Fees

To avoid conflicts of interest, the firm accepts no commissions, fees, or other payments from any product or service provider. We work for the people who pay us, our clients.

We charge $300 per hour of professional time. The minimum charge for an initial consultation and plan is $1,000, due upon receipt of the plan. Subsequent consultations, e.g. annual reviews, are billed by the hour with a one hour minimum. Administrative overhead and incidental expenses are the responsibility of the firm, not the client. GST will be added to all invoices.

We recommend the least expensive solutions that are appropriate to our clients' needs, but nothing comes absolutely free. Commissions to execute investment and insurance transactions, management fees on mutual funds, and fees charged by other professionals such as accountants and lawyers are the responsibility of the client.

Our typical client faces ongoing charges of between 0.10% and 0.50% per year, which pays product providers. None of it comes back to Libra to skew our view of what solutions we should recommend.

Some context may be helpful here. Our typical client has a balanced portfolio, which is a diversified mix of stocks and bonds. The median investment portfolio size is about $400,000. At most Canadian investment firms, such a client pays between 1% and 2.5%, or $4,000 to $10,000 per year in fees. Usually those fees are hidden from view. Clients have no idea what they are paying.

Our clients know exactly what they are paying. That typical client at Libra pays less than $2,000 per year, partly as our fee and partly to the provider of the low cost products we recommend. That reduction in fees stays in our clients' pockets, year after year. Over a working life, the difference in fees means a substantial increase in our clients' assets.