The Key To Choosing An Ontario Financial Advisor

By Author: Steve Syrett
Total Articles: 6
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In choosing a prospective Ontario financial advisor, it is vital to know how frequently they expect to meet with you. As your personal situation changes, you want to make sure that your advisor is ready to meet often to be able to update your investment portfolio in response to those changes.

Advisors will meet with their clients at different frequencies. If you are planning to meet with your advisor once a year and something were to come up you thought was vital to discuss with them, would they make themselves available to meet you? You want your Ontario financial advisor to always be working with the latest information and have complete knowledge of your situation at any given moment. If your situation does change, then it is essential to communicate this with your financial advisor.

Ask your potential Ontario financial planner to provide you with a sample of a financial plan that they have previously prepared for a client.

It is important ...
... that you understand the information that your advisor will provide you, and that it is furnished in a detailed and usable way. They might not have a sample available, but they would be able to access one that they had designed previously for a client and be able to share it with you by removing any client-specific information before you view it. This will help you understand how your prospective financial advisor works to assist clients in reaching their goals. It will also allow you to see how they monitor and measure their outcomes, and decide whether those results are consistent with the goals of the clients. Hence, if they can display how they can assist with the planning process, it will allow you to be confident that they actually do financial planning and not just investing.

Ask how your advisor is compensated and whether that translates to any cost to you.

There are just a few different ways for advisors to be compensated. The first and the most common practice is for an advisor to receive a commission for their services, as in the case of life insurance in Ontario. Another form of compensation has advisors being paid a small percentage of the total assets of their clients under management. This compensation is a portion of the Management Expense for any managed investment funds. If you hold a stock portfolio, the compensation may be part of an annual “flat fee” or based on transactions that occur during the year.

Interview various advisors before you make any change. This will help you understand what each one of them does differently, and it will give you insight into how they will assist you in deciding precisely what your goals may be. Speaking to various potential advisors will help you develop a path toward the goals that are most important to you and assist you in choosing the best person to collaborate with you to accomplish those goals.