Practice

Your clients are dying

Close to a quarter million Canadians will die in the next 12 months. Statistics Canada data notes their lives will be claimed by cancer and heart disease (the big killers), or a range of other illnesses and injuries. Some will commit suicide. A few others will be murdered. Bells will toll. Eulogies will recall lives […]

By Alison MacAlpine |October 1, 2008

12 min read

Planning and Advice

Serving the web-savvy

The impending transfer of wealth from baby boomers to the self-serve generation presents a potential hurdle for financial advisors in the near future. The Internet is rife with information about how to reduce costs on a portfolio by firing one’s advisor and doing it yourself with index funds or ETFs. And while that message might […]

By Preet Banerjee |October 1, 2008

6 min read

Planning and Advice

How to buy a book, step by step

(September 2008) Peter Gemmell, branch manager at Assante Wealth Management in Abbotsford, B.C., has purchased several books of business for the advisors who work in his branch, handling everything from cultivating relationships with likely sellers to negotiating the terms of the sale and the final price. The largest transaction he was involved with is a […]

By Alison MacAlpine |September 25, 2008

7 min read

Planning and Advice

Buy and hold

(September 2008) Have you dealt with clients who, riddled with bullish bravado, forced you to buy when the market spikes, and sell when the bear turns on them? Terrance Odean, professor of banking and finance at the University of California at Berkeley, says the best way to deal with such fidgety clients is to use […]

By Kanupriya Vashisht |September 24, 2008

3 min read

Practice Lab: Conducting business with COIs

(September 2008) Your clients are your best bet for finding strong centres of influence, or COIs. Not only can clients refer your services to others, but, most likely, they have other professionals they deal with. You can expand your network by inviting those professionals to be part of the financial planning process. When you involve […]

4 min read

Buyers and sellers: other related articles

(September 2008) Transitioning your business is a long process, and to further help you with the subject, we’ve combed through our database to find other related articles of interest. Paid not to compete Proper procedure states that if you are buying a financial planning practice or “book” of business, you obtain a non-compete agreement to […]

By Staff |September 19, 2008

2 min read

Are you still on course for 2008?

(September 2008) The process of business planning and execution can be likened, in many ways, to a captain laying in a course for his ship and crew. Do you still have the inspiration that you set out with on your voyage of 2008? Do you have clarity of vision? Is your business plan written? Is […]

By Simon Reilly |September 18, 2008

4 min read

Opportunist or victim? It’s the advisor’s choice

I awoke in my Vancouver hotel room on a Monday to find — as had been anticipated Sunday evening when I turned in — that Merrill Lynch had sold itself to Bank of America, and that Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy. Screamed the Vancouver Sun headline, “Meltdown Feared In World’s Markets.” Well, thought I, […]

7 min read

Legally speaking: Volatility, prepared clients and opportunity

As the market turmoil continues, advisors again have an opportunity to demonstrate their value. This opportunity should not be missed — volatile times are when clients look to their advisors for proactive advice. What’s more, advisors also have an opportunity to avoid the obvious, foreseeable negative result of actions made by clients who are spooked […]

By Harold Geller |September 11, 2008

5 min read