Karen Hall, vice president of financial education and employer services with T.E. Wealth in Calgary, provides seminars and individual advice to employees of client companies about their retirement benefits. She believes employees should select financial advisors who have demonstrated themselves to be worthy of their business.

Says Hall: “I tell people who attend my pre-retirement workshops: ‘If you’re looking for a good financial advisor, you want to find someone who’s interested in the big picture. Look for someone who is interested in the assets you have within your company plan, who’s actively assisting you to make the best choices in that, and then complementing it with the work that they’re doing [outside the group plan].’

“I tell people that this, in a way, is the advisor earning the right to manage that money when the employee leaves the company.”

— GRANT MCINTYRE