Can't disagree with this. I also believe what I pay should be commensurate with
what I need. If I have $50k in one of the big banks say CIBC should I approach one
of the bankers in my branch for advice or would it be a better idea to turn to Wood
Gundy? The latter could charge several thousand bucks in service fee although they
probably won't even bother to take on me as a client to help with a $50k investment
portfolio.
Any decent banker in your branch (not one of the bank tellers but the more
senior staff in an office) will introduce you to the kind of investment vehicles the
bank provides. They may also offer you basic financial planning advice regarding
your financial future. These bankers generally do not work as fund agents for the
bank so it is not likely they will try hard to push you to buy any of the bank's mutual
funds. Information provided by the banker will merely be a starting point for you to
explore further options you have to invest your money.
Hello there,
Thanks for the response, I'll add a different mix to what you wrote, just to show a different perspective.
I know working in a retail bank branch is a tough job but on average alot of the staff are mainly sales driven, thus they have mutual fund sales targets, GICs, new money in etc... thus the "free" advice is not really free as the no load mutual funds have a usually "closet index" manager or a higher associated MER. And lets be honest but they usually push past performance which doesn't necessarily mean alot. And to use CIBC (Not picking on them they were just used before) most of their retail branch staff wouldn't be CAs, CFAs or CFPs.
On the Gundy side it's a much trickier story, they are all pretty much independent advisors with just the "label" to market off. So one Gundy advisor would act differently from another. Thus I would seek out those who are well trained (CFAs, CAs, CFPs) plus some work off what's called a "fee based model", thus their comp is driven by increasing the base of assets. They make me more, they get paid more, they lose me relatively more money, i pay them for the period and leave. I've had lengthy conversations with friends who are retail advisors and this model seems the best.
Sorry to rant but I think I was reading somewhere that the CFP or CFAs are moving towards requiring all their members who serve retail to disclose ALL fees to clients. This is definately a healthy trend.
Hope this helps and best of luck!
Goodguy