{"id":310,"date":"2015-05-19T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T19:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=310"},"modified":"2015-05-19T12:05:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T19:05:55","slug":"you-throw-the-first-punch-we-will-drop-the-gloves-oh-yeah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/you-throw-the-first-punch-we-will-drop-the-gloves-oh-yeah\/","title":{"rendered":"“You throw the first punch, we will drop the gloves. Oh yeah.”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Drop<\/a>
You throw the first punch, we will drop the gloves.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I remember a series of Tim Horton’s TV ads about welcoming people to Canada which\u00a0tried to portray Canadians as, yes, polite, but with a certain unshakable pride, one of them saying something like “If you throw the first punch, we\u00a0will drop the gloves. Oh yeah.” \u00a0We’re nice but by no means push-overs. I’m not\u00a0sure I’m totally on board with a doughnut company\u00a0standing up for me on the playground but the theme\u00a0certainly strikes a chord. \u00a0Canadians have a reputation for being polite and I’m not sure we like it. \u00a0Let me try to stoke some of that pride, Chalten style.<\/p>\n

Many (is most<\/em> too inflammatory? Sorry, I don’t mean to\u00a0be rude) Canadians get their\u00a0financial advice from an individual or institution that is compensated only by selling them a financial product or trading their account. \u00a0Whether that be discretionary portfolio management, mutual fund investments, life insurance or some combination (combinations like investments and insurance are generally preferable from an advisor’s perspective because the fees are more generous and less transparent) \u00a0we believe the conflict of interest inherent in this type of relationship is understated. \u00a0Conflicts as well as\u00a0high and hidden fees (Troubles<\/em> # 2 and #5 respectively in our list of investing Troubles<\/em> to avoid) \u00a0can have a significant financial impact for investors. \u00a0We quantified the impact of fees\u00a0in a recent post (see\u00a0What would you do with an extra $250,000?<\/a>). \u00a0<\/em>One would expect\u00a0the amounts at stake to be motivation enough to push people to at least inquire what fees they are paying let alone seek to make meaningful changes to the way their investments are managed. \u00a0A 2013 Environics study\u00a0reported that almost half of Canadians who say they use an advisor think they either don’t pay their advisor or don’t know how or how much they pay.<\/p>\n

If the dollars and cents aren’t making it happen,\u00a0perhaps\u00a0there are other motivations\/emotions at play here?\u00a0 Moving back to Canada after being abroad for many years, it was nice to experience the politeness of Canadians in everyday life situations, whether at the grocery store, saying hello on the sea wall, waiting in line for the library, whatever. \u00a0However, last week we were delivering an educational session we have developed called the “Where, What and How of Investing”<\/em> that seeks to inform on some basic but important issues when it comes to investing. \u00a0The idea is that if you better understand the where, what and how you’ll make better investment decisions for you and your family and are less likely to be taken advantage of by those who don’t have your best interest at heart. \u00a0Specifically, we were having a discussion about high mutual fund fees and their potential impact on investor returns and we implored our audience to just ask the question, “How and how much am I paying you for financial advice and investments?” to their advisor or financial institution. \u00a0A\u00a0comment\u00a0came back at us\u00a0– “It seems a bit rude to ask.”<\/p>\n

It is not rude to ask. \u00a0For some people, fees paid for investment \/insurance products might be among the highest annual household expenditures next to their mortgage payment and they\u00a0don’t even know how or how much they’re\u00a0paying. \u00a0These fees represent a direct transfer of wealth from your bank account to your financial institution or advisor arguably without an adequate transfer of value for money back to you (sorry,\u00a0“arguably” is\u00a0also being too polite). \u00a0It is not rude to ask. \u00a0You owe it to you and your family to ask.<\/p>\n

So many punches have been thrown at Canadian investors, most by our own fellow Canadians and our financial institutions. \u00a0It’s well past time to throw off the gloves, shed our politeness, take pride\u00a0and fight back.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I remember a series of Tim Horton’s TV ads about welcoming people to Canada which\u00a0tried to portray Canadians as, yes, polite, but with a certain unshakable pride, one of them saying something like “If you throw the first punch, we\u00a0will drop the gloves. Oh yeah.” \u00a0We’re nice but by no means push-overs. I’m not\u00a0sure […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,17,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-costs","category-graham-bodel-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaltenadvisors.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}