Financial Advisor in Toronto for a commuted value pension?

[Recoil]

I find whenever I go to the big banks their "financial advisors" are typically recent business grads who have just taken a financial securities sales course with their respective employer. Whenever I talk to them I get no strategic advice about investing. I always felt like I'm talking to salesperson and not a savvy investor. Basically, I need to put to them my investments strategies and they say "Sure, that's an option and you can invest in XX fund" (a fund they have already invested in heavily). I used to have my investments with Edward Jones, so a little less conflict in terms of the stocks and funds, but again, the same docile advisors who are afraid of risk.

Does anyone have an recommendations for an actual financial advisor or specific firm? I want a person who calculates the benefits and risks of certain investments. The reason I ask for a recommendation is because I recently left employment with one organization and I have a substantial stake in a defined benefit pension plan. However, I'm relatively junior and I feel like leaving it in the fund is waste because I won't see it until I'm 65 and I'm assuming the fund is relatively conservatively invested given its huge liabilities for retirements in the near future. Heck, the way this province is going in 30 years the plan could be bankrupt and I could be out everything or taking a substantially reduced benefit by the time I could retire.

I'd like to take the commuted value and invest it in something that has the potential for large growth. I'm reactively young, so I'd like something with more risk. I feel, however, if I took this to one of the big banks they'd just put my money to sleep for next 30 years in some lame "high risk" (by their definition) fund. I want someone who is going to give me options.

I appreciate any recommendations.

 

[Ebichuman]

Perhaps you could consider a fee-based financial planner - those are planners that wouldn't manage your money (and take a cut from it) but instead can evaluate your portfolio, advise on investment strategies and most likely also shed some light on your pension issue. Here's a recent directory (but look for yourself, there may be others not listed here). The question HOW (or WHERE) to invest is secondary, you can easily do it yourself through mutual funds or ETFs; once you know what you want to do, the objective should be to find the cheapest investment option (in terms of fees)

http://www.moneysense.ca/directory-of-fee-only-planners

Good luck!

 

[NativeTxn]

Fee-based is very different from Fee-Only planners. Fee based basically means they charge fees (whether hourly, based on assets under management, etc) and can get commissions (from buying or selling stock, putting clients into funds that have front or back end loads and/or trailing commissions just for keeping you in a fund, selling you products, etc.). Most fee based planners will (want to) manage your money so they can generate commissions and get paid.

Your best bet is to talk to a fee-ONLY financial planner. You can usually hire them for an hourly fee to do a one-time analysis, do a full-blown financial plan, or just hire them to look over your stuff and make suggestions. Most will probably be somewhere between $200 and $300 per hour. Then you can implement the plan yourself, hire someone else to do it, or disregard the advice all together.

Or, all of that is usually included if you become a client and the fee is based solely on assets under management.

And a good planner will determine your risk tolerance, a proper asset allocation, etc. and then invest accordingly within the scope of how they can operate within their firm. In other words, some planners may not be able to invest in alternative investments but can help you find them (though that type of thing should only be pursued after you have a properly allocated and well diversified portfolio).

At the end of the day, you should probably interview at least 2-3 fee only planners and ask them the questions that are important to you and see what the answers are and who you feel most comfortable with.

And finally, I would strongly recommend staying away from Edward Jones.

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