What is the benefit of an independent investment manager?

I am very pleased you asked this poignant question. Independent investment managers are not directly affiliated with any bank or brokerage firm. Thus, independent investment managers can offer clients the following:

• OBJECTIVE INVESMENT RECOMMENDATIONS: Independent investment managers are not required to sell YOU an expensive proprietary bank investment mutual fund (or similar bank product). Instead, we can more suitably and efficiently allocate your investments to investments with no cost and likely higher returns.
• BUREAUCRATIC-FREE ENVIRONMENT: You may not notice it but if you invest through a bank or large brokerage firm, your investment advisor is likely spending close to forty-percent (40%) of their day in meaningless, bureaucratic meetings. Trust me – I know. Bank meetings are soul-sucking, pointless affairs meant only to benefit the person calling the meeting. These meetings offer you no benefit and instead result in stifling important thinking time for your investment advisor. Independent advisors have ZERO (0%) bureaucratic meetings and thus can more comprehensively focus on YOU.
• A MORE SIMPLE AND FLEXIBLE SOLUTION: Independent investment managers prefer the simple over the complex. Deploying your investment dollars into a simple, well-researched portfolio of (approximately) twenty-five (25) securities is indeed more difficult than investing your funds in the standard hum-drum, hackneyed portfolio of various (usually high-fee, proprietary bank or broker) mutual funds. The “complexity” of a multi-mutual fund portfolio is usually unnecessarily obfuscating and justifying the high fees charged to you. A more simple and flexible investment portfolio delivered by and independent investment manager is always the more efficient and personal solution.

Finally, independent investment managers usually have the majority of their own money invested in the same way your money is invested. This directly aligns your interest with the investment manager’s – consistent returns with maximum liquidity.

I hope that you consider an independent investment manager at some point. You will appreciate the difference.