Episode 162 – How to Select a (Good) Financial Advisor

Today our main topic expands on a recent episode in which we talked about what constitutes good financial advice, and here we look at how to go about finding the kind of advice that you want and need. It is one thing to know what it is, but that does mean it is straightforward to locate an advisor or firm that provides it. After our opening salvo of some media recommendations and a review of the fascinating book on different ideas on leadership, called The Starfish and the Spider, we dive into a listener question about where to geographically weight your investments and the idea of underweighting the US equity of your portfolio. This leads to a much bigger consideration of the research, which we try to breeze through, and in sum seems to lead us back to the idea of the non-predictability of markets. For our main subject, we share an extensive list of questions to ask yourself before even beginning any conversations with advisors, and using your answers to determine the kind of advisor you need. From there, we get into the questions you can ask the advisor and firms you approach in order to make sure you find the best fit for your needs. We talk about credentials, investment philosophies, firm policies, and everything in between, and we will be posting this full list on our community platform for your reference too. Stay tuned for today’s Talking Sense card, and Bad Advice of the Week too, and make sure to tune in for the great guests we have lined up in the coming weeks.

Key Points From This Episode:

The positions that we are currently looking to fill here at the podcast! [0:05:48.2]
This week’s book of the week: unpacking The Starfish and the Spider and its lessons on leadership. [0:09:53.1]
Looking at an interesting blog post about the power of systems over goals. [0:12:57.8]
A listener question dealing with underweighting US equity in comparison to emerging markets. [0:14:40.5]
Plotting trend lines and the inconsistent relationship between forecasts and outcomes. [0:23:02.4]
Adjusting the standard errors, when using overlapping data samples. [0:27:48.3]
Bootstrapped simulations for defining predictability and market timing. [0:29:20.2]
Good financial advice and how to make sure you find it. [0:32:02.8]
The three channels through which you can access advice; commission-based, asset-based fee advice, and fee-only. [0:33:30.2]
The conflict of interest that arises with us delivering our thoughts on this topic. [0:36:28.8]
Credentials and qualifications to look out for in Canada and abroad. [0:38:20.3]
Starting with what you want from an advisor and departing from clearly defined goals. [0:41:12.7]
Questions to ask yourself before selecting an advisor about your assets, self-management, and more. [0:45:22.8]
The conversations to have with your chosen type of advisor; services provided, compensation, and more. [0:48:55.2]
Getting to grips with the investment philosophy of an advisor and their firm. [0:54:50.1]
This week’s Talking Sense segment: choosing between a lump sum or installments. [0:57:28.2]
Bad advice of the week and the seven reasons to own individually-managed portfolios of stocks. [0:58:14.6]

Book From Today’s Episode:

The Starfish and the Spider — https://amzn.to/3jSfy8a

Links From Today’s Episode:

Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.

Rational Reminder Website — https://rationalreminder.ca/

Shop Merch – https://shop.rationalreminder.ca/

Join the Community – https://community.rationalreminder.ca/

Follow us on Twitter – https://twitter.com/RationalRemind

Follow us on Instagram – @rationalreminder

Benjamin on Twitter — https://twitter.com/benjaminwfelix

Cameron on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CameronPassmore

‘How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big’ — https://fs.blog/2013/12/scott-adams-fail-at-everything/

‘Predicting Excess Stock Returns Out of Sample: Can Anything Beat the Historical Average?’ — https://www.jstor.org/stable/40056860

‘The Dog That Did Not Bark: A Defense of Return Predictability’ — https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article-abstract/21/4/1533/1567100

‘A Comprehensive Look at The Empirical Performance of Equity Premium Prediction’ — https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article-abstract/21/4/1455/1565737

‘Market Timing: Sin a Little’ — https://www.aqr.com/Insights/Research/White-Papers/Market-Timing-Sin-a-Little

‘Are Stocks Really Less Volatile in the Long Run?’ — https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2012.01722.x

‘Long-Horizon Predictability: A Cautionary Tale’ — https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0015198X.2018.1547056

Benjamin’s Swing Solution on Reddit — https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/comments/ourj1t/turned_a_standard_eyebolt_into_the_smoothest/

About The Author

Cameron Passmore

Cameron Passmore has been a leading advocate for evidence-based, systemic investing for over 20 years in the Ottawa area. Today, Cameron and his team serve a broad range of affluent clients across Canada.

Benjamin Felix

Benjamin is co-host of the Rational Reminder Podcast and the host of a popular YouTube series.

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