$mart Money is a quarterly newsletter published by our company. The lead article in the current issue presents 11 new year resolutions to help you get your financial house in order in 2011.
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Here’s a shocker: mutual-fund industry does not like the idea of curtailing high and often-hidden sales fees (“loads”) and other arcane fee grabs (“12b-1”).
As a Registered Investment Advisor, we offer a higher standard of service to our clients, lower fees and better performance compared to a broker or a bank.
We always puts our clients’ interest ahead of our own. Our management fee is smaller than brokers’ fees plus their hidden sales fees. Our analysis usually shows our recommendations perform better than the brokers’ fee laiden products.
If brokers had to put their clients’ interest ahead of their own, those clients would pay more for financial advice and their investments, according to a study commissioned by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a group representing megabrokers and banks that are trying to influence a forthcoming rulemaking from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Knut Rostad, chairman of a financial advisors advocacy group, the Committee for the Fiduciary Standard, called the SIFMA report “a fantastic mythology.” “It’s so incoherent as to defy objective evaluation,” Barbara Roper of the Consumer Federation of America wrote to the SEC.
Today’s Wall Street Journal shows the tenth best multicap core fund has a one-year total return of 27.2% as of October 29, 2010. Our clients’ NorthStar Equity portfolio levels up at a very respectable 27.1% net of fees placing us in the top 98% percentile. [Past performance is not an indication of future results. Please see performance disclosures at http://www.nstarcapital.com/performance].
Is your financial adviser exercising independent judgment and providing you the information and fortitude to fight the herd mentality? Read on and find out…
Ever wonder why financial salespeople push certain products? According to economist Steven Levitt, incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. The broker pushes certain mutual funds because she makes a tidy 5% sales commission if you take her advice. The insurance man loves annuities because he can pocket an astounding 10% commission on each one he sells.
Though we largely advise our clients to avoid market timing, the rest of herd may be returning to the market soon…”In 2011, strategists expect the stock market to notch double-digit gains and recommend investors boost allocations to ride the wave”
Be careful if someone approaches you touting their financial expertise based on some fancy initials after their name. Regulators report an uptick in financial advisers using dubious designations to court older, wealthier clients in an effort to sell high-fee investments that aren’t appropriate.
