Planning and Advice

Legally speaking: OSC states the obvious

The basic duties of an MFDA or IDA advisor may seem obvious to anyone familiar with the association rules and regulations, or the Canadian Securities Course, but these duties are routinely challenged by lawyers when we defend advisors before their regulators and courts. The lawyer’s purpose might be well intentioned (protect their client), but it […]

By Harold Geller |October 8, 2008

4 min read

Planning and Advice

The hand-off

Try wrapping your head around this: About a trillion dollars in Canadian non-business assets will change hands within the next decade when boomers start handing down their wallets to their kids. The legacy, however, will also stir one of the most unsavoury aspects of intergenerational wealth transfers—hydra-headed sibling squabbles. Nothing drives a quicker wedge between […]

By Sandy Cardy and Thomas William Deans |October 7, 2008

16 min read

Planning and Advice

Licensed benefits

Financial planning seems to be the new buzzword, with many more firms adopting a holistic approach to managing client relationships. And recent research indicates this is a step in the right direction. According to the Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC), about three-quarters of all Canadians say a written financial plan is crucial to their financial […]

By Michael Callahan |October 7, 2008

10 min read

Planning and Advice

Corporate bafflegab

If the 1960s were the decade when big tobacco had to come to terms with the mountains of scientific evidence that their products are addictive and carcinogenic and this is the decade when big oil has to come to terms with the mountains of evidence that CO2 emissions contribute to climate change, when will big […]

By John De Goey |October 1, 2008

3 min read

Mind those mistakes

They don’t do it on purpose, but still, too many advisors make unnecessary mistakes, which hold them and their clients back. Such errors lead to less effective advice, service, marketing and overall business results. So, ask yourself if you’re among those advisors who unwittingly make mistakes. Your results hold the clues. If they aren’t satisfactory, […]

By Jim Ruta |October 1, 2008

5 min read

Your clients are dying

Close to a quarter million Canadians will die in the next 12 months. Statistics Canada data notes their lives will be claimed by cancer and heart disease (the big killers), or a range of other illnesses and injuries. Some will commit suicide. A few others will be murdered. Bells will toll. Eulogies will recall lives […]

12 min read

Serving the web-savvy

The impending transfer of wealth from baby boomers to the self-serve generation presents a potential hurdle for financial advisors in the near future. The Internet is rife with information about how to reduce costs on a portfolio by firing one’s advisor and doing it yourself with index funds or ETFs. And while that message might […]

6 min read

How to buy a book, step by step

(September 2008) Peter Gemmell, branch manager at Assante Wealth Management in Abbotsford, B.C., has purchased several books of business for the advisors who work in his branch, handling everything from cultivating relationships with likely sellers to negotiating the terms of the sale and the final price. The largest transaction he was involved with is a […]

7 min read

Buy and hold

(September 2008) Have you dealt with clients who, riddled with bullish bravado, forced you to buy when the market spikes, and sell when the bear turns on them? Terrance Odean, professor of banking and finance at the University of California at Berkeley, says the best way to deal with such fidgety clients is to use […]

3 min read