Andrea Thompson

But I do think that there is room for people to just be what they are and just do that really well.

Not as much in my practice.

I have heard of other advice-only planners who have, I don't want to say partnered because that's the wrong effect, who do have trusted investment advisor partnerships in a way.

But I don't see it as much because I think the type of client who often comes to my doorstep is a do-it-yourself investor.

So they're really not interested in portfolio management.

With the caveat that on the cross-border side, which I know we'll talk to, often they do require the appropriately licensed financial advisor to manage their assets.

I do because here's the thing, you know, software is becoming a tool that's actually pretty readily available to a lot of Canadians if you want to do it yourself.

There's actually a platform that you probably heard of called Advice.

I'll give a shout out to my friend Owen who runs this platform.

You can go on and for a very reasonable monthly cost, you can run your own retirement planning and you can access an advisor, you know, by clicking a button, I believe, to be able to have a conversation about it.

So I think we have to realize that technology is going to get there.

The piece that's missing, though, is the experience and advice component of the financial planning that goes behind it.

You know, people running their own numbers, that's going to become easier, but it's not going to have the financial planning overlay, the behavioral coaching.

They're not maybe going to have the strategies built in to, say, do an RSP meltdown early or whatever.

to understand the tax implications of doing A or B, or should they defer CPP or OAS, yes or no?

How does that affect other things?

So I think having that experience lens is the part that people are missing.

And I have DIY investors who come to me and they've already done their own preliminary financial planning on their own.

But they're still hiring me because they do want a vetted professional to actually check some balances.

Because at the end of the day, are we really trusting the tools that are out there to make very super important decisions for our future?