Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Revolution in financial advisory industry

Mr. Tan,

I'm an ardent follower of your blog since it was launched. It has been delightful gaining insight into your views on investment and insurance.

I just read your entry on the fee based approach. For me, that is a very viable alternative for both clients and advisors which I whole-heartedly endorse. I, too, believe "Buy Term, Invest the Rest" is a mantra that give the best value to most clients.

However, most financial advisory firms do not advocate this. It might be attributed to :-

1) Infrastructure. The two investment platform, iFast and Navigator, available do not carry low-cost funds especially index funds or index ETFs.

2) Business sustainability. The current business model of the firms are meant to maximize shareholder value.

3) The Advisors. Advisors are commissioned based and as such, it's human instinct to "milk" as much as possible, considering that the amount of time expended in travelling and prospecting need to be justified.

With your approach of clients visiting the "clinic", I am sure that advisors will be more willing to jump onto the bandwagon and hopefully, lead to a revolution in the financial advisory industry.


W

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