Practice

Don’t be too quick to discount

Emotions and advisory business are strange bedfellows and should sleep in separate rooms. A new study from PriceMetrix found that financial advisors who cut their fees during market downturns, a practice dubbed 'sympathy pricing,' are hurting their businesses over the long run.

By Vikram Barhat |September 19, 2011

4 min read

Save money, dazzle clients with Excel

We work with a lot of numbers in our role as advisors. Part of the challenge is to make numbers meaningful to our clients without having to re-invent the wheel at every review. Here are a few features of Microsoft Excel we use in our practice to save time and wow our clients.

By Mathieu Paradis |September 19, 2011

4 min read

Advisor barters services to increase access to advice

When Shannon Simmons graduated from university, she landed a high-paying associate gig with the Toronto office of Phillips, Hager & North (now owned by RBC). It was the ideal job for someone who loved financial planning and craved financial security. But in November 2010, she quit to start the Barter Babes Project, a year-long challenge […]

By Heather Li |September 19, 2011

3 min read

How I learned to deepen client conversations

I am a financial planner, not a psychiatrist, but I do know that your net worth will rise to meet your self-worth only if your self-worth rises to accept what can be yours. – Suze Orman Having been in the financial services industry for over 25 years, I’ve learned no matter how analytical and logical […]

By Noreen Mejias-Bennett |September 19, 2011

3 min read