People are saving more now which is a good thing and they are also paying closer attention to how they are investing and many people are now taking greater control. The widespread market sell-off's have caused people to realize that even under the control of a professional money manager their investments aren't protected from risk. I am not saying that everyone should become a do it yourself investor but I think investor awareness is a good thing for the entire system and this should help the good advisors seperate themselves and be able to justify the fee's etc.
Below taken from Investment Executive :
"As disgruntled investors assess the recent damage to their portfolio's they are grabbing control over their finances - and discount brokerages are reaping the benefits. In the fourth quarter of 2008 new account openings soared by 80% over the number of accounts launched the previous quarter according to estimates from Toronto based Investor Economics Inc. Year-over-year, new accounts were up by 50%, to 3.4 million accounts in Canada's retail online brokerage channel. That trend has continued into 2009. In January, Toronto-based Questrade inc. experienced 65% growth in new account openings from the previous month.
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