By Brad Brain
There is a truth bomb about to drop in the Canadian investment industry, and I am gleefully waiting for it to explode. Some people are going to have some explaining to do.
Historically the investment industry has not always been as transparent it should be, to the detriment of the Canadian investing public. Sometimes this has been accidental. But, on occasion, other times it has been malicious.
Specifically, when it comes to the fees that investors pay there has been confusion and obfuscation. I am not saying that this is a universal problem, but there are definitely instances over the years where there has been some gamesmanship over how much investors are paying in investment fees. Those days are coming to an end.
And it’s about time.
The fact is that a significant number of Canadians have no idea what they pay in investment fees. Given the current state of fee disclosure that is not surprising. But what is surprising is that there are many, many people out there who think they don’t pay anything at all for their investments.