Autorité des marchés financiers - Choose your financial professional

When you are ready to invest, you can either call on an expert to guide your decision-making or an expert who merely gives you access to the market and lets you make your own decisions.

It’s a choice that takes some serious contemplation. The first question to ask yourself is “Can I make my own decisions about the investments I want to make or do I need the services of a financial expert?”

To help you answer this question, here are the main differences between these two approaches:

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Call on an expert to guide your decision-making	Financial experts advise you on the investments you should make according to your investor profile, financial situation and objectives. They will buy and sell financial products on your behalf.	You have to pay them management fees and a commission for the transactions they make on your behalf.

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Call on an expert to give you access to the market	Financial specialists give you access to the market, but will only take your orders, which lets you choose the financial products you want to buy or sell. They ask for lower fees because they only carry out your orders.	They don’t give you investment advice. You are the only one who makes decisions. That means that you have to know the markets well and closely watch the evolution of your investments to find out when to buy and sell.

Before even thinking about going it alone in the financial markets, ask yourself the following questions:

Do you know enough about the markets to make investment decisions by yourself without advice?
Can you set aside enough of your time to study your investments?
How much risk are you willing to take?
Are you able to understand all useful information concerning your investments?