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bfinance strengthens Canada team with hire of Philip Coté, CFA, FRM as Director

bfinance, the independent investment consultancy, today announces the appointment of Philip Coté, CFA, FRM as Director, Client Consulting in bfinance’s Canada team. Joining the client consulting team at bfinance’s Montréal office, Philip brings over sixteen years’ experience in financial services, investment consulting, manager research and product development globally.

Philip’s appointment marks a significant step in the development of the North American divisions of the London-headquartered consultancy. He will work closely with Senior Director Les Marton and the team to so support major institutional investors in Canada including public and private pension funds, insurers, family offices, foundations and endowments.

Prior to joining bfinance, Philip was Director at Pavilion Alternatives Group where he led the manager research and due diligence function across private markets with a focus on real assets and private debt. In this role he worked closely with investors across Canada and the US. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Finance from Concordia University and a Certificate of Treasury Finance from McGill University and was awarded the CFA charter in 2007 and FRM designation in 2004.

This appointment comes at a time of rapid growth for bfinance. Founded in 1999, the firm has opened two new offices in North America within the last two years – Toronto (2017) and Chicago (2017), making a total of three offices in North American (including Montréal) and eight globally, supporting more than 300 clients across 34 countries across both traditional and alternative asset classes. The volume of asset management mandates conducted by the firm increased by more than 30% between 2017 and 2018, while the period has also seen the development of new services in areas such as Risk Analytics and Fee Benchmarking. The firm’s growth reflects increasing demand for specialist advisory support with investment implementation as portfolios have become more complex; it has also been influenced by escalating concerns about conflicts of interest within the investment consulting industry.

Philip Coté, commenting on his appointment, said: “I am excited to be joining the bfinance team in Canada. I have been impressed by the strength of the team and the expertise of its professionals and believe that bfinance is uniquely positioned to continue to build on its successes.”

Les Marton, Senior Director, said: “We are delighted that Philip, with his wealth of experience, is joining our team to support Canadian investors. We are seeing more demand than ever for investment implementation advice, particularly around de-risking portfolios and diversification into more complex asset classes. Delivering on investment objectives in a cost-effective way continues to be top of mind for Canadian and North American institutions.”

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