Toronto-Dominion Bank expects profits in 2011 from asset and wealth management to beat the mark of C$501 million ($516 million) set in 2007, according to Mike Pedersen, head of wealth management at the Canadian bank.

“When you’ve invested as much as we have during the downturn in advisors and technology and products, frankly, it will continue to pay off,” Pedersen told Bloomberg in an interview.

The wealth management business has had eight consecutive quarters of rising profit, most recently reporting C$133 million in the first quarter - about 8 per cent of the overall figure.

“The wealth business is a little more volatile than retail, so things like markets and the economic market do impact us,” Pedersen is reported as saying.

“We’ve been building the advice businesses for the past six or seven years, and we’re now at critical mass and we’re starting to generate significant growth.”

The bank has achieved its target of hiring 750 to 850 advisors to offer investment advice, and Pedersen said the lender will continue to hire, as well as to expand the network of financial planners in its branches.