Financial Advisors??

[Colin Parkinson]

I should add, that my buddy belongs to a major firm and not on his own. What we did find before we used him is that the banks and the credit unions would offer us "advice" that pointed us to their currently promoted products and that the "advisers" were barely trained bank tellers. One of them even advised my wife who is a lawyer to "fudge" my signature on a document that we had neglected to cosign within a stack of other documents.  :

She gave him quite the lecture on what she could sue him for and charge with.

 

[Cpl4Life]

What type of investment were you looking for?  We've been investing with them for some time now, and feel pretty confident that they offer the exact same products that the banks and investment brokers offer.

And banks and Investment Brokers do not offer every type of investment, it varies per company/bank.

SISIP offers funds, and a limited number of funds at that.  They did not have access to the funds I wanted to invest in (ie specific funds).  I don't believe they offer what the banks offer - GIC's, etc, although I'm not sure on the GIC's since we weren't looking for that specifically.  And they certainly don't offer a broker service or even advice on stocks.

IMO SISIP is for people who are just starting out investing and do not know enough to know what they need to know.  Same for Investors Group.... it makes me sad to think how much money people have wasted going with them.

 

[Occam]

SISIP offers funds, and a limited number of funds at that.  They did not have access to the funds I wanted to invest in (ie specific funds).  I don't believe they offer what the banks offer - GIC's, etc, although I'm not sure on the GIC's since we weren't looking for that specifically. 

They do indeed offer GICs.

And they certainly don't offer a broker service or even advice on stocks.

I don't know why you'd expect that they would.  If I want an investment, I go to an investment broker.  If I want individual stocks, I go to a stock broker.  Different creatures entirely.

IMO SISIP is for people who are just starting out investing and do not know enough to know what they need to know. 

Actually, I learned quite a bit from the gent at SISIP.  We spent nearly three hours on the initial meeting alone, just figuring out where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there.  You may not have been as lucky with your experience.  Of the service members I know who invest, all of them do it through SISIP.

 

[Cpl4Life]

You seem to defend SISIP a little TOO much imo.  You ignore the principal of my initial post, how I was treated by SISIP after my child died, and dwell on defending SISIP about what investments they do and do not offer.  If all you want to do is defend SISIP then you're not going to convince me in the least they aren't anything but crooks.

 

[Roy Harding]

You seem to defend SISIP a little TOO much imo.  You ignore the principal of my initial post, how I was treated by SISIP after my child died, and dwell on defending SISIP about what investments they do and do not offer.  If all you want to do is defend SISIP then you're not going to convince me in the least they aren't anything but crooks.

Strong words.

I've never dealt with SISIP for investments - but I really don't think they're "crooks".

I had a different experience with Investor's Group than others here - perhaps I was lucky in my representative, I don't know - but although others have had a different experience, no one has taken the line that they're "crooks".

You had an unfortunate experience, and for that you have my sympathy - but to label an entire establishment as "crooks" without substantiation is going too far.

Perhaps it is YOU who is too focused on attacking SISIP, rather than others who are too focused on defending them.

I don't have a dog in this fight - I couldn't care less what company or establishment folks go with, frankly, I couldn't care less whether others invest or not.  Your opinions are yours, and you are entitled to them - but you're skating close to slander.

 

[super stoker]

Well it looks like everyone has opinions on this, but I would like to hear more about Investors Group as I just gave them my money, lol.  Someone mentioned that they only offer DSC funds...which is just not true!  Also I think there was some mention of them being only for beginner investors...I am curious why that is(because I am, and I'm with them lol) . 

In terms of product offering, I havn't found one institution that has more under one roof!  I thought they were just mutual funds but they have a "Securities Specialist" who does stocks and bonds, in house mortgages, loans, cheqing accounts, credit cards, Insurance, and some other stuff I forget. 

I am sure Investors or SISIP or whoever have hired bad agents who screw people over, in the end the service won me over.  The advisor at the bank doesn't give a s#@$ if I am happy or not.  At least this way someone has to make me happy or I can cost him money!

 

[George Wallace]

I am sure Investors or SISIP or whoever have hired bad agents who screw people over, in the end the service won me over.  The advisor at the bank doesn't give a s#@$ if I am happy or not.  At least this way someone has to make me happy or I can cost him money!

That is about it.  It really doesn't matter what institution or company you deal with, as much as it does the person you have to deal with.  There are good knowledgeable and competent people working for many different companies.  There are many more who do not cut the mustard when it comes to one or all of these characteristics: knowledge, competence, personalty, etc.  The trick is to find one of the good ones, no matter what company, who will make you feel like they have your best interests at heart.

 

[Redeye]

It's quite true that the person you wind up dealing with makes all the difference regardless of the firm.

