# TDWaterhouse Cornerstone Program



## w0nger (Mar 15, 2010)

Does anyone have any opinions on this service? I'm looking for some fee-based advice and portfolio management.. is this something that they provide? It says the fee is based on your portfolio assets, but it doesn't say how.

Is it a good service ? Is it worth it...? My current assets are only in the $30k range right now.. is it even worth paying someone for advice or just DIY investing. My own DIY investing is doing fairly well with a fairly consistent 6-8% upward trend.. i'm just hoping for more, as well as retirement planning and tax planning...


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

if you check into it, i think you'll find out it's designed for the middle range of clients with assets between 250k and 1 million.

you have a good head start on your portfolio already. If you keep working thoughtfully on this, i think the probability is very high that you'll do just as well as any of the advisors could suggest for you.


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## 50invester (Feb 10, 2010)

Hello w0nger: I too am a junior member, but not a fool or stupid by any stretch. My goal was to learn how too invest smart and prudently. I started out by reading books like 'The Naked Invester' and 'The Investers Manifesto'. The central theme in these books is that' you will never get what you pay for' in this industry .... don't try to BEAT the market or the market will end up beating you. If you are doing all right at the moment (and a 6-8% return is not bad) then why would you pay someone a fee to manage what you are doing already. Consider the fees that you pay a manager whether you make money or not. Unless your net worth is over a million, why would you even consider ... and even then? Do what I have done. Read and blog ... this is a great site with great members and great advice and heres some good advice ... go tell the 'Industry' to stuff it! Good luck.


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## Soils4Peace (Mar 14, 2010)

Hi wonger. I am 51 yo, now reaping the benefits of choices I made in my twenties. I still hold my 3 best decisions from back then, and sold the worst. In all that time the only good advice I got was from my dad - he had some influence on the three successful choices. The advisors turned out to be much more costly than the fees they charged.


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

i think this thread is motivation for me to do something for myself.

all the while i was busy paying down my mortgage. but now i think i need to diversify a bit. i too was considering a financial advisor but the two things that kept me away was one bad experience from rbc rep and secondly if they are so good, why do they need a job and a salary. with leveraging, they can sit at home after a couple of years of work and just grow their wealth... i do not mean to sideline or belittle them but i havent seen any funds with stellar 15-20% annual returns on an average term of 5-10 years.


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## w0nger (Mar 15, 2010)

rookie said:


> secondly if they are so good, why do they need a job and a salary. with leveraging, they can sit at home after a couple of years of work and just grow their wealth...


never thought of that... good point...


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

"If they are so good..." at what? _Nothing_ in the training for a bank FA (or any kind of financial advisor, for that matter) sets them up to do the kind of trading that would have them earn those kinds of returns (notwithstanding that it is essentially impossible to earn that kind of return consistently). 

Being a good FA (of any description) does not mean you are a good high-risk trader. Actually more like the opposite: your employer's "know your client" rules would never allow you to put any of your clients into that kind of portfolio...they would all be automatically screened out. 

And if you think that simply by adding leverage and some basic financial knowledge (all that is required to get a mutual funds license in Canada; with a higher bar for IIROC certification), you can "sit at home and grow your wealth" - well, you probably aren't a good client for any advisor, either. 

You may be thinking of the role an analyst can fill in an investment bank - but that is a horse of an entirely different colour than a salaried (or non-salaried!) investment advisor at a bank or anyplace else.


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

thats a whole new perspective. i think i was mixing up FAs role with that of an analyst. seems like the role of FAs is more to analyze client's risk profile, investment objectives and advise on portfolio allocation. am i right? if so, arent there enough online tools to do that. mine and wife's company rrsp provider has that...



MoneyGal said:


> "If they are so good..." at what? _Nothing_ in the training for a bank FA (or any kind of financial advisor, for that matter) sets them up to do the kind of trading that would have them earn those kinds of returns (notwithstanding that it is essentially impossible to earn that kind of return consistently).
> 
> Being a good FA (of any description) does not mean you are a good high-risk trader. Actually more like the opposite: your employer's "know your client" rules would never allow you to put any of your clients into that kind of portfolio...they would all be automatically screened out.
> 
> ...


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Well, some people are always going to want either another point of view, or just to outsource some or all of their portfolio management. There's no real harm in that, except if their trust is misplaced or their expectations are out of whack. 

I mean, people pay to have their taxes done, their laundry done, their houses cleaned...there's nothing inherently wrong with hiring someone else to do stuff for you. 

But my reaction was to the suggestion that a "good" bank financial advisor "should" be able to daytrade to success...bank FAs aren't stock pickers.


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