I'm 27. Canada. Poker monies. No idea what to do with it.

I've spoken with several financial advisors through various banks but all seem to be very cookie cutter type advice. If you have this much money and will accept this much risk do this. I'd like to find someone who is actually knowledgable and can make good decisions for me but isn't basing all their decisions entirely on what their company has outlined for them. (good or bad I don't know?)

Entirely too many people in the industry seem to have no idea and I don't know how to narrow the field down or where to even start looking.

Look for people with respected industry designations, in your case, maybe look for someone who works independent of a large company. I know in America CFP is big (certified financial planner) but Canada is a whole different beast. Do a little research to see what designations are out there and then cross reference that over to professionals working near you.

Most people are going to seem to have cookie cutter approach cause the process really is scientific. You look at how old the client is, when they want to use their money, what they want to use it for, and how much risk they are willing to take. That is about 80% of the decision making process when it comes to investing.

You'd be better off doing some research on your own and then investing, imo. It's not hard and if you're just looking for some long term stuff to invest in, then some really basic research should be all you need.

Read and learn on your own.....forget hiring someone to manage your money.

never hire a "financial advisor". they are all dumb.

IMO currently, the best option for least effort is choosing assets that are a packaged combination like the DJI, S&P500, other indexes, or an actual ETF like the ones listed on proshares.com

This way your money is diversified and you will get about the same return maybe even better, especially in this market. An adviser's edge is smaller since returns are smaller in general.

In bull (good long-term, plentiful, upswingaments) markets, a broker's precision and skills make him much more worthy when your increased RoR easily covers his fees.

Financial Advisers? LOL o rly? Just play the stock market like teh pokahz and gambOol! If you really do need advice, a quality broker is all you need. Anyone that can ship lots of monies from poker should stay with equities for the long haul.

The current market reminds me of that old game show called shopping spree. Yup, I'm running down the aisles. Baby, buy buy buy!

wrong

wrong

wrong

getting better.

A lot of guys in this subforum of course are going to say blah blah blah it's easy anyone can do it. Managing your own investments is a lot of work to save a few bucks (if you're going to do it right), and chances are that even with a few hours reading you'll still be doing it wrong. Not many average Joe's are going to be up front about the returns they are getting on their investments, and almost all of them aren't beating the market. This is why it's best to pay a small premium to let a professional, or team of professionals, take care of it for you. Less stress, less random advice from forums, and less reading books to try to learn how to do it on your own and only leave yourself more confused.

How much is a small premium?

Most professionals want to take around 15-25% of my expected profits. I doubt they deliver that sort of value.

While I am very interested in learning about managing my own money at this point I simply do not have enough time to learn enough about it to make me feel comfortable with making decisons.

A friend of mine has laid out his self managed portfolio and I think I will post that in another thread to see what you guys think about that. It seems easy enough but I am unable to indentify if it is good or not.

If in doubt.......put 50% in a high yeilding account and diversify the rest into 5-10 different sectors.


YOU CONTROL YOUR OWN DESTINY........NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR FINANCES.

What? Only hedge funds share in the profits. Depending on your asset level, most advisors charge anywhere from 1-2% of your account value. If you are over 100k I wouldn't pay over 1.5%.

Edit: Forgot you were in Canada, they may have different rules.

i worked at a merrill lynch office this summer.... my boss was a head financial advisor.... he told me i should watch kramer because hell he's entertaining

i just can't ever imagine paying someone to manage my money... there decisions would have to be absurdly better than the average joes to make up for the money they are taking from you

if their decisions were that much better than the average joes why don't they just manage their own money and become very rich, having a job would seem like a waste of time for such a skilled investor

(just one kids, possibly false opinion)

You aren't paying an advisor to beat the market, you are paying him to create a plan based on your goals and risk levels and to keep you on track.

This all depends on your net worth. If you have over a million you plan to invest, you should be able to get a good Private Wealth Manager through a major Bank, e.g. UBS, Goldman, Merrill (BofA), etc. Most of these guys will be ivy league types who are very sharp and their association with large banks gives them research and product access that individuals can't get. For instance, my father got a piece of the UnderArmour IPO through with PWM; as an individual with an online brokerage account you could not have done this.

Also, the most important thing to consider is your goals and risk tolerance. Most of my dad's friends are highly risk averse and their local manager (not affiliate with large institution) is a little cheaper and just keeps them in bonds, indexes, etc. They are more than happy with 5% a year, but would be psychologically devastated by 5% down year (even if it meant a huge year the next year). My father does not mind more risk, and a higher beta, so he is willing to take bets that could give him a 10% down year but a likely to have much higher than 5% a year in the long turn.

As a personal investor, I am extremely risky and have regularly seen 25% swings in portfolio value, but in the long run I am crushing the market.

Cliff Notes: If you have enough money to get a bonafide PWM with a good institution and want to take a little more risk it will be more than worth it. If you don't have the money or just want a 5% return to pay your expenses, I would be some kind of account online and just maintain an ETF/Index account.

These are my exact feeling on the situation =/

You do have a basic understanding of future expectation?

What do you expect a Financial Adviser to do? I'm gonna guess put you in a risk optimal portfolio for your age. Vanguard can do this for you for a pittance assuming you have reasonably normal goals for retirement. If yours deviate significantly then you should probably learn what to do for yourself.

most reasonable poast i've seen in BFI in a long time.

Just do your research and ask around.

Whatever you do, do not hire a commission based advisor.

Find one with the heart of a teacher

1. Its Cramer as in James Cramer.
2. I think you got leveled.
3. I am unsure if the title "Head Financial Advisor" exists

Research and do it yourself.

www.diehards.org

1. cramer as the wacky guy on tv
2. i most certainly did not as i heard him say it to someone else, and i saw him watching it
3. i forget his actual title... but he was definately high up