It’s Your Business

Effective handling of client accounts may require outsourcing your more complex day-to-day tasks to a wide range of area experts. Many in the industry have concluded that the days of the all-in-one financial planner are numbered.

This month we delve into the outsourcing-based model, and provide advice on how to develop a reliable network of experts to streamline your practice into a much leaner, more efficient business. We also look at trends in fees, and whether the DSC option is on its last leg. The package concludes with an editorial from the The Coalition for Professional Standards for Financial Planners.

Independents should focus on niche markets

The financial services industry has become so complex that one certified financial planner who runs a successful niche market financial services business has boldly declared: “The one-stop financial planner is dead.”

Building your professional network

Few accounts are so simple that they require no outside counsel. That’s why it’s important to actively work on building a trusted network of professionals you can rely upon.

Do DSC fees have a future?

How advisors are paid, and by whom, has long been a matter for controversy. A particularly thorny side of the debate revolves around deferred sales charges, and whether or not they should be phased out by regulators. Two industry experts offer their perspectives on the subject.

Eliminating “buyer beware” from planning services

Poor financial care is as detrimental to a person’s health and well-being as “bad” health care, yet individuals holding themselves out to the Canadian public as financial planners are not required to meet any consistent set of professional standards or be professionally accountable for their actions.