Advisors and trailer fees

I have been conducting an informal survey of my clients and have been very specific with regard to the fees and commissions they pay, including trailer fees. The unanimous response is that the current system serves them well. At no time did I receive pushback of any kind. Were the results different, I would be more than willing to adapt to a new system.

The larger concern to my clients is the possibility of losing my advice and guidance and having to deal with a financial services institution advocating flavour-of-the-month recommendations delved out by staff allowed to sell only corporate, in-house products. This guarantees that these clients will receive substandard service in mediocre to poor quality mutual funds and investments that are sold as expediently as possible.

Without a doubt, the people who actually need proper advice and guidance will be the ones hurt most should this proposed direction be adopted. Those advocating change are certainly not thinking of the negative impact this would have on the average investor. Are these not the people that actually need our protection and care?

Thank you,

Greg Pilot
Branch manager and senior investment advisor
Manulife Securities
Thunder Bay, Ont.

Re: Letters to the Editor: Trailer fees, investmentexecutive.com, October 22, 2015

Mr. Robertson’s comments hit the nail on the head. Nowhere in this report do I see if investors with financial advisors earn more than investors without advisors. Am I missing something? I thought investing was all about returns with risk control and not all about fees.

Why not study the returns of investors with advisors and compare them to those of investors without advisors to determine if advisors bring value to their clients? When advisors assume the responsibility for a client’s portfolio, they take on a big responsibility and deserve to be compensated properly for their knowledge and advice.

Jim Zoellner
Financial Advisor
Sun Life Financial (Canada) Inc.
Victoria