Investment Advisors: Keep Clients’ Investments Protected with a Debt Management Company

As a financial or investment advisor your clients look to you for protection: to protect their family in the event of a death, to protect their wealth, to protect themselves when the time comes to retire and more…  You are often the first person that a client will turn to in good times and bad. Sometimes people fall on hard financial times. A divorce, a job loss or even taking a tumble in the stock market can see someone who was otherwise on solid financial footing finding it difficult to make ends meet. 

Most people want to do the right thing! They want to pay their bills, provide for their families and no one wants to make tough financial choices when they fall on hard times.

Unfortunately, sometimes difficult financial times lead people to make the wrong financial choices. All too often we see people who have a tax problem or excessive debts owed to creditors coming to us after they have liquidated their investments, giving all their money to their creditors in an effort to pay their obligations – yet they still find themselves owing more than they can pay, leading them to file a consumer proposal.

The challenge with this is that most people don’t know that even in a consumer proposal many of their assets like their home, vehicle and yes some investments like RRSPs can be legally protected.

Oftentimes people see a consumer proposal as a last resort – when really it is a viable option for getting out of debt that leads to quick recovery times where credit is concerned. If you have a client with financial problems the best thing to do is get them an unbiased financial evaluation from a financial consultant that specializes in consumer proposals. This way all options can be presented and strong contingency plans can be put in place which will better protect your client in the long run.

Another common occurrence is financial and investment advisors who don’t understand insolvency and submit their clients right into the clutches of a trustee in bankruptcy. This could be a big mistake. When you send your client directly to a trustee, your client is not the trustee’s client – they actually represent the interests of your client’s creditors. With that said, without your client they would not be in business so there is a high motivation to make your client feel secure and sell their services. While they may make your client feel secure at the time that they sign on the dotted line it doesn’t mean your client is safe, and the story at the time of signing can change later.

Financial consultants offer a wide range of financial services so they can present all options. Forging a strong relationship with a good financial consultant who specializes in consumer proposals will provide you and your clients with huge value in the long run.

 
For more information about how financial consultants can help you to protect your clients please call Michael Goldenberg at DebtCare at 416-907-2582 or visit www.debtcare.ca.

How Investment Advisors Can Better Protect Clients’ Portfolios in a Consumer Proposal

When we think about making investments there are so many products to choose from. Whole life insurance, segregated funds, TFSA’s, RIF’s, mutual funds and more… Financial and Investment advisors representing clients considering investments know that they are entrusting them to help them best gain a positive yield, balance risk and also consider their long term financial well-being. 

When the economy is great and times are good people are in the mood to invest. Sometimes though the economy can take a turn for the worse and aside from the fact that your clients may not be in the mood to invest for a while, they may find themselves in other financial trouble. 

While the Canadian economy performed well during the last recession it is a known fact that Canadian households are carrying significant debt, in excess of $40k per household, on average. When financial times are tough – someone loses a job, a divorce takes place, etc. - usually unsecured debt is the first thing to be sacrificed – it is easy to stop making payments on these in an effort to meet other financial responsibilities.  

This is one reason why it pays for financial advisors and financial planners to have a strong relationship with companies who are equipped to guide their clients through tough financial times. Most people don’t know that many investments are actually protected through a consumer proposal or bankruptcy. Consumer proposals are an excellent way to gain legal protection for a client who is having a serious financial problem and help them retain their assets, such as their home, vehicle and some investments including RRSPs.

The challenge is that some financial and investment advisors send their clients directly to bankruptcy trustees in these circumstance which can be a huge mistake. Trustees have an obligation to protect the interest of your clients’ creditors. In the case of consumer proposals the fee is earned based on the amount of the consumer proposal. The more that they secure for your clients’ creditors, the better.

When you work with a debt consultant, the debt consultant represents your client. This means that the client receives a safe review of their income and assets and can have things structured before seeing the trustee to sign on the dotted line. This enables your clients to have areas of concern identified and addressed before these issues can impact their ability to get protection.

We all want to ensure the best for our clients so just referring your client to any debt counsellor to help is not necessarily the right answer either. Like your industry, there are good advisors and bad ones. It is prudent to interview and forge a relationship with a debt consultant that you can trust to refer your clients to.

For more information about how you can better protect your clients’ portfolios please contact Michael Goldenberg, president of DebtCare at 416-907-2582 or visit www.debtcare.ca.