# Finally seeing the light:Thinking of dumping my advisor and would like some advice...



## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

Sorry for the long post. Feel free to skip sections! 

*Background*
37, married, 2 kids and a house. Started investing years ago with a financial advisor who recommended me some funds to balance my assets. Switched to another advisor (neighbour) 8 years ago who analyzed my portfolio and told me he could improve things and honestly, the 1st one was useless besides collecting the money. 

Been with the current advisor for something like 8 years, we meet once or twice a year but I'm now realizing that, while he answers my questions, he doesn't seem to offer added value. My funds have been the same for the last 3-4 years since he made the switch to funds that have a minimum buy but other than that. 

*Present*
I'm finally doing what I should have done years ago and questioning what the hell is going on with my investments. I've realized how I'm getting screwed with the fees. I had a chat with him about fees a few time and he always had good answers, how much he gets from me and all and how my accounts would be transferred to the Dundee "Summit" account on which he'll charge only 1%. 1% didn't seem bad at the time but add the MER and yeah, it does climb up there. He's definitely much better than the 1st advisor I have (he's avoiding DSC funds, moving 10% of my DSC funds out every year, ..)

I looked at the funds I had yesterday and wow, 2.5% MER on most of them, except the ones that have been transferred to F-class (and on which he'll charge 1%). This is in addition to That is a lot of money for what seems to me like not much. Yes, he's responsive and always gets back to me but I think I'd have better control over my finances if I were to do it myself instead of going through them to say "ok, move $x to this TFSA, move this to the RESP, ...". 

I currently have this with him:
TFSA + TFSA Spouse: 
BTB100 (which, after emailing my advisor to tell him about the BTB101 which is f-class has agreed to move my money, he was not aware of this one. This is temporary, I have to put that in something else)

Open account: 
MMF507 MANULIFE INVESTMENT SAVINGS FUND-FE (need to move that to TFSA)

RESP: 
DYN1953 DYNAMICEDGE BALANCED GROWTH PORTFOLIO (F)-NL 1.2% MER (moved to F class a month ago..)

RRSP: 
AGF ELEMENTS GROWTH PORTFOLIO SERIES F-FE AGF459 MER1.38% 
AGF ELEMENTS GROWTH PORTFOLIO-DSC AGF477 (40% of my RRSP is in there.. but being moved out 10% / year. MER 2.35%)
DYNAMICEDGE EQUITY PORTFOLIO (F)-NL DYN1993 (MER 1.23%)
DYNAMICEDGE EQUITY PORTFOLIO-LL DYN1991 (MER = ?? couldn't find it)
MACKENZIE UNIVERSAL CANADIAN SHIELD FUND-FE MFC3879 2.52% MER!! 
And whatever is left from the covington / vengrowth fiasco

RRSP Spousal
FIDELITY CLEARPATH 2045 PORTFOLIO SERIES F-NL FID045
FIDELITY CLEARPATH 2045 PORTFOLIO-DSC FID445 (10% moved out yearly)

RRSP Spouse
DYNAMIC POWER GROWTH GLOBAL CLASS F FUND-NL DYN247
DYN MARQUIS INSTITUTIONAL EQUITY PORTFOLIO-FE DYN454
DYNAMIC POWER GLOBAL GROWTH CLASS-FE DYN014
MARQUIS INSTITUTIONAL EQUITY PORTFOLIO-DSC DYN464
FIDELITY CLEARPATH 2045 PORTFOLIO SERIES F-NL FID045


LRSP/LIRA
DYNAMICEDGE EQUITY PORTFOLIO (F)-NL DYN1993  MER 1.23%



*The funds were transferred to F class a month ago* but in 2 months I'll have to pay an extra 1% for the advisor "summit account". He's currently not charging anything due to past mistakes (was still contributing to DSC fund and money hadn't been transferred to TFSA / RESP as requested twice.. 

I'm still stuck with 100k of DSC funds.. 

