Talking about risk can be tricky, as there are so many different categories of risk. This is why we are just choosing to highlight a few categories today.
Janet Kim Sing
If you have ever been in the market for a home, you have likely gone through the experience of having to make some concessions on your wish list. Similarly, when finding a Portfolio Manager and/or Investment Firm it is likely that there will be something that you are not overly excited about and that is completely normal. I would even go so far as to say that if everything seems too perfect, that is a red flag!
One of the first questions you should be asking in your initial meetings is what professional license or oversight body a firm belongs to, if this has not already been disclosed or isn’t clear. There are, in fact, several regulatory bodies that exist. Make sure that you know which one the firm in question falls under and what that means.
A firm’s glossy website can leave a strong first impression and when you go in to meet with a firm and its team you will likely experience a similar charm. However, sometimes these efforts to entice new clients make it hard to see beyond the veneer. So how can you tell if a firm is telling the whole story?
Typically, a firm will manage the assets, but not physically hold them. There is an outside party, called a custodian, who holds custody over the firm and its clients’ assets.
Fees are a natural part of paying for a service, whether you’re paying a mechanic to fix your engine problems or paying a firm to manage your money. Within our industry, however, fees have tended to be very convoluted, layered, and difficult to understand.
The loss of a spouse is a tragedy and not knowing where to start, who to turn to, what to do, is all the more overwhelming during a time of mourning. Although we cannot prevent death, we can plan for it.
We have spoken a lot about the importance of proper planning and how this can help to provide a roadmap to guide us. However, we have also spoken about the practicalities of life and how changes in circumstances can sometimes throw a wrench into the works and affect our plans.
Imagine a parent or spouse passes away and there is no will in place? This happens all too frequently and the impact can be devastating to the Estate at a time when grief is already at a peak.
