Say No to Edward Jones!

[howardtaco]

Edward Jones is always sweat talking when alluring you to open an account with it! Then the charges are coming: yearly service charge, liquidation fees...... In most cases, you are not told there will be charges!!! In summary, all the Financial Advisors or firms only recommend their own financial products (for profits). Be alert: their service charges are more often higher than the taxes saved or gained! This is a material world, from banks to financial advisors, they are all sharks, sucking your money out of your savings! BE ALERT!!!!!

 

[OrangeJuice]

You think only Edward Jones charges your the yearly service charge? All other financial and/or insurance companies like SunLife, ManuLife etc charge you annual service or admin fee and they can increase their fee for whatever reasons. The agent or broker won't tell you about those fee. You will only find out after you get the statement from the mail. But then it's after few months or after a year and you have already signed up with them. Too late! Normally you won't change just because of the service charge. You will suck it up!

So, be careful. You are paying all those services to cover their costs. If you make money, those service charge can be forgiven. But if you lose money because of poor fund you invested, sorry for your loss.

So, don't trust the agent or broker's smooth talk. Ask the smart questions and do the calculation yourself. Always ask many questions before you sign up for those long term plan, especially the Universal Life Insurance or any segregated fund. There is no such thing called "Guaranteed investment". If the agent mentions anything with "guaranteed", you better walk out from this agent.

 

[dkwan]

Well.. Guarantee investment, nothing guarantee including life. Will you still live?

 

[Edgee]

Also stay away from investors group... direct competitor of E. J.
All of those firms have policies requiring their advisors to disclose all fees, but of course they are doing the opposite. They only want one thing gauranteed: their commission.

 

[dkwan]

Well, their commission structure doesn't affect your rate of return. All the fees are included in the fund's management fee.

 

[Edgee]

There is only one so-called fund management fee, and that is MER, Management Expense Ratio. In Canada, MER is around 2-3% off of the funds under management on avg for mostly actively managed mutual funds. Passively managed funds charge a lot less MER. MER covers actual operational expenses, fund managers' salaries, research, the fund's trading commissions.... but financial advisors at IG or E.J. are only fund sales. They do not manage but only sell. When financial advisors are talking fees, they just mean commission and fees they charge but not the MER. The branches of the big 5 banks however do not charge any fees or commissions on the sale, but all mutual funds in Canada charge MER.

 

[dkwan]

I believe it's the responsible of the financial advisor (FA) to disclose their fee. But it's important for clients whom seeking for service also know their rights.
Those fee IG charges usually need initial from the clients. If you got charge but you didn't initial, meaning the agent didn't disclose fee and can ask for refund OR complain thru FSCO

 

[OrangeJuice]

For your info, Sun Life agents get 90-100% of your first year's premium once you've signed the contract. For the subsequent years, the agent will continue to receive 5% of the premium as long as you don't cancel your insurance plan.

The agent gets more commission from the Universal Life Insurance, Critical Illness, and others.

So, before you sign up or compare with all the plans that are proposed to you by the agent, ask the following questions:

1) What is the commission you earn from this plan? They can't lie to you. If they do, they have already violated their insurance act.

2) It is very likely that the agent will try to sell you the plan that gives him/her the highest commission. So, it's best to understand how the agent is paid by his/her insurance company. It's like real estate agent, we know exactly how many % the agent can get from selling your house. (Of course, the agent has to split with the company he represents.)

3) For segregated fund or universal insurance, if the agent tells you that your investment is guaranteed (for at least 5%, say), ask the agent to highlight the contract bullet that states the 5%. If the contract does specify 5%, you are guaranteed. But if the contract doesn't state it and only the agent tells you so, you are being misled by the agent. Just don't trust this agent.

I can tell you that there is no company will guarantee a fixed % to you. If the agent tells you so, he/she just wants to get you to sign up for the insurance plan that he/she is selling.

 

[Edgee]

Same thing goes for the mutual funds they are offering... GET SMART AND DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!!! Do your homework and make sure you shop around with the big banks before you sign anything at investors group or EJ

 

[dkwan]

Well, do everyone fully understand how to read the mutual fund report? I guess we need to look for more opinions before signing on the dotted line.

 

[猫眼晶]

http://bbs.comefromchina.com/forum117/thread842906.html#post6304488

看看我的帖子吧, 我写了好多, 希望能解答一些你们的疑惑和误解. 如果有不同观点欢迎来和我探讨.

 

[john19]

天下没有免费的午餐，只不过有些投资公司明收费，有些暗收费。大部分不明收费基金在每天的价格波动中就把钱收了，温柔的一刀人们感觉不到。

 

[dkwan]

Clients can mimick the market, and they can avoid that "温柔的一刀"
MER is worth for some funds that managed well.

 

[枫陵雨渡]

Industrial Alliance has 5% guaranteed bonus funds for up to 15 years.