*My plan*
I'm considering going couchpotato. It seems to make sense based on what I've read and it will help me avoid the 2.5% fee (or more!) that I've been paying so far. I've got enough money to go with ETFs as well for our RRSPs but not RESP / TFSA / LRRA. I however am not sure where to go:
Mortgage is with BMO
Bank accounts with CIBC
Work RRSP / DPSP is with RBC

It seems like questrade could help with the DSC funds since I'd get back the trailer fee however their customer service seems average according to reviews and they don't have a physical branch where I could go to unlike TD waterhouse. Would TD waterhouse make sense due to my RESP / TFSAs / LRSP that are at 25k or less? 

Finally, How much of a PITA is it to make a switch like this? 

I guess I saw the light.. but the end of the tunnel is still far..


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

Most discount brokerages look at total assets held, combining all accounts together, then charging fees based on that amount - not always the case, but most of the time.

Pick your brokerage, then fill out a form to have the assets moved from existing location to new place. The brokerage takes care of everything - and may/probably will reimburse for the fees if the move is significant. Not much of a PITA.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

I hold my brokerage account at the same place as my bank account and I find that quite convenient (transfer money back and forth very easily). So that would lean towards suggesting CIBC for your broker. Give them a call and see what they can do for you in terms of the fees, given the size of your account. If they don't offer to reimburse all the fees, try another broker until you find one who will.


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## dave2012 (Feb 17, 2012)

Congrats! We went through the same exercise a year ago (taking over that is).

As of today I'm showing we are down to 40% of our portfolio still stuck in the DSC Mutual Funds. Wish I had just cashed them all last February and taken the mega hit on fees though since lots were down 10-15% last year.

My goal is a mix of couch potato strategies along with the occasional trading of a mix of stocks. I'll be breaking out the champagne when I get rid of the last mutual fund, thats for sure!

We bank with CIBC so chose Investors Edge which makes it easy to deal with our mix of corporate and personal bank accounts (Canadian and US) and 5 different investment accounts. Customer service/support is A+++. I've phoned them a lot over the last year for assistance and I couldn't be happier. Never wait more than a minute usually to get someone on the phone.

They covered most transfer fees. Since we have over $100K with them, we pay $6.95 per trade on any account, even the smaller ones under $100K. The 'sales advisors' we used to use before would charge 2.5%, 5% to move from one stock to another! Highway robbery!

I heard Questrade gives you back the 1% trailer fee on DSC mutual funds, but I figure I will have cashed them all in by next summer.

Cheers


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback.

I've got something like 100k stuck in DSC mutual funds between my wife and I so it might be worthwile to go with Questrade for those but then it gets tricky to manage and you have money with two brokerage firms. I thought that you could pull out some money that had been sitting in there for 7 years but it's not even the case, the clock starts ticking once you stop putting money in it. You're only allowed 10% / year, which my investor was doing but he was still putting my weekly contribution in there until I told him to stop (took me a while to notice). I also thought that the trailer fee was less than 1% for these DSC funds (.25%?). 

CIBC investor's edge might be worth a shot but I only have my bank account in there (free account, no monthly fees! these things are getting impossible to get!). My work RRSP /DPSP is with RBC.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Here's an article with some suggestions on reducing the DSC fees.

http://www.moneysmartsblog.com/defense-mutual-fund-dsc-fees-investors/

If you are going from 2.5% mer to a cheap ETF, I would just sell all the funds. Keep in mind some of the ideas in that article to minimize, but just do it and move on.

The Questrade rebate only applies on mutual fund assets over $30k, plus they charge $10 for each transaction.


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

Thanks for the info guys. It turns out that even though my advisor had "transferred everything he could to f-class to save me money" wasn't don't properly. Half of my DSC had been in there for long enough so that I was able to take it out. I noticed that when I saw that the 10% he move wasn't in fact 10%.. he had asked AGF to move 10% which they did, but it's the 10% still under "DSC" and he "hadn't noticed"... I guess that's another nail in the coffin. 

