Tuesday, 18 November 2014

World is changing, are you? Vinayak Sapre

Dear All,

Please find below a very good article as appeared in Cafemutual by Mr. Vinayak Sapre on how IFA has to adapt the behavioural changes of his clients:

World is changing, are you?  
Vinayak Sapre

Always remember that clients don’t issue addendum before making changes to their behavioral patterns.
‘Attitude subject to change in the blink of an eye’, I read this quote in one of the whatsapp profiles and thought how true this is in our daily life.
We don’t realize it even though for an advisor it is very important to be aware of the changing attitudes and behavior of clients. Most advisors have this habit of ignoring change and continuing with their routine without realizing that the world around them (read clients) is changing.
People live in present and think of the past, which restricts them to move forward. They believe that things will remain the way they are and therefore when the world around them (read AMCs, regulator) changes they feel it is unfair.
A situation which I believe is very dangerous for advisory business is when people react to changes in the market (read stock market, fixed income market) which is not in their control and their reaction doesn’t have any impact on the market. Rather, they should be reacting and responding when there are changes happening in a client’s life - financial and emotional.
One such area which requires immediate attention and action is technology. Technology not only reduces costs but also brings in a lot of convenience. It starts with something as basic as using MS office and having a website with login ids for clients to track their portfolio.
If people start communicating with clients over email and send portfolios or give login facility it reduces lot of man-hours. But getting out of the comfort zone is a tough task for many advisors. Communicating over email has other benefits as well. The conversation is documented and in the era of strict regulations, it also protects advisors.
Let me cite a personal example of how the attitude of people is changing even in small towns. My sister bought few sarees online for her daughter’s marriage. Well, she doesn’t stay in UK or the US, not even in Mumbai. She stays in Varanasi, a place which is famous itself for sarees. I asked her the reason for buying online and she said that she wanted a particular variety which was not available in Varanasi. She ordered it online since it was convenient and also because it could be replaced, if she didn’t like it.  
It gives a strong message that if the advisor is not geared up for changes in client needs and attitudes, it is going to be a tough journey ahead.
Always remember that clients don’t issue addendum before making changes to their behavioral patterns.
It’s high time we realize that the business needs to grow beyond market, because ‘the purpose of our business is to create a customer who creates customers’.
Lastly, I will use the following quote which I read recently ‘You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine’.
 Vinayak Sapre runs Insights, an advisor coaching firm.

idea convert in to business

Greetings bhavesh,
There are a lot of great entrepreneurs out there, but one of my favorites is Thomas Edison. I think I’m such a fan because, like me, he failed so much more than he succeeded. Of course, he learned how to turn those failures into golden lessons.
When I was a kid, we learned about Thomas Edison in school. When I told my rich dad that we were studying Edison’s life, he asked me if they’d taught me how he became so prolific. “No,” I replied. “We only learned about how he invented the light bulb.” “Well, I'm sorry to contradict your teacher,” rich dad said. “But, Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb.”
Rich dad explained that there were many other people who had invented light bulbs before Edison. The problem was that these light bulbs were not practical. They would die out too soon. Also, these inventors could not explain why a light bulb was commercially valuable.
In short, they had a great idea, but they didn’t have a business. Edison, on the other hand, not only invented a better light bulb, but he also built a business around it. He invented the first useful light bulb and he knew how to show its value.
Anyone can have a great idea, but only a great entrepreneur can make money with that idea. You probably have a great idea or product too. Just about everyone does. But do you know how to make money with it?
If you have the courage to pursue your idea, start with baby steps. Start with research, talking to people and flushing out your idea. Once you have figured out how to make money, THEN the fun begins. But, start with step one.
Thank you for reading. As always, if you find value in these emails, please share them with your friends.
Here's to making life better,
signature_robert.png
Robert Kiyosaki

Sunday, 16 November 2014

Recite These 5 Inspirational Quotes to Earn More Money

Dear All,

Please find below some motivational quotes to earn better for your reading:

Recite These 5 Inspirational Quotes to Earn More Money

Do you ever wish you earned more money? Sometimes you want more money to treat yourself to a new pair of shoes, go on a luxury vacation to a tropical island, or purchase your dream car. Nothing deters your ambition to earn more money than negative self talk. To turn your negativity around, you need to replace self defeating thoughts with positive affirmations and quotes explaining how to earn more money and why you deserve it.
When you start reciting positive quotes, you will start to build the confidence you need to work smarter and ask your boss for a raise. When you approach your boss with confidence, he is more likely to take you seriously and believe in your worth to earn more money.
As you build your confidence and strategize the best way to ask for a raise, make sure you recite these five inspirational quotes to earn more money:

“To become convinced that you can succeed is the first requisite to success.” -Wallace D. Wattles

You must believe in yourself and your ability to accomplish anything you set out to do. When you convince yourself that you can succeed, you set yourself up to get what you want. No matter your circumstances, tell yourself that you deserve to have affluence in your life.

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link to the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” -Sir Winston Churchill

Even though you have the ability to become a multimillionaire, don’t get upset if it doesn’t happen overnight. You need to take baby steps to build your business or demonstrate your competence for a raise. Set an income goal with a deadline and construct a simple plan to achieve it. Now all you have to do is execute it. Just remember to be patient with yourself and take one task at a time.

“An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man’s existence.” -HonorĂ© de Balzac

You must be wildly passionate about your work. If not, find another job because life is too short to be miserable. Manifest your hobbies and talents into your job because society values people who care about their work. The more skilled you become, your value and monetary compensation will increase.

