Earnings call transcript: IGM Financial Q3 2025 beats expectations, stock dips

IGM Financial Inc. reported its third-quarter earnings for 2025, surpassing analysts' expectations with an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.27, compared to the forecasted $1.13, marking a 12.39% surprise. The company also posted revenue of $971.88 million, slightly above the expected $958.67 million. Despite these positive results, shares of IGM Financial fell by 2.41% in after-hours trading, closing at $53.50, as investors weighed the company's future prospects and market conditions.

Key Takeaways

• IGM Financial's EPS exceeded forecasts, marking a significant year-over-year increase of 23%.
• The company returned $183 million to shareholders and repurchased 3.6 million shares.
• Despite strong earnings, the stock price declined by 2.41% in after-hours trading.
• The company launched 11 new products, including ETFs and private market funds.
• IGM Financial anticipates continued growth in client assets and potential increased share buybacks.

Company Performance

IGM Financial demonstrated robust performance in the third quarter of 2025, with a notable increase in adjusted EPS and a strategic focus on returning capital to shareholders. The company has been actively expanding its product offerings and maintaining a strong competitive position in the financial sector. This performance is set against a backdrop of resilient equity markets, particularly in China, which have supported asset growth.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $971.88 million, up from a forecast of $958.67 million.
• Earnings per share: $1.27, a 23% increase year-over-year.
• Shareholder returns: $183 million returned, with 3.6 million shares repurchased.
• Unallocated capital: Approximately $700 million.

Earnings vs. Forecast

IGM Financial's earnings per share of $1.27 exceeded the forecast of $1.13, resulting in a 12.39% surprise. The revenue of $971.88 million also surpassed expectations, albeit by a smaller margin of 1.38%. This performance highlights the company's ability to outperform market predictions, continuing a trend of strong financial results.

Market Reaction

Despite exceeding earnings expectations, IGM Financial's stock price decreased by 2.41% in after-hours trading. The stock is currently priced at $53.50, moving away from its 52-week high of $56.01. This decline may reflect investor caution regarding future market volatility and the company's strategic direction.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, IGM Financial plans to focus on returning capital to shareholders in 2026, with expectations of continued growth in client assets. The company is considering potential increases in share buybacks and dividend adjustments, while also anticipating seasonal impacts on earnings in the fourth quarter.

Executive Commentary

James O'Sullivan, CEO of IGM Financial, emphasized the company's commitment to returning capital to shareholders and its strategic focus on growth and diversification. He stated, "2026 is going to be about returning capital to shareholders," highlighting the company's forward-looking strategy. Luke Gould, CEO of Mackenzie Investments, expressed confidence in the company's position, noting, "We're feeling very, very good."

Risks and Challenges

• Market volatility: Potential fluctuations in equity markets could impact asset growth.
• Competitive pressures: Maintaining leadership in mutual fund sales and ETF rankings requires continuous innovation.
• Economic conditions: Macroeconomic factors, such as interest rate changes, could affect financial performance.
• Operational expenses: Managing rising operations and support expenses remains a challenge.
• Strategic investments: Ensuring the success of investments in Wealthsimple and Rockefeller is crucial for future growth.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about IGM Financial's strategic investments and future plans for mergers and acquisitions. The company indicated no significant M&A plans but reaffirmed its focus on wealth management and advisory services. Analysts also expressed interest in the company's outlook on Wealthsimple and Rockefeller investments, to which executives responded with optimism and confidence in their strategic value.

Full transcript - IGM Financial Inc. (IGM) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IGM Financial Third Quarter 2025 Analyst Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After today's 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 Kyle Martens, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Kyle Martens/Luke Gould, Senior VP Corporate Development/President and CEO of Mackenzie Investments, IGM Financial/Mackenzie Investments: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. On the call today, we have James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial; Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management; Luke Gould, President and CEO of Mackenzie Investments; and Keith Potter, Executive Vice President and CFO of 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 within this presentation. On slide six, we provide a list of documents that are available on our website related to IGM Financial's third quarter results. That will take us to slide nine, where I'll turn it over to James.