I still have a few questions:
- Since the ETFs are geared towards the 50k+ accounts, that's fine for my RRSP and my spouse RRSP but I definitely don't have 50k in the RESP and TFSAs. Do I do ETFs in the RRSPs and stick with low MER funds (e-series?) in the TFSA/RESP? Or it's not even worth it when there's only 15k in the RESP? I'll stick to couchpotato until I get a good understanding of how everything works. 


I still have a few things to take care of before I pull the trigger:
- compare how my funds have been doing against what a couchpotato portfolio would have done 
- decide who I'm going with. I'll pop by the TD waterhouse office close to work next week. That would be really convenient but it looks like there are maintenance fees for acocunts with less than 25k (ie: RESPs, 2 x TFSAs, 1 x LRSP)


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## dave2012 (Feb 17, 2012)

Four Pillars said:


> Here's an article with some suggestions on reducing the DSC fees.
> 
> If you are going from 2.5% mer to a cheap ETF, I would just sell all the funds. Keep in mind some of the ideas in that article to minimize, but just do it and move on.


I regret not doing this myself last year. I have many MF that lost 10-15%. Few even kept up anywhere near the markets. So I saved not paying an average of 3% DSC but lost way more trying to save the DSC by keep them.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

mart said:


> I still have a few things to take care of before I pull the trigger:
> - compare how my funds have been doing against what a couchpotato portfolio would have done
> - decide who I'm going with. I'll pop by the TD waterhouse office close to work next week. That would be really convenient but it looks like there are maintenance fees for acocunts with less than 25k (ie: RESPs, 2 x TFSAs, 1 x LRSP)


Are you expecting to actually go into the TDW offices to transact business? Does TDW even offer that? (That's where my accounts are but I only ever deal with them online.)


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

The Waterhouse fees only apply if your total amount of money with them is <50k. It doesn't matter if it's spread across multiple accounts/family members. Just tell them that you and your wife are in the same household and they'll waive the fees for both.


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

MoneyGal said:


> Are you expecting to actually go into the TDW offices to transact business? Does TDW even offer that? (That's where my accounts are but I only ever deal with them online.)


Not usually. But I'm plannning to go there to confirm the fees I'd have to pay if I had my accounts there (especially for the ones with less than 25k). Then, if there's a problem for whatever reason, if it can't be solved online or on the phone in a timely fashion (ie: waiting on the phone for 2-hours and being bounced from department to department), I could walk in there to get it resolved. I figured that it's something that doesn't hurt as opposed to being online only (ie: Questrade)


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

mart said:


> But I'm plannning to go there to confirm the fees I'd have to pay if I had my accounts there (especially for the ones with less than 25k). Then, if there's a problem for whatever reason, if it can't be solved online or on the phone in a timely fashion (ie: waiting on the phone for 2-hours and being bounced from department to department), I could walk in there to get it resolved.


I think you have an unrealistic vision of the customer service you will get from a branch. It's 2012, if you can't get help online or on the phone, then you are probably out of luck.


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

Four Pillars said:


> I think you have an unrealistic vision of the customer service you will get from a branch. It's 2012, if you can't get help online or on the phone, then you are probably out of luck.


There are two possibilities for this:
a- customer service on the phone is amazing
or
b- customer service in a branch sucks just as much as on the phone

Sadly, in most cases it's usually "b" :tongue-new:


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Honestly I find the phone service for Waterhouse is usually amazing. I've been very impressed. I haven't been to a Waterhouse branch, I always just go to a TD branch when I need to do something the phone people can't handle, and the TD branch service sucks compared to the Waterhouse phone service.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Four Pillars said:


> I think you have an unrealistic vision of the customer service you will get from a branch. It's 2012, if you can't get help online or on the phone, then you are probably out of luck.


