Manulife 4.95% (formerly 5.25%) Advantage Account until Dec 6, 2024 (requires an advisor) | Manulife Bank | Discussion forum

Hi, is this a targeted offer? Because I don't see it on the website anywhere? Maybe you can help. 5.50% Tangerine until the end of the month. 5.50% Simplii until November 15th then need to find somewhere to move my $$. Thanks

mustang said
The T&C seem to imply this offer is only open to accounts with an "advisor"  

That would explain how this offer differs from the typical ones where you would always open a new account, whereas this one is having a promotional interest rate added to an existing Advantage account.

COIN said
Question: What is an "advisor"?  

They're definitely not an 'adviser'. It's an interesting distinction which apparently most are unaware of.

COIN said
Question: What is an "advisor"?

A salesperson trying to look like he/she is a regulated adviser, a fiduciary who is required to watch out for the client's best interest.

See CBC Go Public story 'I feel duped': Why bank employees with impressive but misleading titles could cost you big time (Mar 29, 2017):

"The game today is to earn clients' trust," said Larry Elford, a former certified investment manager with RBC and lead researcher of the SIPA report. "And never let them know that you are actually a commissioned salesperson and you don't have to honour that trust."

RetirEd said
These days, I would ask someone if they are under fiduciary duty.

I wouldn't bother. The chances of receiving a truthful "Yes" to that question is slim.

According to the Small Investor Protection Association report Web of Deception mentioned by the CBC Go Public story, only 3% of the registrants have fiduciary duty:

FALSE TITLES MISLEAD

In SIPA's report “Advisor Title Trickery” there were 121,932 total registrants in Canada as of Sept 16, 2016 in the investment industry. 4,076 persons or 3% of that total are legally registered in the category of Adviser or Advising Representative. Only 3% are registered in the category where a true fiduciary professional responsibility is legally required to be delivered to you as the investor. All others are registered as Dealing Representative, i.e. salespersons who legally act as an agent of the dealer, and NOT firstly an agent of the investor. Client relationship rules currently allow this to be hidden from your view, and the investor is expected to be responsible for learning this. This bait and switch is a root cause of a great deal of harm being played out upon nearly every Canadian investor.

One is not going to have access to one of the 3% minority, like an investment counselor, until one has $500,000+ to place for investment.

It helps if one accompanies the question about fiduciary duty with a reminder of severe penalties for lying about it.

Loonie said

It probably would, but some of them appear to have never heard the word before and clearly don't understand what it means. I guess it's not in the training manual.

Here's a new question for all their licensing exams: "Spell fi-doo-she-air-ee correctly, explain what it means and how it will or will not apply in your practice.'' Pass/fail.  

Hilarious , but seriously important at the same time.