Financial Services for Less: How to Lower Investment and Banking Fees, Mortgage Rates and Life Insurance

Literally hundreds of Billions of dollars in profits are made each year off of the accounts and financial products of millions of Canadians and Americans. In fact the Financial Services industry is the most profitable money making machine in North America. But it is also an industry that most people know relatively little about. This is a problem, because it allows Bankers and many other financial managers to get away with keeping more of your money than they probably should, while offering mediocre, ‘cookie cutter’ levels of service.

Financial Services for Less will show you how to take back much of your share of the Bankers profits, and put it back in your pocket. Over time, this ‘redistribution of profits’ from the Banks can amount to quite the nest egg for you. So here you will learn the main ideas that help you get the most out of your Financial Services relationships. In doing this, you stand to:

• Become financially stress free, live an enhanced lifestyle, and reach your goals much sooner.
• Earn 20% - 50% more return on your long term investments.
• Save $10,000s on mortgage interest.
• Save $1,000s on insurance premiums, while improving the policy coverage.
• Lower or avoid pesky Banking and account fees.

We will show you how to do this in a way that won’t sacrifice top notch personalised financial service. In fact, Altrua Financial specialises in providing lower cost financial solutions, while offering the highest levels of Financial Planning and customer service in the market. So the following top tips on financial services savings pretty much sums up what we do as our core business.

How does a Financial Plan benefit me?

The diverse picture of your financial world, working together efficiently, is greater than the sum of its parts.

A Financial Plan is a completely customised financial road map that leads to your ideal lifestyle before and after you’ve retired. It is a Plan based on choices and freedoms. No matter what financial products or accounts you have, they won’t go nearly as far as they could without a Financial Plan. By looking at how all the moving parts of your financial world including investments, mortgage, life insurance and banking work together, and by creating strategic efficiencies among them, this will help you to grow and reach your goals much faster.  It has also been proven in large studies that by having a financial plan, there is much lower stress surrounding finances, and much greater excitement and confidence for the future.

Financial planning is often seen as a little intimidating and a lot of work at first, but in reality getting a financial plan is easy and for many is an exciting process. But all financial plans are different. Some are very ‘product sales oriented’, whereas others area almost completely focused on your lifestyle and goals. Check out Altrua’s planning philosophies here.

How to Save on Your Mortgage

Use the services of a mortgage broker, or shop around for a lower mortgage rate.

Lower Rates

A mortgage may be your single biggest expense –ever. Taking a Banks first offer on your mortgage will often result in interest rates that are 0.25% higher than what you could be getting, if your credit rating is good. Although 0.25% different in rate does not seem like much, on every $100,000 of outstanding mortgage this amounts to $250 per year. With 25 years of payments, this 0.25% extra works out to about $10,000 (including compounding effects) on $100,000 of mortgage. That’s about 10% of the value of the mortgage!

Higher Service

Good mortgage brokers go beyond rate to provide financial solutions that work around your life. By taking into account any other debt, savings or income, and creating customised strategies can save you far more than even 0.25% of interest costs. A mortgage can be a tool that helps you increase your overall net worth, and in some specific cases mortgage interest can even be tax deductible. Visit Altrua Mortgage Solutions.

How to Lower Your Investment Fees and Increase Your Return

Lower your investment costs by using a non-commission, fee-based Investment Advisor.

Lower Fees

The average yearly cost of mutual funds in Canada in 2017 is about 2.2% of your assets held within the fund. This means that for every $100,000 invested, an average of $2,200 in fees are paid to manage the money. This is a lot in fees considering that most mutual funds do not out preform the stock or bond market averages/indexes that track the overall market. By using a fee-based Investment Advisor, you could easily save 1% per year or $1000 per year on investment management fees, AND likely see better performance out of your investment portfolio. With compounding effects of higher returns, this strategy can easily add up to a 20% - 50% larger portfolio over longer time periods.

Higher Returns

Good fee-based investment advisors will match your short and long term life goals to your savings and investment goals. Fun and easy to use online tracking tools should be available to you, and the advisor will coach you along the way. If your plans change or when there are swings in the market, you can count on a good advisor to provide unbiased opinions, options and guidance that will help you get where you need to be faster and easier.

How to Save on Your Life Insurance

Use a life insurance broker and compare several life insurance quotes.

Lower Costs

Given what’s at stake if you pass away, adequate life insurance is the foundation of any good financial picture. But while there is no doubt that for most people life insurance is almost invaluable, the truth is that for the exact same life insurance policy, there can be a wide range in costs. This is why it takes sense to take 2- 5 minutes and run an online quote comparison, that compares the quotes for most of the Life Insurance Companies in Canada (or in the US if you live there). The savings can easily be $20 - $30 per month on a life insurance policy, which can easily amount to over $15,000 in savings over a 20 year policy when the return on savings are compounded.

Higher Service

A good Life Insurance advisor will go beyond giving you a life insurance quote to ensure you get the right policy for your unique needs. Different policies carry different flexibilities, which may be very important depending on your situation and your wishes. The main idea is that you are able to decide among your options, and feel comfortable that if something bad were to happen – that things would be OK. Life insurance needs also change over time, so a good life insurance advisor will ensure that your policy is always best suited for your needs. Don’t sacrifice the best value life insurance, for lower service levels.

How to Save on Your Credit Lines and Bank Accounts

The truth about banking fees is that they can and should be brought either down to $0, or as close to that as possible. Bank accounts provide an excellent service, but make no mistake – your bank is making a lot of money simply by having your deposit in their account. To charge a fee on top of this is not necessary, unless there is some other useful or money saving service they are providing for it. There are many Banks in Canada such as Tangerine that will pay you more interest even in a Chequing account, offers full services and charge $0 per month.

Lines of credit, credit cards or loans should be consolidated to their lowest interest rate possible. For example, if you have a credit card balance at 20% interest, try moving this into a lower interest rate line of credit. This can easily save hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year depending on your balance. Work with a Financial Planner or take the DIY route to crush your debt as soon as possible, as this is a major step in using your finances to live with more peace of mind and excitement over the long term.

Check out this simple calculator below developed by an MIT math professor, that will help you to get rid of your debt.

Unbury

Financial Planning and Solutions is Altrua’ s central business. Although we advocate for a broader and more sustainable focus around all spending and saving, we see a real core opportunity for using Financial Planning to unlock tremendous potential and financial product savings. We hope at the minimum this has got you thinking about better financial service options, and we would be delighted to chat with without any obligation, to see how we might be of service to you.

Contact us Today.