Instead of selling, we provide advice

If you were to buy the story the big banks and insurance companies tell you on television commercials, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking all your dreams can come true.  And they have the services you need to make that happen.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

These big banks and insurance companies prey on investors.  They sell hope during times of plenty, then sell fear when things are uncertain.  That’s their secret to capturing returns from investors through all economic cycles. And they have many tools for doing so.

We don’t have to tell you this.  You only have to watch the news or read the paper.

In real life, clients of these large brand name firms experience something completely different from what they advertise:

• Quarterly sales quotas mean you get a lot of attention upfront until the quota is met. And forget real advice on something without an immediate payout.
• You’ll hear a lot about investments based on complicated revenue agreements (which means the firms are paid better to deliver certain investments often because they charge higher fees)
• You usually end up with underperforming proprietary funds instead of the best investments for you (sometimes the best investment managers avoid doing business with these firms, meaning you don’t even see them)
• You’re provided faux financial planning that purely supports the sale of their products instead of comprehensive, forward-looking real-life financial planning (in the world where the unexpected often happens)
• Your advisor may play the revolving door game. Advisors are paid serious money to move from one firm to another.  This is hardly ever done in the clients’ best interest. Instead, it’s a way for the advisor to get a fast payday from the new firm.  If the advisor wanted to do the right thing he would join a true fee-only RIA.

The lesson told by Fred Schwed in the classic book “Where are the Customers’ Yachts” tells the timeless story of how these firms’ objectives are simply not aligned with yours.  Instead, their loyalty is to their employer and their shareholders.  Not you. The book was first published in 1940 and updated in 2006.  And the story has stayed the same.

Our founders came from a Wall Street firm.  And we saw it all.  We were constantly pressured to ‘meet production’ by generating the right amount of fees and commissions for the publicly traded parent company.  It was not about the client’s goals. It was all about the company’s goals.

We got tired of being pressured to sell our clients mortgages, to be (at that time unknowingly) deceptive, and unable to offer them the very best investments.  We knew there had to be a better way, left, and started Global View.

Global View Investment Advisors is a fee-only, fiduciary firm.  Instead of selling, we provide advice.  And because we are never paid by our investment providers, you can always be sure we offer you the best investments for your specific needs.  We always put your needs before our own.  And we believe that by doing so, we will all profit together, for a very long time.

We use the same investments in our own portfolios that we use in clients’ portfolios.  When we use outside funds, those managers invest alongside their clients.  It’s called skin in the game.  It’s rare on Wall Street, but it helps our clients sleep well at night knowing we are invested alongside them.

Since our founding, Global View has helped clients refine and reach their financial goals, navigating volatile financial markets along the way.  We apply what we’ve learned in financial markets across the world to help provide you with diversified and stable performance.

The financial services industry is a confusopoly.  I know what you are thinking, what is a confusopoly?  A confusopoly is an industry that profits at its customers’ expense by intentionally making them confused.  Wall Street is the biggest confusopoly ever.  We prefer our clients to know exactly what we are doing at all times.  Because it’s not surprising that people don’t like it.  It’s unexpected negative surprises.  Which means we have to work together to get rid of these.

And we know you won’t get it all, but it’s essential you get enough so you can feel confident you are moving in the right direction.  It’s what we do.

To learn more about how we started Global View, please see Our Founders page.