4 - Friday, January 8, 1988 - North Shore News

Bob Hunter

® strictly personal ®

IN THE wake of the great October stock market crash, I
wrote a whimsical column about my short, unhappy experi-

ence with mutual funds.

I'd just finally got around to in-
vesting in them, you sce. The
perfect chicken-hearted kind of in-
vestment, they seemed. And then,
wham!

I grumbled that getting involved
with financial planners was like
asking to be raped, or words to
that effect.

Cruel, hurtful, nasty words. The
words of a man who has put

“I didn’t mean any
‘negative innuendo’

. toward financial
planners, sir. I just
meant they should ali go
jump off a cliff. You
have to forgive me. All
that money..."’

hard-earned cash into investments
according to the advice of an ex-
pert hired to tell him — precisely,
please — what to do.

‘I received, as a result of the col-
umn, a burst of mail from outrag-
ed financial planners, including a
note. from David S. Shymko,
president of the Pacific Chapter of
the Canadian Association of Fi-
nancial Planners, who wrote:

“Although I have no way of

knowing the extent and nature of
your financial planning experience,
I am concerned with the negative
innuendo towards financial plan-
ners contained thercin.

“(We have) a functioning ethics
committee and if your financial
planner is a member of the
association and you, indeed, have
a complaint regarding financial!
planning services received then we,
of course, would be pleased to
review the matter.’”

A functioning ethics committee
yet! If he’s a member. I'll check
that out, by all means, Mr.
Shymko. But | don’t think I can
finger my particular financial
plannez as the culprit in my com-
plaint.

Or if t can, he’s got a Jot to
answer for, doesn’t he?

My probiem is with the simulta-
neous collapse of every stock mar-
ket around the world, a phenome-
non at least equivalent to a tidal
wave — the biggest in history —
smacking the global economy.

And coming, I might add,
without warning.

As a pipsqueak who had just
tip-toed into the water a couple of
moments, figuratively speaking,
before the wave hit, I was natural-
ly somewhat dismayed to find
myself not having as much fun as
I'd been expecting.

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[ didn't mean any ‘‘negative in-

nuendo” toward financial plan-
ners, sir. [ just meant they should
all go jump off a cliff. You have to
forgive me. All that money...

I knew J should have put it ina
sock!

I should have stayed with gold,
if the truth be known, but that's
another dismal story...Oh, quit
whimpering, Bob! I can’t stand the
sight of my grown self crying.

It surprised me that, with the
rumble of the retreating tidal wave
still echoing in our ears, financial
planners’ feelings could be so casi-
ly hurt, At least not after the
trauma they — we — have all been
through,

Here’s the world's economy
staggering around on the edge of a
precipice and somebody is worried
about ‘‘negative innuendo!"

As it turned out, there were a
handful of financial gurus here
and there who saw the disaster
coming. Alas, they weren't the guy
I'd hired,

Still, I was rude. Extreme
anguish is probably iio excuse. |
hereby accept reprimands from a
couple of represeniative irate fi-
nancial planners:

V. Walter Daroshin of Van-
couver Financial Planning Consul-
tants thought my comments were
most unfortunate.

“TE could go on,"’ he wrote,
“about all the misconceptions the
public has, due to a few
unscrup ious individuals in the in-

as stock lasts.

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vestment community. Or how in-
vestment advice and analysis is not
the function of a financial planner.
Or how anybody for any reason
can call themselves a financial
planner, even your barber."

Instead, he invited me to go talk
to him for an hour. Sure, well...1
dunno. Once burned.

Vibeke Thornberg, account ex-
ecutive at Odlum Brown, wrote
from the Stock Exchange Tower to
chortle:

“I guess at this time you wished
you had invested in the good old
boring Government of Canada
Bonds, they are now showing
yields of over 10 per cent.

“To ask for financial advice is
not always like being raped. Most
professionals have their clients’
best interest at heart, or they
wouldn't be clients for very long.

“I would also like to inform you
that the securities industry is highly
regulated, and most account exec-
utives will conduct their business in
accordance with the rules.

“It is too bad you did not pur-
chase your mutual funds five years
ago.’

You're right about that, Wish
Vd thought of it.

1 have learned something,
though. It is what every small
frightened animal knows when the
earth trembles. Go into a holding
pattern. Freeze. Wait to see what
happens.

Have | got that much right?

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Lonsdale Physiotherapy Clinic
Change of ownership to:

ROSAMOND SMITH
M.CS.P., MCP.A. :
Registered Physiotherapist

As of JAN. I, 1988
3057 Lonsdale Ave. North Van.

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CORRECTION

RECORD BREAKING
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Page 6, item B and item G —
the copy and prices should
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Item G should be 39.99

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Page 21, item P. Tub of
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inadvertently, the errors
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987-6663

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eT