The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Bank of Nova Scotia is in talks to sell HollisWealth, an independent adviser network. A triple-bylined item led by Rita Trichur says that Quebec City-based Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services is the front-runner to buy the business. It is not clear how much Industrial Alliance is offering. HollisWealth provides advisory services including investments, insurance, mortgages, tax services, estate planning and private banking. The firm's network consists of about 800 advisers in more than 300 locations across Canada. The proposed sale comes when regulators are forcing wealth-management firms to disclose hidden fees and commissions -- sweeping changes that are driving up compliance costs across the industry and squeezing margins. Wealth management, meanwhile, has become an important focus for insurers as they grapple with modest growth and low interest rates that are hampering insurers' ability to generate low-risk returns on investments. Scotiabank is weighing a sale of HollisWealth nine years after it made its initial investment in the firm's predecessor parent company DundeeWealth Inc. Scotia completed the purchase in 2011.