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: All right. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We're pleased to report another record quarter across many dimensions of our businesses, including an all-time high adjusted EPS of $1.27. Most importantly, the outstanding third quarter demonstrates strength and continued momentum in our core businesses, IG Wealth and Mackenzie Investments. Last quarter, we noted an important inflection point in Mackenzie's retail advisor channel. That momentum continued in the third quarter alongside continued strength in the institutional and partnership channels, positioning Mackenzie, I think, for sustained growth. IG Wealth's leadership in delivering best-in-class advice to mass affluent and high-net-worth clients continues to be a powerful growth engine, driving record assets and reinforcing our position as a premier wealth management firm in Canada. IG and Mackenzie combined achieved $2.4 billion in net inflows during the quarter and delivered year-over-year earnings growth of 24% and 15%, respectively.

Complementing the strong performance in our core businesses, our strategic investments delivered continued growth and demonstrated value for IGM's shareholders. We have spoken in the past about narrowing the gap between trading price and net asset value by highlighting and demonstrating progress in our strategic investments. The Rockefeller transaction underscores its strong growth and adds new long-term investors, further strengthening the ownership base. Importantly, IGM will remain Rockefeller's second-largest shareholder when the deal closes later this year and the only strategic in the capital stack. After doubling client assets in just over a year, Wealthsimple's financing round marked another key milestone for the firm as they continue their focus on developing and launching innovative solutions for the benefit of their clients. IGM continues to be the largest shareholder of Wealthsimple pro forma the financing round. Each of these investments remains strategically important to IGM.

We're naturally very pleased to share these developments that showcase the significant value and strategic optionality embedded within our wealth management segment. Looking forward, we are in a very strong position financially and look forward to returning increasing amounts of capital to our shareholders in 2026. Now, moving to slide 10 in the current operating backdrop, markets have continued to be strong, driving IGM client returns of over 6% during the quarter. Resilient markets have continued to support investor confidence, helping drive another quarter of positive industry flows. At the same time, we're mindful that markets can correct at any time, and we keep a keen eye on differentials between the financial economy and the real economy. Periods of volatility remain probable over the near and medium terms.

Slide 11 provides a snapshot of the strong double-digit earnings growth across all of our segments, which Keith will address later in the call. Finally, on slide 12, you'll see the double-digit asset growth across each of our businesses that contributed to IGM's record assets under management and advisement. I'll now turn the call over to Damon.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: Thank you, James, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 14 in Wealth Management's third quarter highlights, including IG Wealth, Rockefeller, and Wealthsimple. Running on the momentum IG has built, the third quarter continued to deliver record results. We ended the quarter with record AUM and AUA of $156 billion, up 14% versus Q3 of last year, supported by record Q3 gross inflows and sales of $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion, respectively. Total net flows for the quarter were $426 million and represent our fifth consecutive quarter of positive net flows. IG Wealth continues to be a new client acquisition machine, delivering record Q3 new client gross inflows of $1.2 billion, with 79% of these inflows coming from mass affluent and high-net-worth clients. During the month of October, the momentum continued with our highest gross inflows on record and strong net inflows of $276 million.

Also, during the quarter, the Investment Executive 2025 Dealer Report Card was published, and once again, IG was ranked as an industry leader. I'll speak more to this and to the demonstrated strength of both Rockefeller and Wealthsimple on upcoming slides. Moving to slide 15, this shows the continued momentum that this business has built. On the left, you can see in all three periods that we are at record levels for gross inflows, which in turn is driving our strong net flows. The graph on the right illustrates the ability of our advisors to work with their clients to dollar-cost average into long-term IG solutions. Turning to slide 16, you can see our operating results, which continue to provide great insight into the strength of this business. I'll note our third-party AUA growth is driven by our ability to acquire new clients.

As we continue to drive new mass affluent and high-net-worth client acquisition, we expect to see similar growth in this category. Everything on this slide continues to point in the right direction, illustrating our growth and our advisors' ability to work with their clients to dollar-average cost in from GICs, high cash balances, and short-term investments over time. Moving to slide 17, our gross inflows from newly acquired clients demonstrate the client acquisition machine that IG is today, and it's across all segments, most notably the newly acquired mass affluent and high-net-worth clients. Turning to slide 18, you can see the continued momentum in our mortgage and insurance businesses, both of which have delivered strong year-over-year growth.