I'm impressed that IG offered no-load funds (I know they have them - but selling them doesn't pay the rep much at all, so there is a power disincentive).  In terms of MERs and performance, their funds by objective measurement are atrociously expensive in many cases, and the performance simply doesn't justify the fees.  Likewise, while I'm familiar with their mortgage business I've never lost mortgage business to them because banks can beat them without a hassle.

The comment I made about beginner investors - IG built its business originally by making mutual funds accessible when they were really not well known - but once one has built up a fair bit of capital over the long term they have doors opened to much better products and services - though it's not uncommon that what happens is their representative leaves IG to move to another firm and takes their good clients with them - or they get courted by someone who can show more value.  IG trains very, very good sales people which is why they are in high demand from other shops, but their product offerings undermine them often.  I have moved millions of dollars from IG to my own book of business but I have only ever lost one client to them. 

Ultimately, there are good and bad folks in every organization.  I repeatedly justify the fact to my boss in my day job that while I don't always have the highest sales numbers, I also get very, very few complaints because I run my business ethically and I don't use the tricks a lot of people use to inflate the business they are doing.

Well it looks like everyone has opinions on this, but I would like to hear more about Investors Group as I just gave them my money, lol.  Someone mentioned that they only offer DSC funds...which is just not true!  Also I think there was some mention of them being only for beginner investors...I am curious why that is(because I am, and I'm with them lol) . 

In terms of product offering, I havn't found one institution that has more under one roof!  I thought they were just mutual funds but they have a "Securities Specialist" who does stocks and bonds, in house mortgages, loans, cheqing accounts, credit cards, Insurance, and some other stuff I forget. 

I am sure Investors or SISIP or whoever have hired bad agents who screw people over, in the end the service won me over.  The advisor at the bank doesn't give a s#@$ if I am happy or not.  At least this way someone has to make me happy or I can cost him money!

 

[RandyL]

Howdy, I was a financial advisor a few years ago.  What I can add to this discussion is that load or no load funds, the representative is stilll making a commision. I used to sell back end load funds, the fee to take out your money dropped a percentage every year. I think it was 7% for the first year then dropped 1% over the next seven years eventually turning into a no load fund. If anyone is investing money for RRSP purposes then they shouldn't be concerned with any fees beause you shouldn't be taking your money out within the 7 year period anyway, unless your close to retirement age already and in that case a different investment would be a better option. And if you think that you may need that money in the next few years, then thers other shorter term investments for stuff like that too.

No one has discussed segregated funds, they offer more protection then a typical mutual fund. For one, all the money in the fund goes directly to your beneficiary, unlike other investments that can get tangled up in your estate/probate costs and such.

As far as fund performance just remember that if a fund has done really well in the last year or so that the performance is OVER. Your looking at numbers that are in the past and have absolutly no bearing on whats going to happen in the future. If you buy into a fund that is doing really well , then you will end up paying a higher unit price. Your better off buying into a fund that has good long term performance but at the present time may be offering lower returns which means cheaper unit price for you.

Gotta run for now. .

 

[Redeye]

From what I've seen, when a commission-based seller is selling "no load", he's actually selling Front-End Load and taking 0% commission.  This can be done by ethical advisors where it makes sense because they'll still be getting income from the trailers paid by the funds over the long term.

Back end load/DSC funds aren't necessarily evil - but the problem is that often the DSC concept isn't well explained.  I have less of an issue when you're dealing with non-proprietary funds - ie if you go see an independent dealer - because chances are the portfolio can be significantly reworked if need be without disturbing the load schedule - most fund companies have large and varied offerings and it's possible to make a lot of changes without triggering loads.

What really grinds my gears that I've seen quite a lot of people do is the practice of churning a portfolio to reset the DSC schedule and payout another commission.  This to me is unethical, because in most every case I've seen it the rep has not explained any of the implications to the investor.

Whenever I get a transfer out request the first questions I ask the client is whether all this stuff has been explained.  I've torn up a lot of T2033 transfer forms going to IG when I enlighten the clients on what they're getting into.

RandyL makes a great point here though - don't chance performance.  Because a fund did well last year doesn't mean it will this year - particularly if it's some sort of sector fund.  Your investments are long term so look at funds that have had solid long term performance.  Be wary of any rep who's trying to sell you the flavour of the month.  I've seen people with portfolios of 15-20 mutual funds - and when I look at the holdings they're all basically the same, and it seems that the logic for the choices come from whatever wholesaler put on the best hospitality.

Seg funds - well - they have some utility, but they're expensive - and generally speaking the guarantee to me isn't really worth the cost if they're going to be a long term holding.  Their main advantage is protection from creditors - so they are applicable for example to business owners more than average investors.  They are also useful in certain applications like UL policies and Guaranteed Variable Annuity type products like Manulife's IncomePlus - but the cost consideration is important.