FP Answers: Am I paying too much in portfolio management fees?

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By Julie Cazzin with Allan Norman

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Q: My husband Jim and I’ve a $2.5-million portfolio of investments made up of shares, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with the wealth administration department of one of many Massive 5 banks. Our annual charges, primarily based on the dimensions of our portfolio, had been $30,000 final 12 months. This appears exorbitant, provided that about one-third of our portfolio is sitting in dividend-paying shares that we don’t plan to promote.

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We’re retired, within the high tax bracket, and don’t want any revenue from this portfolio. We plan to depart the proceeds to our 5 grandchildren after we die, so we’re in for the long run. What’s the easiest way to go about eradicating, in variety, a portion of our inventory holdings with out having to pay big charges? And do you foresee any issues in splitting our portfolio into two separate accounts, one with the financial institution, and one self-directed on-line? — Margarite in Timmins, Ont.

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FP Solutions: Margarite, your query jogs my memory of an article I just lately learn suggesting that “many funding advisers are charging Picasso costs for portray by numbers.” That is main some traders to query simply what, precisely, are advisers doing for his or her charges.

To your first query, it’s straightforward to maneuver a portion of your portfolio to a self-directed account at little or no value. The financial institution web site might listing the charges. Open a self-directed account, log in, obtain and full a switch type, which you’ll ship to the financial institution. Ask for a partial, in-kind switch and establish the shares you need to switch when finishing the shape.

Alternatively, as an alternative of transferring the shares, you may ask your financial institution adviser to not cost charges in your inventory portfolio, which they could or might not do. But it surely’s price asking.

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As in your second query, there might or might not be issues splitting your portfolio into two accounts. It’s potential the share price charged in your financial institution portfolio will rise for those who drop beneath $2 million in investments, or another particular degree. Even so, this doubtless gained’t be a deterrent from transferring a few of your account.

Are you snug and do you’ve got the time to handle a inventory portfolio by yourself? I do know you’re holding your shares for the long run, however one thing might occur sometime that warrants a change.

I’m curious: what’s stopping you from transferring all the pieces to a self-directed account and saving your complete $30,000 in charges per 12 months? I’m undecided how you might be investing, however maybe a mutual-fund/ETF portfolio can be simpler to handle by yourself than a inventory portfolio.

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This brings us again to “what precisely is your adviser doing for you?” They have to be doing one thing proper, in any other case you’ll most likely transfer all of your cash. Your adviser is managing your investments, however they’re additionally doubtless serving to you with the larger image. That’s, ensuring you’ll be capable of preserve and improve your life-style over your lifetime, with out the worry of ever working out of cash, it doesn’t matter what occurs.

Doing this requires monitoring the expansion of your investments, residence, and different properties and property, watching the completely different sources of cash flowing out and in of your liquid accounts, and studying about your present and future life-style expenditures, to allow them to enable you to make one of the best — and most tax-efficient — use of your cash.

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It’s a service that helps you make good monetary and life-style selections, permitting you to confidently spend cash in retirement understanding you can be alright. That’s monetary freedom.

As soon as you progress a portion of your account out of your adviser, they may not have direct entry to account values and tax info, making their function as your planner tougher, however not unsurmountable.

Should you’re questioning in case your present price is simply too excessive, I’m guessing you’re being charged one per cent in your $2.5-million funding portfolio worth (about $25,000) + 13 per cent HST in Ontario (about $3,250), which isn’t out of the peculiar. In your inventory portfolio, the price is about $9,322 earlier than tax, and $5,275 after tax on a non-registered portfolio, with a marginal tax fee of 43.41 per cent.

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You’ll be able to management your adviser’s compensation by transferring a portion of your investments, however the last resolution is as much as you. It’s as much as your adviser to exhibit their worth to you. Ultimately, I think you each need to make sure you’re all handled pretty.

Allan Norman, M.Sc., CFP, CIM, RWM, supplies fee-only licensed monetary planning providers by means of Atlantis Monetary Inc. Allan can also be registered as an funding adviser with Aligned Capital Companions Inc. He may be reached at www.atlantisfinancial.ca or [email protected]. This commentary is supplied as a basic supply of knowledge and isn’t meant to be personalised funding recommendation.

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