We continue to see strong growth prospects in our insurance business, while our advisors also see opportunity to engage their clients to win new mortgage business as their clients' mortgages come up for renewal. Now, turning to slide 19, I want to briefly focus on the strategic pillars that we spoke to at our last Investors' Day: investing in the business, elevating the business, and driving a best-in-class advice experience. The Wealth Drivers has focused our investment on partnerships to support the advice that our clients demand and our prospects seek. We're enhancing our advisors' capabilities through these partnerships, which in turn provides them a better line of sight to the client's full financial picture.

At the same time, we're elevating our platforms and products by expanding our exposure to private assets, extending our growth in insurance and lending offerings, as well as providing accounts to help our clients and their children save for their first home. These initiatives are driving our strategy, resulting in success in both our entrepreneurial and corporate channels. 36% of our new client gross inflows are coming from the high-net-worth segment, while our corporate channel represents 7% of our AUM and 34% of our clients. Further validation of the success of our strategy is seen through the eyes of the industry's advisors. This year, IG continued its high ranking in the 2025 Investment Executive Dealer Report Card, where we once again ranked first overall amongst our peers, improving our score year-over-year and placing first in 15 categories. Now, turning to slide 20, I'll update you on Rockefeller's progress.

Client assets were up 25% year-over-year, supported by market, inorganic, and organic growth. Over the last 12 months, organic growth has driven $6.7 billion in client assets, while Rockefeller continued to add to their private advisory network, with 60 new advisors being added over the last 12 months. Now, moving to slide 21, this slide illustrates Wealthsimple's momentous upward trajectory. At our 2023 Investors' Day, Wealthsimple set a target of $100 billion in AUA by the end of 2028. During the third quarter, they achieved this, ending the quarter with $100.8 billion, up a remarkable 94% over last year, and setting a new all-time record high with $16.3 billion in AUA growth during the third quarter. Wealthsimple has increased their client service by 15% year-over-year, ending the quarter with over 3 million clients. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Luke Gould.

Kyle Martens/Luke Gould, Senior VP Corporate Development/President and CEO of Mackenzie Investments, IGM Financial/Mackenzie Investments: Great. Thanks, Damon. Good morning, everyone. Turn to page 23, you'll see highlights for Mackenzie and for asset management for the quarter. This was a quarter of very strong momentum across a number of dimensions. It was a good quarter for clients with investment returns of 6%, and we ended the quarter with record high assets of just under $240 billion, up 6.6% in the quarter as a result of both investment returns and net sales of $2 billion in the quarter. This net sales result was up meaningfully from last year, with momentum across channels. Investment fund net sales, you can see in the top right, of $407 million, improved by $700 million from last year, driven largely from improvements in retail. Retail net sales of $7 million are up $510 million from last year, with strong momentum in quant and active equity ETFs in particular.

We're pleased to see a lot of momentum with products launched during the last 36 months. We also onboarded $1.6 billion from three institutional clients as we disclosed last quarter. Two of these clients were large foreign public pensions and wealth funds, and the third was a large Canadian pension. We have another $400 million award funding in Q4 and a very good near-term pipeline. A few weeks ago, we received the results of the 2025 advisor perception study for each of mutual funds and ETFs. Results were broadly stable on the mutual fund study, and we maintain a rank of second on sales penetration across channels, brand equity, and overall score relative to large peers. We experienced noteworthy improvements on the ETF study, with our overall score increasing to 7.9 from 7.1. Rank has tied for third versus our score of eighth last year.

We're pleased to see this momentum on the ETF study, given our activity in broadening our ETF suite around active and better-beta mandates. We continue to be very busy on the product launch side for retail. We've launched 11 new products in the third and fourth quarter of this year, and we launched 12 products in the first half of the year across mutual fund, ETF, and offering memorandum vehicles. These launches include this quarter our fifth private markets fund, the Mackenzie Northleaf Multi-Asset Fund. We've also launched four better-beta ETFs in the quarter, as well as expanding our value style offerings and providing our US Health Extension mandate in ETF form. At the bottom, you can see both ChinaAMC and Northleaf continue to generate good growth.

