Stick with one advisor
Find someone who understands your complete financial picture
Q: One investment firm currently manages all of our investments.This includes RRSPs, TFSAs and non-registered accounts. As our portfolio grows should we split our life savings across more than one management firm?
—Elaine Jin, Toronto
A: Are you happy where you are? Are you getting the investment performance and service you want? If yes, you should keep all your money in one place. Sure, you want to mitigate risk by diversifying. But do that across different asset classes not investment firms. Having one great advisor, who understands your complete financial picture, means a better managed portfolio, in terms of risk and minimized taxes. And the larger your combined accounts, the more you should be able to negotiate lower fees (assuming you’re with a fee-based firm). All that said, if you answered no to my initial question and aren’t 100% satisfied with your current firm, go interview a few others and see what they can offer in terms of fees and additional services like tax preparation and estate planning. Depending on how large your portfolio is, and what your current firm does or does not offer, you could pay many thousands of dollars for advice. It’s your job to make sure you are getting the best value for your money.
Bruce Sellery is a frequent guest on financial television shows and author of Moolala. Do you have your own personal finance question? Write to us at [email protected]
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