Selecting a financial advisor is a personal affair. When it comes to seeking out advice from a financial advisor to plan and manage an RSP portfolio, Canadians are more likely to be influenced by a referral from a spouse, other family member or even a friend. Once Canadians have chosen their financial advisor, they remain highly loyal.
Most people are quite happy.
However, the odds of this happening are greater for organisations such as insurance and trust companies, mutual fund dealers and the caisse populaire. The big winners here are independent financial advisors while banks and brokerage firms tend to have the fewest referrals, which may be a signal that they are not doing as good a job of building loyalty within their client base. Women are more likely to turn to a Financial Advisor, more apt to have been replying on one for years, and more likely to turn to banks for such advice. Women do so as well but also turn to their bank for advice. Their preference for banks, relative to men, may explain this to some extent, as women tend to use banks more than men do when it comes to financial planning.