ChinaAMC's investment funds are up 30% from last year and 7% during the quarter, supported by a robust rebound in Chinese markets, where equity markets were up 19% in Q3. Northleaf continues to have strong fundraising of $5.2 billion over the last year and $1.5 billion during the quarter. Turning to page 24, you can see the trend and the history of Mackenzie's investment fund net sales. On the left, you can see that this is our best investment fund net sales across all three periods since 2021, with meaningful improvements from 2024. As highlighted earlier, a majority of the momentum in Q3 investment fund net sales was driven by retail, and you can see this improvement on the chart on the right.

I'd also remind on the left that we don't publish ETF gross purchase and disposition activity due to data challenges, but we estimate that retail gross purchase activity, including ETFs, was up about 50% year-over-year. On the right, overall, we're positive and improving on a last 12-month trailing basis, and you can see, ending the year, that retail's trending towards positive territory as well on a last 12-month basis. We've also added a note on the right that we disclosed our October results. Investment fund net sales were $235 million, a very good result and a meaningful improvement over 2024, and this excludes a $950 million net purchase of our passive ETFs by an institutional client who made allocations to Mackenzie within their managed solutions. Turning to page 25, at the top right, you can see our net sales segmented between retail and institutional and by delivery vehicle.

We've circled the improvement within our retail investment funds, with notable increases in both the mutual fund and ETF structure. You can also see the $1.55 billion onboarded of institutional awards during the quarter. At the bottom left, you can see our last 12-month trailing net sales rate has been closing ground relative to mutual fund industry peer group. Turning to page 26, you can see our performance and net sales for our retail mutual funds and ETFs by boutique. Across the slides, looking near the top of the slide, you can see compelling performance relative to peers across multiple boutiques. Towards the middle, you'll see our global quantitative equity boutique has exceptional relative performance across the three time periods where this team managed the money, and you can see the strong and growing net sales for this team.

I'd also highlight that we have strong performance and net sales or net sales improvement within a number of other boutiques, including our resources team, our Greenchip team, global equity and income, and the multi-asset strategy team. Turning to page 27, we've added a slide to give an update on our private markets funds for retail investors in our partnership with Northleaf. You can see at the top that we are on a mission to bring private asset classes, what we call the missing middle, to Canadian households. We've been working hard to remove every impediment to Canadian households having a proper allocation to these asset classes. This has included education and promotion, helping with advisor accreditation, ensuring products are eligible for registered plans, and ensuring that the products are scaled. The existing products you can see on the left are achieving scale and have increased sales momentum.

In October, as mentioned, we introduced the Mackenzie Northleaf Multi-Asset Private Markets Fund. This is a single ticket that brings private equity, private credit, and infrastructure together and provides a very nice complement to an existing 60/40 portfolio. The underlying products you can see have delivered excellent track records since launch, and we provide a graphic in the middle of the slide to convey the missing middle concept. We've seeded our new multi-asset product with $100 million from our other managed solutions, and we are looking very forward to promoting it in the market. We've also, in the bottom right, highlighted that we held our first private market summit in London, England, at the end of May.

We're very proud of the strength of this event in terms of both the quality of the content and speakers, as well as the engagement with a lot of the investments that are held in the portfolio and the investee companies. Turning to page 28, a few comments on the Chinese investment fund industry. On the left, you can see the industry grew by 6% in the quarter, driven primarily by strong equity markets. In the bottom left, you can see the net sales trend. While overall industry net sales were positive, including money market, long-term funds were in slight net outflows, with equity funds where clients took some of the gains with the recent upturn to the market.

On the right, we're pleased with the continued strong performance of ChinaAMC relative to peers, and they continue to see market share gains on long-term funds, increasing to 6.7% of the industry, up from 6.4% last quarter and 6.3% last year. On page 29, you can see the strong growth in ChinaAMC's AUM. The company is very proud to have reached an important milestone of CNY 3 trillion this quarter, so close to following its previous CNY 2 trillion milestone just six quarters ago. You can see that investment fund assets were up 7% in the quarter and 30% over the last year. On page 30, you can see another very strong quarter of fundraising at Northleaf, with $1.5 billion in fundraising in the quarter and $5.2 billion over the last 12 months.

