Money is an emotional subject that requires a technician’s skills and a professional’s eye. It is a place where a small nudge like a reduction in fees, a better performing portfolio, or the elimination of wasteful commissions, can mean huge sums of money. Most people will shop for hours to save $20 on a new toaster, but avoid a conversation that could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The other guys

• A majority of investment advisors are commission-based brokers, they get paid for buying and selling your products, costing you a portion of your investments on every transaction.
• Most investment advisors work for brokerage houses or big institutions. Many of these Wall Street firms (think of the big names you know, banks, strip mall shops) have back door deals where they get a cut of your investment and push certain products, even if they aren’t the best for you.
• A lot of these institutions are moving to a “hybrid” model, allowing them to tout their “fee” based system, while still charging commissions.
• Your advisor is probably a good person, but captive to their business model, Wall Street, and the inherent conflict of interest in being able to make money by buying and selling products, and getting a commission paid out of your assets.

PFG

• If you can’t answer in one sentence how you pay your advisor, with one flat percentage, you are probably paying commissions.
• At PFG we charge a flat percentage that decreases as your net worth increases
• We do the best for our clients not because we are told to, but because we truly care about our clients’ future, and our bottom line is increasing your bottom line.
• You pay us a low, flat fee to be your family’s CFO, letting you focus on the more important things in life.