Planning and Advice

Adversity options

Real estate and foreign equities did a little worse, but not much. The appreciation in residential real estate and vacation properties, while not at these levels, was still impressive. For savers and homeowners these have been the best of times. But those with longer memories know that the times are not always good. While Canadian […]

By Malcolm Hamilton |August 1, 2008

3 min read

Planning and Advice

Advising Expats

The bow wave of the baby boomer generation reaches 62 this year. As they hit retirement, many will follow the sun and relocate to the southern U.S., either on a part- or full-time basis. The question for Canadian advisors is how to ensure they’re able to continue working with these important clients, for whom they’ve […]

By Ward B. Hinkle |August 1, 2008

5 min read

Planning and Advice

The shoe fits

A small Toronto brokerage firm hired a CEO with eons of industry experience, tons of technology skills, and ample expertise with managing people–a sureshot lottery pick. With a business model based on growth by acquisitions, the company needed to make an average six to eight buyouts per year. But, 365 days later, their star CEO […]

By Kanupriya Vashisht |August 1, 2008

10 min read

Planning and Advice

Fee query protocol

Stephen Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, has made a good part of his reputation by getting people to focus on things that are genuinely important rather than those that are merely urgent. As advisors, we play a similar role in helping our clients make sense of competing products and strategies. […]

By John De Goey |August 1, 2008

3 min read

Do not call

Consumers have long complained about telemarketing calls; solicitations at dinner time, long computerized voice messages, and telemarketing calls and faxes. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) attempted to put the brakes on telemarketing in 1994 by enacting rules to govern practices, but it’s fair to say that, for whatever reason, the rules did not […]

5 min read

West Coast cool

I recently got back from a few days in Vancouver. It was my first trip to the West Coast and I have to say I noticed some differences in the attitudes of the financial professionals with whom I sat down and talked shop. First and foremost, the absence of Bay Street bravado was refreshing. At […]

2 min read

The impending war for talent

(August 2008) In the war for talent, companies need to realize that the days of success using a traditional approach to recruiting are over, and attracting qualified applicants will require a strategic approach. In a webinar on Tuesday, Rich Kushner, vice-president of market strategy at Pittsburgh-based talent assessment firm Select International, had a stark warning […]

By Jody White |August 1, 2008

4 min read

First Person: Lessons from unsuccessful prospecting

(July 2008) I was delighted when a client referred his former colleague (I’ll call her Clara) to me. Not only was this a vote of confidence in our relationship, but Clara sounded like an ideal prospect for my business. Both her sociodemographic profile (late 40’s, self-employed, married to a professional, two high school–aged children) and […]

3 min read

Employers’ duties to pension plan members

(July 2008) The financial services industry is familiar with the decline in the number of defined benefit pension plans in the private sector and the growth in the number of defined contribution plans. In many cases employers are abandoning defined benefit plans, primarily to place a cap on their contributions and reduce funding liabilities. Employees […]

2 min read

Money laundering and coping with compliance

(July 2008) If a scruffy guy named Anthony staggered into your office and plunked a duffel bag full of cash on your desk demanding to buy life insurance, you’d quietly excuse yourself and go looking for the manager. Unfortunately, today’s white-collar criminals aren’t so easy to spot. To bring the financial sector more in line […]

7 min read