Fundraising was strong across private equity, private credit, and infrastructure in particular, as they closed one of their products they had in market. I also want to recognize, just a few days ago, we celebrated the five-year anniversary of our partnership with Northleaf. I just want to say we're very pleased with the progress. We're very proud of this team, and we're very excited about the future. I'll now turn the call over to Keith Potter.

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Thank you, Luke, and good morning, everyone. On slide 32, you can see key highlights for Q3. Adjusted EPS, which excludes lifecos other items, was $1.27, up over 23% year-over-year and a record high. These strong results were diversified and driven by our core businesses and contributions from our strategic investments. We returned $183 million to shareholders in the quarter, including approximately $51 million in share repurchases. We have repurchased 3.6 million shares to the end of September and will continue to be active repurchasing shares through the remainder of the year. In line with past quarters, we are also strengthening our financial profile by steadily lowering leverage and cash dividend payout ratio while maintaining financial flexibility with unallocated capital growing to approximately $700 million.

Finally, as previously announced in October, we have reported a $1.4 billion increase or approximately $6 per IGM share in the value of Rockefeller and Wealthsimple combined. Details of the Rockefeller transaction are yet to be finalized, and we will update you on the Q4 call in February. Turning to slide 33, you can see our AUM and A and flows on a year-to-year basis. Strong equity markets during the quarter supported ending and average asset growth, with both up approximately 6.5% since Q2. In particular, we saw robust growth in the Chinese equity markets, with the CSI 300 up 19% during the third quarter, which was supportive of ChinaAMC's results. I'll speak to these in a few moments.

On the left-hand side, similar to last quarter, it's worth noting that at the end of October, ending AUM and A is up approximately 5% from the Q3 average, and if markets remain stable, the increase in assets will be a key driver for revenue growth in Q4. Turning to slide 34, point one and point two help to illustrate the diversified drivers of our 23% year-over-year growth and adjusted EPS. On point three, on a year-to-date basis, our combined operations and support and business development expenses are up 4.1% from last year, and we are maintaining guidance of 4% for the full year. We look forward to providing our 2026 expense guidance on the February call. On slide 35, we present the key profitability drivers for IG Wealth Management. I'll highlight a few points.

On the left side, you can see that average AUM and AUA was up 6.6%. On the right, as a reminder, the advisory fee rate includes advisory fees charged on AUA as well as interest earned on client cash on deposit. During the quarter, our advisory fee rate dropped 1.4 basis points and was primarily driven by clients moving up wealth bands, with average AUA increasing 6.6% in the quarter, and secondly by a decrease in client cash balances as advisors work with their clients to invest in long-term solutions. As I mentioned, at the end of October, our AUM and AUA is up approximately 5% from the Q3 average, and assuming markets hold, we do expect to have an approximate one basis point impact on the advisory fee rate in the fourth quarter as clients move up wealth bands and expect moderately lower cash balances.

For context, similar to last quarter, these types of returns and impact are more aligned with what you would expect in one year versus one quarter. Finally, the asset-based compensation rate was flat quarter over quarter, and as we look to the next quarter, we would remind that the rate is typically higher in Q4 due to year-end seasonal programs. On slide 36, IG's overall earnings of $155.3 million in Q3 are up 23.7% year-over-year. On point two, our financial planning revenue continues to be supported by strong mortgage and insurance performance. On point three, IG operations and support business development expenses were $164 million, in line with last quarter, and up approximately 4.1% year-over-year. Moving to slide 37, we have Mackenzie's AUM by client and product type, as well as net revenue rates.

