Odlum Brown, the independent Vancouver investment firm founded more than 100 years ago, launched a custom digital client onboarding system with Montreal’s Mako Financial Technologies on 3 November 2026, integrated natively into the book of record Odlum Brown uses for trading, clearing and settlement, according to the companies’ announcement. Fintechbits checked Mako’s website: it names Aviso Wealth and Western Pacific Trust Company among firms using the platform, shows a CSAE 3416 Type 1 audit badge, and publishes no standard prices, saying each client is quoted individually. The Odlum Brown Mako release gives no figure for how much faster accounts now open.

What the Odlum Brown Mako system does

The system replaces paper-heavy account opening with a digital workflow. Peter Pacholko, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Odlum Brown, named three features that drove the choice. Clients can fill in applications themselves or let an advisory team member complete them. Dynamic workflows skip questions and authorisations that do not apply, based on early answers. And staff can open several applications for one household at once, which Pacholko called “another fantastic time saver.”

Sam Jiwani, chief information officer at Odlum Brown, said opening an account “is one of the earliest experiences a client has with our firm.” Raphael Bouskila, founder and chief executive of Mako, said “the native book of record integration is central to that work.”

The book of record is the hard part

The unusual detail is in the plumbing. Odlum Brown manages its own data collection for the book of record that runs its trading, clearing and settlement, the release says. Most onboarding tools stop at a signed form and a PDF that someone rekeys. Connecting onboarding directly to that system means a new account can flow into clearing without a second data entry step, which is where errors and delays usually creep in.

That is also why the Odlum Brown Mako project took custom work rather than an off-the-shelf install. Mako says on its site that it can get firms “up and running within as little as a week,” but this build was tailored to one firm’s workflow and data model.

Who Odlum Brown is

Odlum Brown has branches in Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Chilliwack, Courtenay and Langley, and has been named one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for 27 years. Its own website describes it as employee-owned, a detail the release leaves out. Mako, founded in 2018, sells digital onboarding, client reporting and form automation to Canadian wealth firms, with native e-signature, compliance checks and bulk account opening.

Canadian wealth firms have been spending on client-facing technology, from AI tools such as the Continuum platform Sterling Mutuals adopted in July to onboarding projects like this one.

Fintechbits analysis

Why the Odlum Brown Mako deal is a vendor-risk story too

Odlum Brown has picked a small vendor for one of its most sensitive processes, and the public evidence on that vendor is limited. A CSAE 3416 Type 1 report, the Canadian equivalent of a SOC 1 Type 1, assesses whether controls are designed properly at a point in time; a Type 2 report tests whether they worked over a period, which is what larger institutions usually ask for. Odlum Brown may have seen more in due diligence than Mako shows publicly. But for readers weighing Mako, the named client list and the Type 1 badge are the checkable facts, and identity fraud at onboarding, covered in Fintechbits’ look at deepfake KYC, raises the stakes on that front door.

Frequently asked questions

What did Odlum Brown and Mako launch?

They launched a custom digital client onboarding system built around Odlum Brown’s workflow and linked natively to its book of record. It supports collaborative applications, dynamic questions and several household applications at once.

Who is Mako Financial Technologies?

Mako is a Montreal company founded in 2018 that sells cloud-based onboarding, client reporting and form automation to Canadian wealth firms. Its website names Aviso Wealth and Western Pacific Trust Company among its users.

How long does the Odlum Brown Mako onboarding take to open an account?

Neither company has published a figure for Odlum Brown Mako account opening. Odlum Brown says the features cut the time it takes to open accounts, but the release gives no before and after numbers.

What to watch next

The useful proof for Odlum Brown Mako would be a number: average account-opening time, or the share of accounts opened without manual rekeying, before and after the launch. If Mako publishes a CSAE 3416 Type 2 report or adds more named dealer clients, that would also show the platform scaling beyond custom builds.