where to land. That fits your needs. At this time, I wouldn't share a specific number, but definitely, we see a delta with the three offering now.
Okay. Great. That's been very helpful. Thank you very much for answering those questions.
This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Denis Ricard for any closing remarks.
I would like to thank all of you that made yourself available for this call this morning. As you can imagine, it is a very, very exciting time for us with this transaction, the biggest in the wealth management space for iA Financial Group, broadening the distribution breadth of the organization, which fits perfectly with our strategy. We will talk to you again on August 6 for the quarterly results. In the meantime, take care. Thank you very much.
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.