On the left, you can see average AUM is up almost 6% versus Q2, and on the right, third-party rate, excluding Canada Life, decreased primarily due to onboarding of $1.6 billion in institutional assets as we guided during the Q2 call. As we look forward to Q4, with the full quarter of the additional institutional assets and additional institutional ETF flows of $950 million during October, we expect to see this rate come down approximately 1.5 basis points in Q4. Turning to slide 38, Mackenzie's earnings were $68.2 million, up 14.8% year-over-year. On point two, operations and support and business development expenses were $120 million, up 4.3% year-over-year and 1.6% sequentially. Slide 39 has ChinaAMC's results. As I spoke to a few moments ago, the Chinese equity markets performed very well during the quarter, which supported investment fund AUM growth.

On the right, you can see ChinaAMC's strong earnings of $46.1 million that benefited from seed capital gains driven by strong equity returns. Adjusting for the fair value gains, Q3 results were relatively in line with the last few quarters. As we look to the next quarter, I'd remind that the fourth quarter has traditionally had seasonally elevated expenses, and we do expect to see earnings contribution from the company somewhere in the range of where we've seen over the past three quarters, excluding the impact of any significant market movements. Slide 40 has earnings contribution from companies in each segment. I'll make a couple of comments here. First, Rockefeller earnings turned positive during the quarter, in line with our expectations. As we look to the fourth quarter, we would expect continued progress toward improved profitability, excluding any transaction-related expenses with the recent announcement.

As I mentioned, we will provide more details on the transaction during our February call. For Northleaf, during our Q2 call, we guided to earnings for the next few quarters of approximately $5 million. Q3 came in lower due to seasonality of some expenses, accrual true-ups, and a few one-time items. I do expect quarterly earnings over the next few quarters of approximately $5 million on average, but do remind there is some variation in earnings from quarter to quarter. A few points on slide 41. We have updated the indicative values for Rockefeller and Wealthsimple. The total value of both investments represent approximately $16 per share. It is worth noting that neither contribute meaningfully to IGM earnings, but do contribute significant value. On Northleaf, we increased the carrying value by $33 million net of NCI for the earnout, which reflects continued strong fund raisings.

Also, with highlighting, we did receive a $7 million dividend from Northleaf this quarter. Finally, at the bottom right of the slide, you can see that strategic investments and unallocated capital have an indicative value of $8.3 billion in aggregate, which represents $35 per share value. Slide 42 demonstrates continued execution against our capital allocation priorities. We continue to return capital to shareholders and strengthen our financial flexibility. In addition to paying the quarterly dividend and repurchasing shares, we continue to have a reduced gross leverage, now just over 1.4 times. We have also included debt net of unallocated capital, and you can see both measures present the same directional story. Our cash dividend payout ratio is now 59% and is down from 62% last quarter. Finally, at the end of the quarter, our unallocated capital grew to approximately $700 million.

That concludes my remarks, and I'll turn it over for questions.

Conference Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one, on your telephone keypad. 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 for a moment as callers join the queue. Thank you for your patience. The first question today comes from Jamie Gould with NBCM. Please go ahead.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Congrats, the business seems to really be humming on all facets. With that, and obviously some strategic investments doing well, core business doing well, we have unallocated capital continuing to rise. James, is it something you are discussing with the board now, where maybe a shift in mindset around M&A? Over the last couple of years, focus has been on organic growth, but is that something that is entering discussions now? If not, should we maybe expect to see maybe a more accelerated buyback than just sort of like the 2% of shares we have seen over the last little bit here?

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Sure. Good morning, and thanks for the question. I do not expect any meaningful change in our posture towards M&A. We have the businesses that we want. We are proud of the construction of this business now, two divisions, six businesses, three in each. We believe, James, that we are built for growth, built for diversification, and I think we are starting to show that. As I look forward to 2026, I think thematically 2026 is going to be about returning capital to shareholders. If there was a single theme to kind of think about as we head into the year, that is what I am thinking about. How do we return capital to shareholders? Of course, we have, as you point out, high levels of unallocated capital. We have had strong growth in client assets, strong growth in earnings.

I think we're in a position to look very fully at that question, at both kind of buyback, how big a buyback do we do, what do we do with the dividend. Everything's on the table, and we will be taking a capital plan to our board in February.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: Okay, great. As I think about the strategic investments and what you could do there, a little bit more of an investment in Wealthsimple, but what is the discussion with the parent around maybe where Wealthsimple fits best? Is there anything you can share from your discussions on that?

