What have successful relationships and investment advisers got in common? No – successful, I said, not crash and burn disasters and divorce.
And no, not ways of managing the couple’s financials to healthier returns, although that of course, might remove some stress and coincidentally benefit the relationship.
I was thinking more of the 30 day comment period the Investment Dealers Association of Canada has sought for the core principles of their so-called Client Relationship Model (CRM).
The CRM – an adaptation of the Ontario Securities Commission’s 2004 Fair Dealing Model – is billed as “a new way of governing the relationship between retail clients and their brokers”.
What if we reworded that, and looked at the applications of “a new way of governing the relationship between men and women”?
The CR model’s core principles are said to be: clarity and transparency of the account relationship entered into between the client, the adviser and the dealer; transparency of the account costs to be borne by the client; transparency of conflicts that the adviser and the dealer must manage in order to put the client’s interests first; transparency of account performance and the risks borne to achieve that performance; and, that client communication should be in plain language.
Let’s call ours the Successful Relationship Model (SRM), or maybe the Fulfilling Relationship Model (FRM). How could it go?
The SR/FR model’s core principles could be: clarity and transparency of the relationship entered into between the man and the woman and any children involved; transparency of the income and expenses to be borne by each party; transparency of conflicts that the man and the woman must manage in order to put the marriage’s interests first; transparency of performance and the risks borne to achieve that performance; and, that communication should be in plain language.
How would that fly?
The Investment Dealers Association of Canada has put their notion out for comment for 30 days. Let’s do the same.
Would our proposed core principles work? As a Successful Relationship Model, or as a Fulfilling Relationship Model? Does it really just boil down to some thought and some basic honesty?
Be interested to hear your views on the ideal formula for a successful relationship.
