Since many major Banks now converted to a hybrid model of managing their clients investments, in other words allowing their clients to manage their investments themselves, the question comes to mind: “how many clients have in the past trusted their pension funds to their banks, and how many got burned by seeing their much-needed portfolios’ value decline rapidly ?”

The older you get the more important it becomes to hang on to these funds which may constitute a major part of your monthly income.

The other concern is the HOW, how do a good job of managing yourself a complex financial portfolio without the necessary training to do so.

Banking professionals who are learning new procedures and platforms always receive training courses on HOW to do this. That’s easy. Yet, they expect all their (retirement) clients to easily adjust to this new reality. Without offering instructions on the (new platform self directing) websites themselves.

The way I see this: (1) Never get nervous when markets decline – bear markets are always shorter than bull markets. (cf. end 2018, beginning 2019); instead wait it out, do not check your portfolio daily.

(2) When markets decline and depress, think before SELL or BUY. For example, when any of my stocks decline by 5 to 10% or more, BUY the same stock may be better than SELL.

Investment Advisors are sales people just like car salesmen. They live on commissions, and therefore do not always have a client’s interest on their mind. Always do your own research. Provided you have access to valuable and trustworthy information. ‘Tolerance of Risk’ is the key determinant for any investment decisions for any portfolios, more so Registered Retirement Income Funds/RRIF. Because they are the source of income.

UPDATE Jan 29/2019. Apropos the Bank which I had transferred my RRIF account to lately. More and more surprises are coming my way. Example: Fees and charges. I was told that a self-directed (or direct brokerage) account allows trading at low cost, and no more management fees.

NOT SO. The new platform for this self-directed account does not provide any detail information to the client on any transaction fees or charges. [Besides $9.99 cost to buy certain stocks.] Eg. Bonds, certain mutual funds, GICs cannot simply be bought online, must call the Bank to get this done. For bonds, fees or commissions must be paid. After several weeks of my investigation I am still waiting for them to release precise information on this (in the form of at least %). [We are also dealing with a large number of regulations for accounts eg. that transfer from one province to HQ. in another province.]

The platform itself is lacking detail eDocuments/eServices reporting on what income and expenses’ transactions are going thru this account. Personally I spend a lot of time to check out all the companies’ websites for when they pay out future 2019 dividends or interest or distributions. This type of service must be contained in a website or platform of the Bank who are holding clients’ moneys. But are not always. My previous account had this eDocuments facility. For anybody who transferred their RRIF portfolios to such self-directing accounts, regular checks on any unexplained charges/fees are recommended.