Hmmm ... the OP did confirm the main purpose is to confirm the fees before setting up brokerage account. I'm not sure what the percentages for online versus in a TDW office setup of brokerage accounts but a walk-in, ask questions and fill out the paperwork is done regularly.

The risk of a walk in is the waiting time if all the reps have appointments or are tied up.


IAC, I've always been able to walk in or phone for an appointment to resolve issues. 

It is part of the service.

A recent example is that I was having problems with LIRA transfer and after a couple of calls, decided a person would speed up the process (or get a more detailed answer). I looked up the nearest TDW office, which is sharing space with the TD Canada Trust bank. A phone call booked an appointment with the recommended TDW rep.



*Mart:*

Keep in mind that the last I checked, the trading/maintenance fees are based on total _brokerage assets for the mailing address_. Picking on my sister *grin*, who has her brokerage accounts (TFSA, RRSP, non-registered) plus her husbands (same mix) all mailed to the same mailing address, it wasn't difficult for her to hit the asset thresholds.

Something to consider, as Spudd mentioned, is to have a TD Canada Trust chequing account. This allows a combination of ATM and online transfers for any cash purchases, contributions to RRSP, cash withdrawals etc. - outside of branch hours. 


Cheers


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Spudd said:


> Honestly I find the phone service for Waterhouse is usually amazing. I've been very impressed.
> 
> I haven't been to a Waterhouse branch, I always just go to a TD branch when I need to do something the phone people can't handle, and the TD branch service sucks compared to the Waterhouse phone service.


+1 for having good TDW phone service.


I haven't had problems with the TD Canada Trust branches, compared to other financial institutions I've dealt with. Most branches I've been in either:

a) phoned the TDW phone service on my behalf to work out the request.

b) indicated they don't have staff to handle the request then provided the nearest TDW office location.

c) shared space with a TDW office where they arranged on the spot for a TDW rep to speak to me.


Cheers


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

i'm glad to hear that Spudd has has an excellent experience. I believe it's widespread, not just at tdw but at the better of the big bank-owned brokerages.

i have main trading accounts at one broker where i trade every day, plus a backup account at another broker. I am always astonished at the exceptionally high level of service all these representatives can & do provide.

these are not ordinary call centres. Could one put oneself in their places for a few moments & realize what kind of challenges the representatives are facing. They are expected to keep a mind-numbing amount of information at their fingertips for 8 hours non-stop every single day. They are each expected to handle approximately 150 complex phone calls per day, each call entirely different from all the others. They are expected to never lose their cool, to always reply accurately under pressure, to never make a mistake, to always be polite, to even be pleasant & cheerful.

imho all this is a near-impossible mandate, yet the representatives i encounter at tdw & at bmo investorline carry all this off with grace & efficiency, all of the time.

pretty amazing. They answer the phone fast, too.

as for visiting a td canada trust branch to open an account with td waterhouse, there is an advantage to this even though waterhouse does not maintain dedicated staff at the branches. A potential client can bring in his existing account documentation from other brokers & a branch representative can phone & fax the right pages to tdw so as to get the potential client's questions answered precisely, on the spot.

suggestion to mart: why not boost your household accounts at tdw above the 50k level from the getgo. Surely you will want the reduced commissions. Surely you do not want to pay those higher 29.99 commish.


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

humble_pie said:


> suggestion to mart: why not boost your household accounts at tdw above the 50k level from the getgo. Surely you will want the reduced commissions. Surely you do not want to pay those higher 29.99 commish.


The household total will be way above that, the problem was that for some accounts they'll be less than 25k and according to this
http://www.tdwaterhouse.ca/document/PDF/apply/forms/tdw-apply-forms-521778-pdf.pdf



> ANNUAL ADMINISTRATION FEES
> SDRSP/RRIF/Locked-In Plans (LIRA, LIF, LRSP, LRIF, RLSP, RLIF, PRIF) $100.00
> Basic RRSP/RRIF/Locked-In Plans (LIRA, LIF, LRSP, LRIF, RLSP, RLIF, PRIF) $25.00
> RESP $50.00
> *The annual administration fee for the above noted registered plan accounts will be waived when the plan market value is $25,000 or more.*


The plan has to be 25k or more... nothing about the 50k household with regards to the admin fees. The 50k is only for the commission fee. I'll definitely inquire however and I'm guessing they should be able to waive the fee. 



