Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Financial ‘advisors’

Slava · 01-03-2024, 08:25 PM

I've had some DMs (which are more than welcome!), but thought that I would put out a few things about financial advisors/planners in general. Just to answer some things in case others are wondering, but didn't want to ask:

- meeting with a financial advisor at the outset is generally free. I can't think of anyone that I know who bills by the hour or expects payment for that initial consultation. For me personally, I keep that initial meeting pretty casual and want to know what you're doing/trying to do, explain what I do and how I do it and kind of take it from there. I can't speak for everyone in the industry, but it's purposefully non-committal with me.

- these days, advisors seem to charge a fee for service or some will be fee-only. A fee for service is where you pay a flat percentage based on the overall assets you have with the advisor. Fee-only planners will do a financial plan and give advice, but they don't handle the implementation of that plan. Oftentimes, they'll refer you to someone for the investments/insurance and things like that. I would say the average fee through an advisor is going to be around 1-1.5%. Generally speaking, the fee percentage decreases as you have more under management with the firm. A quick note here, is that this is the advisor fee. If they, (I don't use them, so I'm talking of other advisors here), have you in mutual funds and managed money then you will have MERs on top of that fee. For a lot of mutual funds, this will mean a cost of somewhere in and around 2-2.5%.

- Financial advisors are more than just someone who invests on your behalf. They can do that, of course, but also help you with estate plans, tax plans and overall financial planning. They can help you with your small/medium business, and have significant impact there. Depending on your situation, they can help you with fairly complicated strategies (like the Individual Pension Plan mentioned above), or things like an RCA (Retirement Compensation Arrangement) if that's applicable.

- Probably the number one question I get asked though, is "will we have enough?". People are concerned about their retirement and maintaining their standard of living. A good advisor can work with you through that situation and give you a solid guideline. But much more than that, a good advisor should be able to provide good data for you on the structure of that retirement income, what the taxes look like and how feasible this all is. They should also be able to help with other goals and plans (funding educations, funding vacation properties and other spending goals you might have). Continued monitoring and review of these plans is necessary and it's not something that you just "set and forget".

I think that covers most of peoples initial questions off the top of my head, but if I've missed something, feel free to ask here or send me a PM.

01-03-2024, 08:25 PM	#16
Slava Franchise Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Calgary, Alberta Exp:	I've had some DMs (which are more than welcome!), but thought that I would put out a few things about financial advisors/planners in general. Just to answer some things in case others are wondering, but didn't want to ask: - meeting with a financial advisor at the outset is generally free. I can't think of anyone that I know who bills by the hour or expects payment for that initial consultation. For me personally, I keep that initial meeting pretty casual and want to know what you're doing/trying to do, explain what I do and how I do it and kind of take it from there. I can't speak for everyone in the industry, but it's purposefully non-committal with me. - these days, advisors seem to charge a fee for service or some will be fee-only. A fee for service is where you pay a flat percentage based on the overall assets you have with the advisor. Fee-only planners will do a financial plan and give advice, but they don't handle the implementation of that plan. Oftentimes, they'll refer you to someone for the investments/insurance and things like that. I would say the average fee through an advisor is going to be around 1-1.5%. Generally speaking, the fee percentage decreases as you have more under management with the firm. A quick note here, is that this is the advisor fee. If they, (I don't use them, so I'm talking of other advisors here), have you in mutual funds and managed money then you will have MERs on top of that fee. For a lot of mutual funds, this will mean a cost of somewhere in and around 2-2.5%. - Financial advisors are more than just someone who invests on your behalf. They can do that, of course, but also help you with estate plans, tax plans and overall financial planning. They can help you with your small/medium business, and have significant impact there. Depending on your situation, they can help you with fairly complicated strategies (like the Individual Pension Plan mentioned above), or things like an RCA (Retirement Compensation Arrangement) if that's applicable. - Probably the number one question I get asked though, is "will we have enough?". People are concerned about their retirement and maintaining their standard of living. A good advisor can work with you through that situation and give you a solid guideline. But much more than that, a good advisor should be able to provide good data for you on the structure of that retirement income, what the taxes look like and how feasible this all is. They should also be able to help with other goals and plans (funding educations, funding vacation properties and other spending goals you might have). Continued monitoring and review of these plans is necessary and it's not something that you just "set and forget". I think that covers most of peoples initial questions off the top of my head, but if I've missed something, feel free to ask here or send me a PM.