Frequently Asked Questions
We know you probably have many questions, and we are always here to help answer them and make you feel comfortable and confident about your financial future.
Why would we use K4 Financial instead of our bank or another financial institution?
We believe that we can provide you with a better financial plan, that has no sales agenda attached to it, or potential quotas to meet that could drive our recommendations. On top of that, our only goal is to protect your hard earned money by showing you how to keep as much of it as possible. We keep our costs as low as possible in order to provide you with the lowest rates we can afford to give you. We don’t have to waste a lot of money to do anything the way big corporations do and that allows us to pass on huge savings to you for the exact same, and in our truthful opinion, highly superior, advice and service.
Why would I trust your site with my financial information?
We have very strict protocols when it comes to safeguarding our clients’ information, however, we do not need to collect any information from you that could lead you to any financial harm. Since we don’t need to sell you any products to provide you with a financial plan, we only need to know basic information (date of birth, province of residence, marital status). To be honest, you could give us a different name if you wanted as we only base our recommendations on the numbers you provide, however it is in your best interest to give us as much and as accurate information as possible. As Certified Financial Planners®, we are also bound by our code of ethics to maintain client confidentiality at all times.
However, if you choose to use us as your insurance agent, we will have to get more personal.
How much does it cost?
If you review our plan and want to continue to work with us, you will invest your money with one of a number of investment managers we have agreements with. They will manage your money and we will be your financial planner. For this, we are compensated between 0.40% and 1.00% of the value of your portfolio every year. We will disclose your total fee.
How do you save us money?
It is very common for almost all Canadians to have a few inefficiencies in their financial plan, even if they have a solid plan in place. Generally we can almost always find a few ways to save money in taxes and interest charges. We can almost certainly save you a crazy amount of money on investment fees as well.
We will also show you a lot of strategies that can save you money in your budget and improve your overall net worth, but those strategies can only improve your financial situation theoretically. For example; we might suggest that you invest into your TFSA instead of paying down your mortgage, but if the rate of return is less than what you’re paying in interest it will not be an effective strategy. Every time we provide you with a recommendation similar to that, we will thoroughly explain the pros and cons of each strategy and leave it up to you to decide what is best for you.
A good financial planner is also a lot like a therapist. We do our best to talk you off the cliff when you’re about to make a poor financial decision. This is what makes a good planner invaluable.
What if I don’t like the plan?
If you are unhappy with the plan, please let us know and hopefully we can work together and create something better suited for you. We believe we’ll be able to find a compromise as long as we communicate.
Is there anyone you won’t deal with?
Should we find ourselves in a position where we feel we are not qualified to give our clients the best advice possible, we will actually recommend the client pursue the advice of professionals who specialize in cases like theirs. Examples could include clients who need advice on the following: farm transfers, large quantities of U.S. property. This will however be on a case-by-case basis, because we believe that we can provide any Canadian with helpful advice that will improve their financial situation.
What if we don’t take your recommendations?
You may not take all of our recommendations. We are here to provide you with a path that we believe you can and should take. You will not always follow that path, but going forward, we will use the path you chose to go down and keep showing you a new one. That is why it is necessary to continue to do the annual reviews and financial plans when they are needed.
Do you make any money off of anything we do?
We have a relationship with ModernAdvisor, who we believe to be the best in the business as they provide Canadians with fantastic investment advice and great service at an extremely low cost. ModernAdvisor charges our clients 0.40% to build and maintain your investment portfolio. Typically, the portfolios they build have an additional MER of 0.20%. Based on your level of assets, K4 Financial charges up to 1.00% as our ongoing planning fee.
You can also choose to use us as your insurance agent. Someone has to sell it to you, so we figured we may as well provide you with that option. If you decide to consider us as your agent, we will fully disclose the potential commission we can make off of your policy when we provide you with the options we believe are best suited to you and your needs.
Why wouldn’t we just use the asset manager and save money by not using your referral code?
This is a very valid question a lot of consumers will have, because almost everyone views financial advisors as an investment person and nothing else. Now although the investments are very important and basically the only thing anyone cares about, the hard truth is that the investments are only a small part of the whole picture. We believe that our partner is the best asset manager in the business and completely support their investment model, advice, pricing and service, so we will leave all of the money management to them.
On our end, we will focus on the other five areas of financial planning that everyone seems to forget about, which include: Budget Planning, Retirement Planning, Risk Management, Tax Planning and Estate Planning. To us, it seems like a great way for you to get great advice and incredible value for your hard-earned money.
I like my financial girl or guy, why would I switch away from them?
If you already have an advisor, I hope they are giving you wonderful advice and service. We have nothing against your advisor and respect the personalized touch that comes with having a face-to-face planner, however having a guy comes at a cost. So, if you really like your advisor so much, we suggest you switch to us and use a small portion of the money you save every year to take him or her golfing, or out to lunch, or whatever it is that they do to treat you from time to time.
Since you are on the computer right now I want you to email your advisor and ask how much money (in total, not just the fee you can always see) are you paying on your portfolio in a year? Then I want you to email us the total fees you’re paying and the value of your account and we’ll tell you how much money you could save every year, by switching to us.
There’s a reason why corporations train their advisors how to answer questions like the one you’re about to ask.
I thought financial advisors were always old. How come you’re not old?
Some people assume that only older advisors can have the necessary experience needed to give proper advice through different economic times. As we have said before, the one thing you really need to look for when judging the experience of an advisor is the CFP®, as it means that all of the work and educational requirements have been met and are currently up to date.
I do not, and will not ever know everything there is to know about financial planning, but I am also smart enough to know that I needed to build a company that could easily adapt as the industry moves forward, so that we can always provide you with the best advice that’s available.
Large corporations and older advisors generally find it hard to adapt, and often times actually unwilling to try. We are not your average corporation or advisors.