I still need to firm up a bit the approach I'll take, couch potato or not. According to what I've read here and there, simply following index funds may not be sufficient anymore.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

mart i haven't looked at the tdw pages you cite & i certainly can't speak for how they might decide.

but the usual tdw structure is for the rrsps, the tfsas, the resps, etc to be grouped with the main securities account, ie they are satellite accounts. A US dollar account will be another satellite account in the same family. All will have the same account number. Each sub-account will end with a different letter suffix. The statements for each will be prepared separately but usually mailed together.

this normally means that the overall collective account will be large enough to waiive the kinds of fees that you are wondering about. It's a good idea imho to visit a td branch to get all these details ironed out.

the bigger question is whether to utilize a strict couch potato approach or to supplement this with purchases of individual stocks.

it seems to me - inveterate die-hard holder of common stock plus options only though i am - that baby steps in such matters are a good idea. The first thing is to open & fund the new accounts. The next step is to be mindful that what you have always held are mutual funds, so etfs make excellent lower-cost substitutes while not presenting overwhelming risks or challenges right off the bat.  It is possible for the etf step to continue for many years, or even for the rest of your life.

most etf or couch potato strategies include some modified version of market timing. As certain allocations within a portfolio rise & bulge beyond prechosen limits, the investor will rebalance his holdings. In effect, this is a mild & disciplined form of market timing.

a final step, for some investors, is to switch from etfs to buying, holding & even trading the actual securities themselves. This step can always come later. It is not necessary. It does call for considerable study & preparation, imho.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

mart said:


> The household total will be way above that, the problem was that for some accounts they'll be less than 25k and according to this
> http://www.tdwaterhouse.ca/document/PDF/apply/forms/tdw-apply-forms-521778-pdf.pdf
> 
> The plan has to be 25k or more... nothing about the 50k household with regards to the admin fees. The 50k is only for the commission fee. I'll definitely inquire however and I'm guessing they should be able to waive the fee.


It is the plan amount for the registered account. You might be able to negotiate them to waive it. My MIL had her RRIF fall below $25k (she was over 90) and the fees were imposed. Because it was $25/yr, I could not justify the time spent on a phone call to see if it could be waived at the time.


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

If I may volunteer the following advice.

Despite both TD Canada Trust and TD Waterhouse sporting the same colours, and they have merged for so many years. The staff at retail locations of TD Canada Trust don't usually know a lot about TD Waterhouse products. Yes, they can do the occasional bit of work, but they are no substitute for actually talking to TD Waterhouse staff.

There are specific locations for TD Waterhouse that you can do walk-in, but those locations close really early (like before 5 or even 4PM), and they are not very numerous.

I have tried to get TD Canada Trust to do numerous tasks, and they have all made mistakes or had glitches, or takes a couple of tries to get right.

Worst thing is that when something goes wrong, they won't contact you or let you know. They just let your request drop and disappear. You have to proactively poll and ask them.


