A recent article in the Toronto Star mentions how most Canadian investors believe their only cost of investing in mutual funds is the management expense ratio (MER), which goes to the asset manager. This article shines a bright light on the costs of investing and the need for investment advisors to illustrate the value of the advice and investment planning that they provide to their clients.

I recently met with a large investment dealer that raised the question as to whether or not there was an online tool to look up a fund’s MER using the fund code. This dealer believes there will be a large focus on a fund’s MER once CRM2 is fully implemented, and would like to be able to illustrate comparisons for investors on the various costs of owning the same fund or different funds, across various series and classes.

The days of looking up fund prices in the newspaper are long gone and now investors will be looking to their advisors for a lot more than fund prices and market values. Advisors are adopting and embracing technology to assist them in providing their client’s with the key metrics around the costs of investing and the value of their advice.

Tags: Financial Services