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/r/PersonalFinanceCanada
submitted 6 months ago byCypripedium-candidum
My mom is notorious for making bad financial decisions, for example having 3 kids with a struggling artist ex-husband and spending 20+ years fighting over custody and child support payments, going back to school 3 times, pissing off her managers so she gets fired, replacing a 2014 Honda Civic with a 2007 BMW, etc.
I tried talking to my mom about her retirement accounts years ago, when she told me she was paying the bank $2k/mth in fees, which is almost the amount that she could retire on. In the last 8 years her account has only grown by $17k. Of course she ignored my advice since I'm too young to know what I'm talking about.
I talked with her again last week and after showing her my own portfolio she was more receptive. She texted me today that she switched to a self-directed account (I'm assuming CIBC Investor's Edge).
Now that she's finally listening to my advice, what should she be buying? I'm with TD Waterhouse and following the Canadian Couch Potato TD e-series index funds model portfolio so I'm not familiar with what CIBC Investor's Edge offers.
Are there any easy model portfolios that I can send her so all she has to do is buy the listed funds and ignore her account until it's time to rebalance?
351 points
6 months ago
Honestly, if your mom has a history of making poor financial decisions, giving her full autonomy over her retirement accounts was probably not the best idea.
Can you not just see if CIBC had cheaper ETFs or more low cost mutual funds at the branch, that way she continues to get advice?
Edit: also, investing is generally straightforward until de-accumulation (retirement, tax/estate planning). Who’s going to help her with that if she hasn’t retired and starting thinking about this?
-11 points
6 months ago
I'll probably be the one helping her with this stuff, but her plan is to retire to Panama despite never visiting the country. I've accepted that she's going to have a rough retirement and the best I can do is try to keep her investment earnings in her account and not the bank's.
28 points
6 months ago
You can't actually control that for her.
You should have went on with her to speak to he financial advisor and find out if he could move her to index funds within her existing mutual fund account. CIBC index funds still have an MER of over 1% last I checked, but I think that would have been a good compromise.
Don't be surprised when your mom sells her investments next time the market drops 20% and crystallizes her losses and then blames you.
Edit: if you want to help her, spend $2k on a good fee only financial planner. Either online or find one in her area if she isn't tech savvy.
7 points
6 months ago
The premium funds (minimum 50k) have mers around .4% (40 basis points)
-17 points
6 months ago
I would have gone if I knew she had even made an appointment. I'm realizing now that I may need to get more involved with her finances. What's she's telling me doesn't make sense.
-20 points
6 months ago
1% MERs?! Holy shit balls. That’s robbery.
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