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## caricole (Mar 12, 2012)

mart said:


> I still have a few questions:
> 
> - decide who I'm going with. I'll pop by the TD waterhouse office close to work next week. That would be really convenient but it looks like there are maintenance fees for acocunts with less than 25k (ie: RESPs, 2 x TFSAs, 1 x LRSP)


To me, the proper sequence to follow and everything will fall in place in due coarse

1) Go to TDW office with latest copies of all accounts to be transferred

2) Sign transferpapers, if some spousal account, SHE will have to sign her transferpapers

3) Request the transfercost to be réimbursed by TDW

4) Once all transfers are done and shown in the new accounts, request that ALL accounts be linked as FAMILY LIVING AT THE SAME ADRESS

5) If the total of all family accounts exeed 50K, all accounts will be labeled no maintenance fees, and transaction rate of 9,99$

6) Upon receipt of monthly statements of the OLD accounts, witch are now empty, you will see how much they charged for the transfers

7) Copy of these charges to TDW, and normally they just deposit the same amounts in your account under the heading «RÉIMBURSEMENT»

8) Usually, a REGINAL FINANCIAL CENTER of Canada trust-TD will handle propery these transfers, small branches are less familiar

Thats the way I have seen it done a couple of times for friends


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

Thanks caricole, that perfectly makes sense. 

Does anyone have any advice with regards to selling the funds in my current account or waiting until the transfer is done? ie: going cash before the transfer or waiting until it's all moved out


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## caricole (Mar 12, 2012)

mart said:


> Thanks caricole, that perfectly makes sense.
> 
> Does anyone have any advice with regards to selling the funds in my current account or waiting until the transfer is done? ie: going cash before the transfer or waiting until it's all moved out


If you intend to sell the funds anyway, I think you be better off to sell in the OLD ACCOUNT, where selling is done without cost and the transfer of cash is faster

They can take up to 30 days to transfer «values» stock or funds

For the NON REGISTERED accounts, you can request the cheque to be déposited in your account and bring the money or deposit in your NEW ACCOUNT

In the new account there is cost involved in selling funds

One more advice:

Do NOT inform the old account of your intention to transfer, they will put up some imaginary roadblocks

The transfer should originate from your NEW ACCOUNT

It then becomes an interbroker transfer and they have to play BY THE RULES, on cost and timing

The differend registered accounts properly transfered ETC.

my opinion

One more detail

When the new accounts are opened, try to obtain a copy of REQUEST FOR TRANSFER from the new account (with the date)

The perpetual excuse from the old account is always...«WE DID NOT RECEIVE A REQUEST FOR TRANSFER» which is a big lie of coarse...

With a proper copy in hand, you can challenge this lie and éventually make a complaint to the proper authoryties

By experience, some play it fair and smooth, buth some, you have to put your fist on the table...it is better to be prepared


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

What's the consensus on portfolio funds ? I've got 30k left in 
AGF Elements Growth Portfolio DSC
and the penalty to sell it would be $1200.. this seems like chump change because "with the low MER of the ETFs, you'll pay for that within a year!". However, 

http://www.google.ca/finance?chdnp=...UTF_CA:DYN454&cmptdms=0;1;0&q=MUTF_CA:AGF475&

Shows that it doesn't do too bad.. The DYN454 in the above chart is another portfolio fund that I have. 

There was another super duper fund back in the days, the "Mackenzie Canadian Shield" MFC3878 fund which I bought into when it open (at a wooping 5.25% front end fee which I did not really looked into at the time). It hasn't done squat... but what if it's the next big thing? 


I know that I could simply dump my current advisor and switch to ETFs but it's still a big step and I usually tend to do my homework properly. I keep wondering "what if I end up making much less by simply going with the couch potato approach?" 

:cower:


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## madMike (Feb 10, 2012)

If I may offer an opinion, as an adherent to the Couch Potato philosophy, (and if you go to the Canadian Couch Potato site, and you like to read Dan's blogs and readers' replies, you will increase your knowledge greatly):

TD Waterhouse sounds like a good fit for you - you can start with the e-series funds, no buy/sell fee provided you hold them at least 3 months. ABout the super duper fund, I doubt that it's about to "happen". Long term, LOW fees, LOW MERs, will give you the best opportunity to maximize returns. Read Andrew Hallam's Millionaire Teacher site, follow the links, don't look back! Get out of the high fee funds pronto, if necessary hold them until the deferred sales charges are manageable. Then sell and transfer.

