Sunday, July 24, 2011

Advisor Risk

Canadian financial institutions, and especially the fund industry lobbyist IFIC (at www.ific.ca), promote the idea that investing with them will lead to the good life (the Freedom 55 image). For about the last 20 years there has been an aggressive marketing campaign to convince retail investors that only by using an advisor will we safely meet our retirement and other savings goals. Advisors are the primary interface with retail investors and that’s where the risk lies. The title advisor covers a wide range of competencies, all under the same misleading title. Title inflation is commonplace in the financial services industry and rarely enforced. See http://tinyurl.com/3w6q3yj for a good plain language summary of the different types of advisors. These range from commission-driven salespersons to fee-only professionals. Read the full article