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There’s a marriage-counselling aspect to hearing people talk about an unhappy relationship with an investment adviser.

Sometimes, you wonder if the relationship is salvageable. An example came up recently when a reader asked about an adviser he and his wife have had for about 10 years. Their account is valued in the high six figures and contains about 30 different securities according to a low/medium-risk profile. The fee on the account comes in at 1.25 per cent.

“We meet with the adviser once per year and rarely hear from him (once or twice yearly),” this reader writes. “He seems peeved if I ask questions.”

There’s more. The adviser mentions over and over how well this client’s account is doing but provides little help in making sense of the numbers. Bottom line, this reader says the adviser “seems to have lost interest in our account.”

That would be my conclusion as well. An adviser who is affronted by client questions is an adviser who has mentally checked out. The same applies to the lack of contact and discussion about what the client owns and how it’s performing in the context of the past year’s dramatic events.

This reader asks about getting a second opinion on his portfolio, which seems reasonable in the narrow sense of being uncertain about how his investments are performing. The risk in doing so: finding out that the portfolio is performing adequately or better. Because even if the portfolio is okay, this client-adviser relationship is not.

Strong advisers are actually happy when clients ask questions. They want clients engaged and curious because it makes for a more effective partnership. Also, strong advisers don’t tell clients how well their accounts are doing – they show it by connecting portfolio returns to progress in working toward financial goals.

In a good client-adviser relationship, there is communication. There doesn’t seem to be much of that with this reader and his adviser, which leads to an observation. In this particular account, the adviser’s main interest seems to be collecting that 1.25-per-cent fee that he shares with his firm.

A marriage counsellor might suggest two possible avenues for this client – hash it out with the adviser to come to a better understanding of the service level expected, or break it off and move on.

-- Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist

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The Rundown

Janet Yellen’s walked-back comments on interest rates show how sensitive markets are to any hint of policy shift

The U.S. Treasury Secretary set off the mini-panic on Tuesday when she suggested in a taped interview that – gasp – interest rates “will have to rise somewhat to make sure that our economy doesn’t overheat.” Bond yields surged and tech stocks fell, only to reverse course after Ms. Yellen walked back her remarks later in the day. Mix anxiety and confusion together and this week’s interest rate turmoil is likely to be the first of many such episodes to come as investors try to get a handle on what rising rates will mean to sky-high stock prices. To keep your cool over the months ahead, it may pay to look deeper at the relationship between interest rates and stock valuations – or to be more precise, at the complete lack of relationship between them. Ian McGugan explains.

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Booming stocks, internet-driven “meme” investments and the black box of hedge fund financing pose increasing risks as the U.S. economy emerges from the coronavirus pandemic and investor appetite soars, the Federal Reserve is warning in its latest report on financial stability.

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Ask Globe Investor

Question: I have TFSAs with three institutions. Can I transfer these to another institution so that I can change the investment makeup of the individual TFSAs beyond that offered by the institution in question?

Answer: Yes, but it must be done properly or you risk running afoul of the overcontribution rules. Don’t just pull your money out, walk across the street, and open a new plan. The Canada Revenue Agency would consider that to be a new contribution.

Instead, ask the new institution to open a plan in your name and have them arrange to have the assets in your existing plans transferred over. They’ll handle all the paperwork. There may be a transfer fee, which is your responsibility to pay. The whole process should theoretically take just a few days, but you may end up having to wait a couple of weeks. Financial institutions have been known to drag their feet when it involves closing an account.

--Gordon Pape

What’s up in the days ahead

Rob Carrick will present a five-point guide to eliminating nasty surprises from bonds in a rising rate world.

World market themes for the week ahead

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