You won't regret the couch potato. High feee funds are a scam, I'm amazed people even buy mutual funds these days, but congrats on seeing the light. Check that super duper fund, on SEDAR, or Morningstar, see what it holds, how it's performed, I bet it's a joke compared to its benchmark.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

mart said:


> I know that I could simply dump my current advisor and switch to ETFs but it's still a big step and I usually tend to do my homework properly. I keep wondering "what if I end up making much less by simply going with the couch potato approach?"


You might. And it is worthwhile thinking this through. What you would be giving up (if you go with a couch potato portfolio) is the chance of outperforming the index and the chance of underperforming the index for the certainty of getting close-to index returns. 

Luckily, you aren't required to make this an either-or choice. You could always allocate some of your portfolio to active management, whether you do it yourself (by trading directly) or by buying actively-managed mutual funds. Or you could set up a fake portfolio and monitor that. Or you could use ETFs to trade actively. 

In short, you don't have to worry about what if one particular strategy fails - because you are not limited to one strategy or approach.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

The issue with Canadian ETFs is industry bias. So if you buy the TSX then you need to acquire some exposure to other sectors to compensate for the Telecom/Finance/Resource overweight. But for these other sectors, beware of tracking error in their funds in addition to MERs.


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

kcowan said:


> The issue with Canadian ETFs is industry bias. So if you buy the TSX then you need to acquire some exposure to other sectors to compensate for the Telecom/Finance/Resource overweight. But for these other sectors, beware of tracking error in their funds in addition to MERs.


Based on what I saw, ishares was pretty bang on, they had a super low tracking error. But what you're saying is that XIC may not be sufficient for the canadian equity side?


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

Accounts are being opened with TDW, my f-class funds are being transferred to cash since they can't be moved over to TDW. My current advisor has been great so far with the transition, as he says, business is business and he understands why I'm moving. 

:encouragement:


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

That's great news, thanks for updating us mart!


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

I got the famous "I think indexing will be really though for the next 8-10 years, good managers will really start to shine, just like they've been in the last 2 years". Oh well, let's hope indexing keeps on going. 

Statistically though, all these managers believe they are great so they can't all beat the market.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I'm not surprised. Index funds are a hit to their wallet as compared to what you were doing before.


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## mart (Apr 2, 2012)

Quick question about the transfer fee: TDW will pay for it but for my TFSA, the fee was taken from the money they sent in my TDW Account. Is this considered a "withdrawal" for which I'll get teh contribution room back next year? How does it work for RRSPs? (still have to wait for my f-class funds to "mature" to 90 days before making the switch)

Thanks


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## RealCanuck (Apr 21, 2012)

mart said:


> I got the famous "I think indexing will be really though for the next 8-10 years, good managers will really start to shine, just like they've been in the last 2 years". Oh well, let's hope indexing keeps on going.
> 
> Statistically though, all these managers believe they are great so they can't all beat the market.


The BEST money/fund manager in the WORLD during the last decade achieved a ~13% per year average return.
And that was in a "Lost Decade". 

Statistically, all those managers did worse than that --- even the ones who think they are great. 
I'm sure you won't do any worse. 

Good luck and enjoy your new freedom!


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

slacker said:


> If I may volunteer the following advice.
> 
> Despite both TD Canada Trust and TD Waterhouse sporting the same colours, and they have merged for so many years. The staff at retail locations of TD Canada Trust don't usually know a lot about TD Waterhouse products. Yes, they can do the occasional bit of work, but they are no substitute for actually talking to TD Waterhouse staff.
> 
> ...


Odd ... for the one or two items I started with TD CanadaTrust, either they or TDW left messages at home as soon as there was more info required.

IAC, I've noticed that another option is that there are more sites where both TDCT and TDW share office space. The ones in London, On and Ottawa, ON also allowed calling in to book an appointment with a TDW rep to avoid waiting in line.


Cheers


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