Our financial planners have been quoted in the following media:
Should you pay for your kids' university education? Or should they?
MoneySense Magazine, by Julie Cazzin
October 2009
My $150,000 surprise came two years ago. I was sitting on the living room couch with Laura, my daughter, who had just turned 16. She had decided it was time to start considering universities and she had brought home a stack of brochures full of pictures of grinning students and ivy-festooned buildings.
Full text: The $150,000 surprise
Earl Jones and Bernie Madoff defrauded investors of millions and billions of dollars, respectively
Advisor.ca, by Alison MacAlpine
September 2009
They both ran schemes that went undetected for decades. Then they ended up in the media spotlight alongside reports of unprecedented market turbulence and a global recession.
Accordingly, high-net-worth (HNW) investors are feeling anxious. The question is, what are you doing to maintain their trust in you and your practice?
Dan Richards, president of Strategic Imperatives, thinks advisors need to deal with their clients' concerns proactively. With both existing and prospective clients, he recommends saying something like this: "In light of what's happened with Bernie Madoff and Earl Jones, some investors are a little bit concerned about whether their money is safe. Would you like to spend a couple of minutes going through the safeguards in place to protect you from fraudulent activity?"
Doug Lamb, a CFP with Dundee Private Investors Inc./Spera Financial in Toronto, has had these kinds of conversations with clients. He methodically outlines the layers of protection that are built into his practice. First, he is a certified financial planner and clients can easily check to make sure his certification is up to date. Second, his dealer is registered with the Ontario Securities Commission. Third, investment recommendations are accompanied by a formal proposal and relevant prospectuses. Sometimes, Lamb goes so far as to include independent reports on mutual funds from Globefund or Morningstar. Fourth, before investing, clients fill out application forms from companies they know and trust. Fifth, cheques are made out to the dealer in trust, never to Lamb personally. And finally, there's the paper trail.
Full text: Responding to HNW Fears of Scandals
Watching the recent investment fraud of Earl Jones unfold, many investors may be shaking their heads at the injustice of the theft of life savings
Bankrate.ca, by Diana Cawfield
August 2009
The stark bottom line in the case was the fact that Jones was not a licensed sales representative. One simple phone call, or quick web search, may have saved his clients from losing any money.
"The starting point is that clients do their homework," says Ian Russell, president and CEO of the Investment Industry Association of Canada, or IIAC, in Toronto. "The first step is to make sure that you're dealing with a regulated investment process, but people seem to schlep over that, so hopefully these episodes will be a wake-up call."
Russell considers the best safeguard is to find out if the adviser and the firm he says he is associated with are registered with the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, or IIROC, the country's main investment industry watchdog. It's simply a matter of clicking onto the IIROC web site to confirm that the individual and the firm are properly registered.
Full text: Finding a Reputable Financial Advisor
Our experts' advice for the decade ahead
MoneySense Magazine, by MoneySense staff
August 2009
To help you navigate the decade ahead, we asked some of our favorite experts for their top tips. Four themes emerged.
Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, considered it vital for investors to build a margin of safety into their calculations. According to Graham, if you’re buying a stock, you should insist on paying a price so low that even if the market turns sour and the stock turns out to be a dud, you still recover most of your money.
It’s an excellent idea to apply the same thinking to all aspects of your personal finances. The next decade is shaping up as a tumultuous time. You should plan your future with a margin of safety so that unexpected expenses or emergencies can’t derail you.
Full text: Top Tips From Financial Experts
Marc Lamontagne, an advisor and principal at Ryan Lamontagne Inc. describes three perceived obstacles to fee-based planning
Investment Executive TV - CIFPs conference
June 2009
He was part of a panel about fee-based planning at the CIFPs conference in Halifax on June 9. (Part 2 of 4)
Watch video: Overcoming Obstacles to Fee-based Business
