When selecting someone to help you manage your portfolio, one of the most difficult aspects can be clearly understanding how different firms are remunerated for their services.

Portfolio management is a fee-for-service business. Our fee is based on the market value of your assets under management. Our fees rise and fall with the value of your portfolio. When you do well, we do well. It is in our best interests to produce superior performance on your behalf.

Many people falsely believe that hiring an Investment Counsellor to design and manage your portfolio will be more expensive than other types of investment advisors. Hidden costs such as sales commissions, deferred sales charges, trading costs, and embedded fund management expenses may cost two to three times more than the fees charged by an Investment Counsellor.

Our compensation is not affected by the number of transactions (or the dollar value of the transactions) that occur within your portfolio. We do not receive any commission or compensation for buying or selling securities. By dealing directly with a Portfolio Manager, you eliminate the middle man and the associated sales fees.

Our annual investment management fees start at 1.0% for the first $1 million of assets under management, and decrease as the amount of assets increase. Our fees are billed at the end of every quarter, and, for certain types of accounts, are tax-deductible.

As discussed under Portfolio, your assets are held in custody by an independent trust company. In addition to investment management fees, clients pay custody fees directly to the custodian. The typical trust company’s current fee for this service is about 0.3% for the first one million, and decreases as the amount of assets increase.