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Yeah, it's a question that's out there, and it is something that Jeff Ohr and I discuss from time to time. I would not be anticipating any change, certainly in the foreseeable future, as to where kind of Wealthsimple resides. It resides at Power, it resides within IGM. I think each of us are proud of our position and very happy with our position. I am not contemplating any change in the locale, if you will, of Wealthsimple. It's a great business, and collectively we control it, and we're very proud of their progress.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: Okay, great. Last one, maybe for Damon. Nice pickup in the Net Promoter Score. It's always good to see that. Can you maybe sort of detail or describe what's driving that? What have you seen in shifts, and what do you expect to see flow through from that nice jump?

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Yep, thanks, James. I think that is an indication of how we are planning for our clients and the areas that we are really focusing on with them. It goes back to the wealth drivers that we have talked about. We obviously do a great job investing their money, and we make the money build their wealth. It is about retirement planning, it is about estate planning and a generational wealth transfer. It is about those that have small businesses, whether they need financing or they are ready for a succession plan, we help them there. We connect families together so that high-net-worth families can talk about their wealth openly and honestly. We call that high-net-worth financial literacy. We are helping our clients create that want to give back and leave the world a better place. We help them create legacy plans while they are living.

All of that, combined with our ability to manage money and make the money, it leads to higher Net Promoter Scores, and it leads to obviously getting a greater share of wallet, and it leads to new client acquisition.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: Very good. Thank you.

Conference Operator: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then one, to join the question queue. The next question comes from Graham Ryding with TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Graham Ryding, Analyst, TD Securities: Hi, good morning. Maybe I can just start with Luke. Starting to see some pretty solid institutional flows at Mackenzie, an improvement in your retail flows, but still lagging what we're sort of seeing at IG Wealth in terms of flow rates and momentum. What are the sort of the products or maybe the strategic pieces needed to get Mackenzie flows sort of up to the next level on the retail side?

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Yeah, thanks, Graham. Good question. Going back to page 24, we're feeling we got all the ingredients. Heading into 2026, we've got this momentum. You can see the trend if you extrapolate it. We're pleased with the success we're bringing on. When you look at the suite we've got in retail to promote right now, we're kind of just getting started. Just with quant and active ETFs as a theme, we're pleased with what we brought in 2025. It is the tip of the iceberg when you look at the broad categories that these products play in and just how compelling not only the investment process is, but the demonstrated track record. As we're sitting here looking at our retail suite and the outlook for 2026, we're feeling very, very good.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: If I could just jump to Wealthsimple, I think you said there is now $100 billion of assets at Wealthsimple. Can you give us a feel for how that mix looks across the different categories and distribution channels?

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Yeah, look, it's a fair question as the company goes from strength to strength and gets larger and larger. It remains a private company, and so at least at this point, we're not going to be adding to current disclosures. What I've said in the past, I'll say again, and it continues to be true. If you had a look at the composition of their assets or the composition of their flows, I think you'd be deeply impressed with the diversification across all of their businesses, including trading, invest, save, work, crypto. It remains a very well-diversified platform overall.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: The large ETF institutional flow that we saw in October, is that Wealthsimple related? Can you speak to that at all? And then just broadly, how much AUM is Mackenzie managing on behalf of Wealthsimple currently?

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Yeah, good question, James. We generally do not disclose that clients when it comes to institutional net flows. We do manage about $7 billion for Wealthsimple in our passive ETFs. We are part of the fueling of their product offering. We do have a private label suite that we manage for them. They are labeled Wealthsimple ETFs, and Mackenzie has them under management. We are very pleased, obviously, for the partnership we have with them.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: Any private assets with Northleaf in that channel?

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: We don't currently, but I know there's good discussions going on between Northleaf and Wealthsimple. Northleaf would love to be on that platform.

Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management, IG Wealth Management: Okay, that's it for me. Thank you.

Conference Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Kyle Martens for any closing remarks.

James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial, IGM Financial: Okay, thank you, Betsy. We'd once again like to thank everyone for joining us on the call this morning, and that's it with that in today's conference call.

Conference Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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