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If you’ve been reading my blogs you know I have little patience for companies in the financial services industry that do things to con people out of their money. There never seems to be an end to how many ideas the banks come up with. If it’s not one con, it’s another. Here’s a little known scam…

Here’s another useless exercise the investment industry goes through each year – annual client statement audits. Each year you probably get a statement from your investment provider that comes with a letter or statement on it that says something like this … “The annual audit of our accounts is being conducted as of December 31st,…

If you have a question, why not send it our way?  We can provide you with an answer or we can provide you with the tools for making your own decisions. Email your questions to info@tpcfinancial.com. We’ll either respond to you directly or feature your question (anonymously) in one of our newsletters or blogs. Need inspiration?…

Readers Digest just released a list of 13 Scary Things You Didn’t Know About Canada. The list included everything from Lake Monsters to Phantoms in Old Montreal. It’s interesting but everything on the lists is arguably “unreal”. What isn’t “unreal” is the 14th. So what is the 14th Scariest thing in Canada that most people don’t know about (or…

I came upon something yesterday that made my blood boil. A new client dropped off his data so we could help him get his financial life in order. Like many, he had lost track of where he was going and found himself in debt and frustrated that he couldn’t get ahead. As I was reviewing his information…

In December there was an article in the Financial Post which described the bonuses being paid to bankers in 2012. To quote the article, “Royal Bank of Canada and National Bank of Canada led the 7.5% surge in bonus awards among the country’s lenders this year, bucking a global trend of pay cuts on Wall…

Let’s have a little discussion about annuities. I think it’s appropriate because I’ve seen a lot of articles about these things over the last few years. The reason for the renewed interest is because people are scared. When people are scared they’re vulnerable and when they’re vulnerable they make mistakes. I think annuities right now are a…

I don’t think we need more mutual funds. What I’m referring to is CI Mutual Funds announcing they’ve launched two new mutual funds. Isn’t there enough choices with the already thousands of funds available to Canadians? I had to look to see what was so special about these new funds so I looked them up on-line. I must admit I never…

I recently read a quote that stated: “I don’t want to be unduly critical of the regulators, but they have dropped the ball. Their mandate is investor protection and yet the investor, the individual investor, is the last person on the totem pole that they ever think about.” This quote comes from Glorianne Stromberg, the…

One assumption that is often made when financial planning is that couples will stay together in retirement. Unfortunately for more and more families, this is not the case. When I mention this to new clients, I usually get an awkward grin. This is normally followed by a nod of agreement when I explain that I’m not talking…