About Efficient Wealth Management

Efficient Wealth Management is a leader in cost efficient financial planning. We have developed cost efficient strategies for managing the wealth of investors, both small and large.

At Efficient Wealth Management, we have separated ourselves from the sale of products.  We get paid for providing services. We are independent and "fee-only."   We do not sell any products. We are paid only for our services and our fees are fully transparent.  Our advice is independent, objective and unbiased. We become your partner in managing your wealth and through our relationships with select investment advisors, we help you take control of your costs.

At Efficient Wealth Management, we think you should be in control of the relationship. Our service plans have been developed to let you select the level of involvement you desire from your financial professionals. You can go it alone, benefit from our educational sessions, get some minimal guidance or rely on us to monitor your portfolio. You can engage us to provide a complete set of financial plans or just one. 

Our advisory service has been built upon a commitment to provide objectivity, independence, candor and an outstanding value. When you work with Efficient Wealth Management, you will benefit from the insight of an experienced, dedicated financial planner. Your planner will walk you through the entire planning process – from discussing your concerns, to developing a set of recommendations tailored just for you, to helping you put those recommendations in place. Your fees for our services include a subscription for ongoing financial planning services, so we will be there when we are needed..

Costs Do Matter

Why a focus on costs? At Efficient Wealth Management, we believe that costs do matter. We think it is our professional duty to not just to deliver advisory services to our clients, but also to do so efficiently and ensure maximum value is received. We also strive to find valuable relationships for our clients with those companies that recognize that that the benefit of professional portfolio management received by the client must be at a fair price. Value, fairness and openness are the foundation of strong enduring relationships with our clients.

For instance, many investors, whether large or small, are often invested all or in part in mutual funds. Mutual funds come with a hidden cost.  Each mutual fund company deducts management fees and expenses directly from the funds.  The total of all costs are disclosed as the management expense ratio or MER, which are often 2.5% to 3.5% every year.  Among the items these fees are used to pay are the one time selling commissions, sometimes over 5%, as well as monthly servicing fees called trailers or trailer fees, of as much as 1.2% per annum.

Everyday, more questions are being asked about the high cost of mutual funds and/or the advisory system in Canada . It is too often true, that investors are paying too much for too little. They are supporting their mutual funds' company's efforts to find new clients, not just manage the existing ones. Their advisors are being paid to find new products and services that can be sold to them, whether they need them or not. Worse yet, advisors are being paid for providing ongoing service that is often lacking or non existent.

Larger investors have turned to Wrap accounts or Managed Money accounts. So called “personalized” mutual funds. These are increasingly popular as brokers are finding themselves with fewer clients wanting to trade often. Trading is slowly moving to discount accounts where commissions are much lower. You may now have your broker charge you based on the size of your account and pay over 2% for the privilege of having an under diversified, poorly allocated portfolio. Alternatively, you can select a managed money account and pay even more than you would have for a well structured group of high MER mutual funds. Your broker may even double dip by charging you a wrap fee on the mutual funds in your portfolio, which have their own fees already.

Some Principles

We do not want your investments chosen on the basis of which fund or investment has the highest commission or trailers payable to your advisor.

For many investors, lower cost mutual funds, index funds and Exchange Traded Funds will provide a fabulous way to achieve broad diversification and professional selection and management of securities and still control costs.

The investment advisors we work with do not want your trailers and commissions.  They want you to profit from these sales incentives.  This is not easy in an industry where much of the product is sold on a commission basis and advisors are paid for making the sale. 

We respect the need to provide fair value.  You pay for what you get and do not pay for what you do not want.

We get paid for what we do, not for what we get you to do.  Most advisors, even the ones that do a good job of financial planning, are not paid for this service, they are paid for closing the deal on the product.  

Key to our cost strategies are the dealers, advisors, brokers and investment counsels we have reciprocal support arrangements with.

For mutual fund accounts of any size, we introduce you to a discount mutual fund dealer, who believes strongly that costs do matter.

For accounts over $250,000, we introduce you to a fee for service advisor at an introducing broker to TD Waterhouse.  Exchange traded funds are a specialty.

For accounts greater than $750,000, we can facilitate an introduction to one of a select few Investment Counsel.  Private portfolio management and financial planning, together, a powerful combination.