Despite the ads begging for your trust, banks are not your mom: Don Pittis + MORE Mar 16th

Bombarded by warm and friendly ads, Canadians might be deceived into thinking banks are kindly public services. But they are businesses, although they must work hard to keep our trust.

When’s the last time the average Canadian could walk into their local bank branch and expect to have their financial needs objectively evaluated? Needless to say, it’s been a while. Recent shocking headlines have revealed that Canada’s five big banks have allegedly been pressuring their employees to upsell, deceive and even lie to customers to meet sales targets and keep their jobs. The reports have now spurred the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada to launch a formal review of the big five’s business practices.
If there’s truth to the reports, it seems we are left with financial institutions that are a lot like car dealerships, and bank employees who are a lot like car salespeople—you know, the ones who will allegedly tell you whatever you want in order to get their selling bonus, meet their monthly quota and most importantly, make the final sale. The lesson? Don’t rely on front-end bank personnel to tell you the truth. Question everything they recommend for you because they are first and foremost salespeople…

One of Canada’s top consumers watchdogs says it was planning on reviewing sales practices at Canadian banks since January, when it saw a surge in complaints from customers about being signed up for credit cards that they hadn’t asked for.

How are your investment fees affecting your returns? A new site called the WealthGame.ca has the answer, but you may not like what you learn.
Larry Bates is the founder of WealthGame.ca, which aims to draw attention to the impact fees have on your portfolio. The 25-year financial services industry veteran was tired of watching people entrust their hard to earned money to the banks and fund companies only to see half of their gains lost to fees. That might sound like hyperbole, but when you run the numbers half might be an understatement.
Consider the following two scenarios.
Scenario 1
Let’s say you have a $100,000 portfolio earning 3% per year. Over 25 years that portfolio would more than double in value to $209,378, but that’s before fees. If the annual fee is 0.5% that portfolio will pay almost $24,000 in fees over that time. Because of the drag fees have on compounding, that gain realized by the investor is a little more than $85,000.
Scenario 2
Now let’s assume the same portfolio and performance, except this time the fee is 2%, which is in line with a typical mutual fund…

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When’s the last time the average Canadian could walk into their local bank branch and expect to have their financial needs objectively evaluated? Needless to say, it’s been a while. Recent shocking headlines have revealed that Canada’s five big banks have allegedly been pressuring their employees to upsell, deceive and even lie to customers to meet sales targets and keep their jobs. The reports have now spurred the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada to launch a formal review of the big five’s business practices.
If there’s truth to the reports, it seems we are left with financial institutions that are a lot like car dealerships, and bank employees who are a lot like car salespeople—you know, the ones who will allegedly tell you whatever you want in order to get their selling bonus, meet their monthly quota and most importantly, make the final sale. The lesson? Don’t rely on front-end bank personnel to tell you the truth. Question everything they recommend for you because they are first and foremost salespeople…