Using a full service boutique firm for investment and planning advice is a great way of staying up-to-date with any developments in the financial markets and, with that, maximizing your potential retirement funds.

“Using a boutique is a great way to cover areas of knowledge and expertise that you don’t have,” says Ted Rechtshaffen, President and CEO of TriDelta Financial Partners.

Rechtshaffen believes that the independent nature of boutique firms allows for a level of flexibility and objectivity that the big banks struggle to achieve. “There’s also lots of conflicts of interests when you use a big bank because they’re so focused on selling their own products,” he says.

"Using a boutique is a great way to cover areas of knowledge and expertise that you don’t have."

“Boutique firms are independent enough to be able to say, ‘I can offer you anything, whatever the solution or financial product may be.’”

Ottawa-based Certified Financial Planner, Ron Harvey, believes that a primary advantage of using a full service boutique firm is that individuals receive a personal touch, away from the standard institutionalized setting.

“People are able to build a relationship with one advisor, and the whole experience is completely client focused,” says Harvey. “The first meeting is always about the client’s goals and dreams.”

Building a Relationship

A recent study shows that Canadians are 2.7 times wealthier in the long term if they work with a financial advisor, as opposed to managing their own investments. Rechtshaffen thinks that working with a personal advisor helps to encourage a higher degree of logic and common sense in an individual’s investment behaviours.

“Boutique firms are independent enough to be able to say, ‘I can offer you anything, whatever the solution or financial product may be.’”

“It’s very difficult emotionally to manage your own money well because people tend to be trigger happy at the wrong times,” he says. “You really have to fight your human nature to be a good investor and having a separation between your finger on the mouse and an investment decision, in the form of an advisor, is often a positive.”

But it’s not just about finding a financial advisor with the knowledge and expertise that you don’t have; the President of De Thomas Financial, Tony De Thomasis, believes that there needs to be certain chemistry and some shared values.

“It’s important that you think alike; you need to be on the same page in terms of what investment strategy you’re comfortable with,” says De Thomasis. “You don’t want to have two people in a relationship that don’t agree on investment philosophy, it’s never going to work.”