Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Impartial financial advice

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Impartial financial advice

Dear Mr. Tan,
Is there any independent financial firm that provides:
a. product neutrality
b. financial planner measured NOT by financial product sales revenue

I would like to be a true financial planner where I can advice my clients base on what I think is right for them rather than being influenced by:
a. product commissions
b. management pushing for sales numbers for a certain product
c. management pushing for overall sales numbers

Thank you for much! I am a newbie in financial sector and trying to break into it.
Richard

REPLY
There are a few independent financial firms. You have to meet and talk to them. I do not know whether they are target driven or focused on giving impartial advice. You can try to talk to (names removed).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: First you must understand financial planning and the best way is to get a professional qualification like CFP.
CFP is a global qualification like CFA and is considered financial planning highest standard and the gold standard of Wallstreet.
There are other so called equivalent qualifications which you can obtain by actually buying them at a price. They used to be good but they have been compromised and the standard is equivalent to attending a seminar.Many who 'graduated' are are no better than the insurance agents who passed the tikam tikam entry exams. In fact the BODY that awards these other useless designations is now focusing on CFP and providing the study courses in CFP.To this college it is like 'can't beat CFP join CFP' I advise that you to go for CFP and forget about those other buy off the shelf qualifications.You must think in term of skills and knowledge to help your clients and and not the letters.
Note that CFP doesn't recognise these other qualifications anymore.
You can also obtain an equivalent to CFP from various US and Australian universities at bachelor , master and PhD level.
After having obtained this much sought after qualification , CFP, join a fee only FA firm like Provident, Ipac, to name 2.These firms charge fee and any commission earned from implementation of the products will be returned to the customers.
This is transparent and objective. You pay for value based on the advisory work done and not some conjob by most insurance agents.
Remember, you must have the right traits for this job. You must be HONEST,COMPETENT and always put your clients' interest first.
You mustn't double talk like others while telling the world that you put people before profit but behind them you put commission before mission.This is not truthful but cheating.
All the best to you.

The Watchman; June 23, 2010 1:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Richard

If you are giving financial advice to your clients, you should be knowledgeable and competent. Your clients most probably rely on your advice to make decisions before parting with their hard earned cash

Outsourcing to a competent financial advisor is not a responsible and accountable manner to your clients. You are merely borrowing other people knowledge and pretend to your clients, and hope you can succeed in impress them and make the commission

The firm you are working with may also be subject to unnecessary lawsuit should your client decides to sue them for your wrong advice or mistakes

The reputation of the industry in which you work in also at stake.

Instead of relying on others, it is better to get yourself familiar with the various products in the market.

If i were a competent financial advisor with a broad knowledge of various products out there, i would most likely be pretty rich and successful with many clients automatically flocking to me. Why would i want to be bothered sharing my knowledge with a newbie in return for a pathetic fee?

Jerome; June 23, 2010 7:57 PM
Anonymous said...: Please don't join ntuc.You will lose all your values. The culture here is product pushing and if you are good at it you will get the dubious title of 'sale champion' and if you come up top you will have additional prefix of 'super duper'. Duper is an apt word.
Planning for your clients here? It is more like how to squeeze every cent out of the customers and it borders on robbing the customers..Upfront is how to con the prospects into buying their products.
Culture revolution? This is the new culture.; June 23, 2010 11:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Do you think ntuc put people before profit? If you are do you need to say and tell the world? This is a lie. Maybe half truth. The customer service , yes but definitely NOT the insurance agents who are salesmen disguising as financial consultants.
They need a false title to hoodwink the unwary, the gullible and stupid ones.
If the agents put the customers first; if it is people before profit consumers will know.. No need to say . The truth is the so called consultants insult the intelligence of the consumers. You can see they are product pushers and peddlers and they are worse now under a new management. They are now ruthless product pushers who would use anything to close the sale, even the outlawed ' "better than the bank comparison".; June 24, 2010 9:00 AM
Anonymous said...: dear richard
being in the industry and seeing for financial advisory moves in singapore, my advise to you if you are still working, please stick to your jobs. most of the firms here are all profit and quota driven. do not waste your time as i am speaking from real experience; June 24, 2010 6:11 PM
Anonymous said...: It doesn't matter what qualifications or what kind of job you are holding, what is more important you must also have moral values & integrity.; June 28, 2010 4:04 PM