Shaking Things/It Up ! Part 3

When I started into the world of wealth management at the turn of the century (seems weird to say that), I came from a world where I traded billions of dollars in fixed income securities and derivatives (and managing the corresponding  risk) into a world that was completely foreign to me: SALES.

At the age of 40, I was easily the oldest "trainee" in the TD Evergreen (now Waterhouse) "developing" advisor program. Me and a bunch of twenty-somethings with $$ signs in their eyes at the peak of the dot-com bubble.

All I wanted to do was to help folks wisely invest their money in the most advantageous way (best possible return for the least amount of risk taken).

Wrong for the times.

What a different world: 

1. I was required to get my Life Insurance license, because that was a big revenue generator.
2. At the time the big "sell" was Deferred Sales Charge (DSC) mutual funds: 5% upfront to the advisor and a .5% trailer fee (paid monthly).
3. There was (amongst my peers) sizeable "new issue" activity, whereby the "biggest" producers would get the biggest "allotments" to sell  the new issues (lots of dot-com stuff coming to market back then). Lots of commissions paid up front for that business. 
4. It was an advisor to the "trough" and client beware (huge conflict of interest) feeding frenzy.

Could I survive in this world wrought with all the conflicts that I ethically could not abide?

For a while it was very difficult, because I was not a sales person and so I stuck to what I knew: Fixed Income!

Boring, but at least there was a 5% yield on 10 year Government of Canada bonds!

In time however, I found a partner who had, apparently, the same ethical scruples and we set about to build a very large business trying to cut costs for clients and get those reasonable long-term risk-adjusted returns.

Client service has always been, for me, the underlying key to developing sustainable trusting relationships.

In 2011, when market volatility brought back memories of 2008 to clients, I suggested a daily conference call to allow clients to have the opportunity to hear our calming thoughts apart from the noise of the media.

When things settled down, we made those calls a weekly event.

Communication with clients is key: so now I have this blog, soon we will offer a weekly webinar, regular portfolio reviews (in person or via webinar) and regular availability for a call when a client wishes to chat.

Even with the discretionary style of investing that we do (where we don't have to ask the clients permission on each and every trade) we want our clients to be comfortable with the strategy we have developed to match their goals and objectives.

And even though they have given us this discretion based on their Wealth Forecast, risk tolerance level and Investment Policy Statement (IPS), it is communication that engenders trust and that is what we strive to do: be transparent.

It has been a long 15 years (since the turn of the century) to get here, but I have learned a great deal in that 15 years and I am excited to have this new platform to encompass all that I have learned and let our clients benefit from it.

Tomorrow...back to what is currently going on in financial markets and how we want to be positioned for what comes next.