I'm Jennifer Kennedy, your Fractional Practice Management Consultant
It's Me, Hi!
Your former behind-the-scenes partner in the head office world, stepping out into the entrepreneurial life! As a business owner seeking growth and success, I'm right there with you. It's an exciting shift, a pivot to a more personalized approach in working together to make your business a magnet for success.
My 20+ year career has been built on supporting advisors in and on their business, while advocating for the client and advisor experience. I've been client-facing, in national office and Practice Management with each role building on the last. (read more below)
Now, I am here to help advisors set and attain ambitious growth goals and share my expertise and knowledge with those who are eager to take their business to new heights. I have created an offering that can be personalized to align with an advisor’s specific needs. We can work together to optimize your business by refining processes and transforming your client experience to nurture valuable client relationships and attract more top clients.
I live in Oakville, Ontario, with my husband and daughter. She is my why and inspiration to build the life I love and start this new path by going all in on myself and this business. Having a family, you realize how fast time goes by and you need to spend it doing what you enjoy. I get to walk my daughter to the bus every morning and volunteer at her school. I get to make time for a walk to the lake with the pup or a beach getaway. And, I get to work with amazing advisors who want to grow their business and deliver on all of their client’s needs through an elevated client experience.
Thank you for being here and I look forward to working with you!
My Story....
2001
Career Launch Into Wealth Management
I could not have had a better start in my wealth career than working alongside great advisors and their clients. As a Sales Assistant / Associate, I learned so much about the business and in addition to administering everything account-related and helping them manage their business, I valued and nurtured client relationships leading me to be an advocate for the client experience throughout my career.
Over that time, I worked 1:1 at Scotia McLeod with an advisor who treated me as a valuable asset on his team, and then moved with him to TD. At TD, working in a 2:1 relationship provided the opportunity to create process efficiencies to manage working with advisors with different service models/client experience. My final associate role was moving to RBC DS to work on one of the largest teams, managing over $1B in assets. However, I didn’t feel connected to the client relationships, propelling me to seek the next level for my career.
2006
Head Office Life
I moved back to TD Wealth into competitive recruiting where I travelled across the country and led the transition support for advisors joining the firm, transferring in over $2B in assets. I built a strong reputation and established relationships with many advisors and their teams, leadership and back office. I took what I knew and excelled at, enabling me to make an impact on a larger scale, supporting advisors while building successful client onboarding processes and equipping them to reinvent their service model and client experience.
Looking to expand my skillset led me to take on creating onboarding processes and training for new Sales Assistants as well as delivering workshops for existing Assistants which brought me to my next opportunity.
2010
Found My Way Into Practice Management
I fully attribute my career purpose to working with an amazing leader and team in Practice Management at TD who demonstrated a remarkable passion for supporting the advisor business in an impactful way. I LOVED it and felt the most aligned. I got to work with advisors on a new level, providing pathways to attract new clients, deepen client relationships and successfully manage and grow their business. I had insights into countless advisor businesses to develop content and resources as well as contribute to programs and other strategic initiatives that enabled them to deliver an exceptional client experience. It was one of the best and most fun experiences of my career, so when a new door opened that would build on the work I was doing, I had to take it.
2014
When Opportunity Knocks
I was invited to join CIBC Wood Gundy to build out their Practice Management team and offering. It was an exciting and unique experience to be presented with the opportunity to create the strategy from scratch. We defined an Optimal Practice model and from there, developed a framework and engagement strategy. A team of Practice Management Consultants was hired to work in the field, while we created and delivered programs and resources that enabled advisors to focus on their business and increase efficiencies to build capacity and boost profitability. Together, the team provided advisors with the tools to transform their client experience and service offering and evolve to an integrated wealth management approach.
I learned more about how the coaching process guides advisors and their teams and keeps them accountable to their goals while providing implementation support.
2018
The Best 18 Months And The Start Of My Personal Transformation
This was the year I became a Mom and everything started to shift. It was all new for us with routines, priorities and values. It was an opportunity to build the life I wanted. I could decide what becoming a mom meant to me and how it would influence the evolution of who I was becoming. I listened to myself, women who did it before me and other moms, all with different paths, expanding my view on what was possible. And with that, I had a voice in my head that began guiding me to live my life by my design.
2020
Expansion Outside Investment Advice
I felt supported coming back to work, my leaders provided new opportunities to expand my experience beyond investment advice. The pan-wealth Women’s Mastermind, initiatives with the Planning Group, Private Banking and Philanthropy all gave me a greater appreciation for the value of delivering on clients' needs through planning while taking a team-based approach with advisors, planners and partners.
In 2022, I was invited back to TD Wealth Advice to work on the advisor engagement strategy, supporting the business planning process, the client experience journey and the execution of the Four Wealth Pillars. It was positioned as a strategic role but the whispers were getting louder to make changes to live an aligned life.
2023
All In On Jen Ken Consulting Inc.!
It was clear that I missed the connection and impact of working alongside advisors and their teams. The voice in my head got louder, changing from “I want to…” to “I am going to…” so I took inspired action to make it happen. During the summer, I resigned from corporate life, got my coaching certification and started to build out what you see today for Jen Ken Consulting Inc.!