IGM Financial caps big year with first steps toward another

IGM Financial ended its first quarter of 2026 with record earnings, an incoming leadership shuffle and the 100-year anniversary of its wealth management arm.

The Winnipeg-based large financial services company had a strong 2025, shareholders heard at IGM’s annual general meeting on Friday. Its annual adjusted net earnings hit a record $1.09 billion, or $4.61 per share, up 17 per cent compared to the year prior.

Its first quarter of 2026 was similarly successful: annual adjusted net earnings were $284 million, or $1.21 per share, a new record, compared to $238 million and $1 per share in the first quarter of 2025.

The company is also marking the 100th anniversary of IG Wealth Management, which was founded in 1926 and is owned by parent company IGM Financial Inc. Damon Murchison, currently the president and CEO of IG Wealth Management, will become the president and CEO of IGM starting July 1. He will also keep his prior role.

“The leadership change is a reflection of the generational change that’s taking place across the country, right?” Murchison said after the annual general meeting in Winnipeg.

“Baby boomers have retired, they’re passing on their wealth to Gen X, and so on, to millennials. It’s getting the next generation of advisers, the next generation of Canadians, involved in ensuring better planning and better investment.”

James O’Sullivan, who served as president/CEO of IGM for six years, has been appointed the president and CEO of Power Corp., IGM’s parent company.

O’Sullivan said 2025’s numbers were indicative of stability in Canadian markets, despite it being “a bit of a wild year” otherwise.

“This has not been a straight ride up, there were a lot of years of heavy lifting. It’s really only in the last few years we’ve been able to kind of bring things together and generate meaningful growth in earnings,” he said.

“I think the nice thing about 2025 was, notwithstanding all of the geopolitical issues, it turned out to be a year of very steady progress for Canadians who are saving for retirement.”

IGM has invested in a number of offerings including investment management service Wealthsimple, which had “remarkable” growth in a short time, O’Sullivan said.

Its assets under advisement rose to $111 billion last year, up from $64 billion in 2024. It also has invested in financial advisory firm Rockefeller, which grew client assets to $271 billion last year, 25 per cent higher than 2024.

“I think it was a very kind of workman-like year of progress … But we are a market-sensitive business,” he said. “Markets invariably go up over time … They can do anything in the short term, but they’ve been behaving pretty well for some time.”

Murchison said his focuses going into the new role are in philanthropy, namely stepping back from larger nation-wide initiatives and focusing on grassroots organizations in Manitoba, and expanding on integrating artificial-intelligence tools into the software it uses.

“The future of our industry is one where you got to make the complex simple and you’re going to have to personalize everything,” he said. “AI is going to be able to help us do that, so it’s something that is top of mind for me.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca