How We Get Paid

How we get paid for our investment planning and management work:  Clients can choose to have either a commission based account or pay via a percentage of the account value.  Both entitle the account holder to the same investment planning and management services.

Pay via a percentage of the account value - accounts are charged a percentage based on the value of the account, rather than commission on a per trade basis. Please call for the structure.  For non-registered accounts, this cost can be tax deducted - your accountant would determine if you can tax deduct this cost.  More clients are preferring this option as it can be tax smart.

Commission based accounts - commission is charged for each purchase and/or sale of stocks, preferred shares, exchange trades funds (ETF's), fixed income products (bonds) and mutual funds. Also, part of the management fee that mutual fund managers charge goes to the investment firms. I meet with the individual fund managers and/or their associates multiple times a year to ensure that they are performing as I expect them to. I also meet with many other fund managers and/or their associates, whose funds I do not hold, to see if I should consider buying them for clients. Most mutual funds that are executing well will be a long term hold. But, they are not buy and forget...they are buy, monitor, review, meet (managers/associates) and realign as needed. This is similar to what pension consultants do for pension funds such as the City of Toronto - they monitor all of the money managers. Pension fund manager or mutual fund manager, they are different titles but they do the same job. The question is, who is doing it well? It is the job of the pension fund consultant to determine this for their clients and it is my job to do this for my clients. The ongoing monitoring of the mutual fund managers is why the fund companies split a portion of their fee with the investment firms.  When a client has an account that pays via a percentage of the account value, this management fee is reduced as we don't share in the management fee, instead it is covered by the percentage of the account value fee.  Regardless of the account structure, I do the same amount of work on the management of the mutual funds.

For both commission based and percentage of value accounts, the selection of investments (stocks, bonds, ETF's, mutual funds, etc.) results from the ongoing review and monitoring of domestic and global economic trends, interest rate trends, and geopolitical risks. Then, putting together a list of investments that fit the clients needs and objectives, as well as the economic and interest rate environment, both current and expected. The research I use is from BMO Nesbitt Burns, J.P. Morgan, and outside strategists that BMO subscribes to and I subscribe to personally. Out of the research comes an investment strategy and specific investments. As this research is continuous, the strategy and specific investments will evolve and change. After all this, the buys and/or sells are executed in the account to own the desired investments in the portfolio. As an aside, for every investment chosen, an average of 5-10 others have been researched and rejected before the final selection is made.  As you can see, the investment selection process is very complex and not just deciding out of thin air to buy $100,000 of Company X or Y.