“Try to become not a man of success, but rather a man of value.” -Albert Einstein

Success is in the eye of the beholder. Your friends and family are not afraid to tell you what you are good at. Listen to them and use those skills while you work. People will pay you for your work when it adds value to their immediate needs.

“If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass good bye!” -Michael Port

When you try to please everyone, you’re bound to disappoint someone. Quit trying to please everyone and follow your ideal career path. You will continue to earn more money when you’re a leader in your area of expertise.

While you contemplate these quotes, keep in mind there are two ways to have more money:

1. You can spend less

By spending less, you are able to put money away in your savings. The money you save over the long term can go towards a financial goal. A few ways you can spend less include limiting the amount of Starbucks lattes you buy, using public transportation instead of a car, or decreasing the amount you spend on rent.

2. You can earn more

When you earn more money, you are able to increase your net worth. Earning more can help you build long term financial investments, donate to charitable causes of your choice, and indulge in guilt-free purchases. A few ways to earn more money include asking for a raise at work, building a lucrative business from scratch, and investing wisely.

Keep income goals in line with your values

In either scenario, make sure your financial goals are realistic. If you are going to ask your boss for a raise, remember to write down your contributions to the company and why you deserve a raise. With an increased salary comes more responsibility, so it’s important to remember your values and remind yourself why you want more money in the first place. You deserve to have more money to enjoy high quality experiences and possessions, so don’t forget to recite these five inspirational quotes to earn more money.

Is the ETF wave coming to India?

Dear All,

Please find below a good article as appeared in LiveMint on ETF in India for your reading:

Is the ETF wave coming to India? 
Within the domestic mutual funds, the ETF space has been muted

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)—a cross breed of open-end and closed-end mutual funds that trade on stock markets, usually linked to an underlying index—continue to be the fastest growing pooled portfolio of assets. Global assets under management (AUM) of ETFs have now crossed $2.5 trillion and are estimated to overtake the hedge fund industry assets in the next 12 months. Much of this growth is now getting fuelled by the Asia-Pacific region where ETFs are growing at a pace of 25-30% annually as compared with 15-20% in the developed markets. 

Indian investors have largely ignored this huge ETF shift that has happened primarily because passive indexing as a strategy in India over longer period of times has underperformed a large part of the active fund managers. Apart from this, the implications of the lower cost of ETFs has not been completely demonstrated on the net returns. Consequently, though the first domestic ETF was launched as far back as in December 2001, by the erstwhile Benchmark Asset Management, the ETF category has not really changed investor preferences into a significant part of domestic investors’ portfolios. 

On the other hand, India-dedicated global ETFs have shown remarkable growth, with AUMs more than doubling in the past 12 months. For instance, Wisdom Tree India Earnings ETF has seen its AUM growing from under $1 billion to over $2.25 billion as of October 2014. Compare this with other non-ETF global funds, such as Aberdeen Global Indian Equity Fund, that have seen a 25-30% rise in their AUMs in a similar period. Indian mutual funds, too, have seen a rise of 60-70% in their equity AUMs. 

With the kind of interest and flows that India-dedicated ETFs are seeing, it is just a matter of time that these become a more significant segment in the Indian markets determining the future course, especially given their inherent nature of swift inflows and outflows. 

The other trend that is shaping up is the emergence of India-dedicated ETFs beyond just equities and in other asset classes such as sovereign debt within the foreign institutional investors’ (FII) limits of $30 billion currently in place. With the Reserve Bank of India avowed to increasing these debt limits, this is another category that is seeing an increase in appetite among global investors for Indian assets. With this trend also developing, not only will the debt markets deepen further, but they may also increase the participation, and maybe volatility, if the debt markets in the coming years. 

The ETF wave that is emerging among global investors for an increasing bite of Indian assets is gaining ground and could grow into becoming the most preferred vehicle for taking exposure to India. 

Within the domestic mutual funds, the ETF space has been muted, save for occasional bursts of activity that happened in bank ETFs or specific ETFs, wherein there were limits on stock exposures taken by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), clearly signifying that these were used more as a quasi-vehicle by investors rather than as a core holding. In addition, there was very minimal participation from domestic investors. 

The first significant change came about with gold ETFs. These introduced domestic investors to ETFs, but it was only when the overlaying gold feeder funds were launched that more interest was created. But the ETF idea did not really blossom even then. 

The bigger change came in with the CPSE (Central Public Sector Enterprises) ETF, which was launched in March 2014. With the initial discount to retail investors offered during the initial offer, and the subsequent rally in the CPSE Index in particular and the market as a whole, retail investors were enthused to evaluate ETFs more closely and invest in them. 

Another important development was that banks and financial institutions have participated significantly in the CPSE ETF as a core holding in their portfolios. This is evident from the fact that most of these institutions have held on to the ETF even after a significant rally in the ensuing months. 

With the success, and also learnings, of the CPSE ETF, the government has now called bids for the launch of SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India) ETF, which has seen much more interest from Indian MFs, to take it to investor’s. This is in spite of the rigorous conditions in the bid document of having a minimum marketing budget, outside of upfront commissions, from the fund house to promote the ETF. 

If we have another successful domestic ETF launch in the form of the SUUTI ETF, it could completely change the domestic appetite of ETFs, although some may argue that this will happen more among institutions. Given these two macro trends—global India-dedicated ETFs gaining significant share and the domestic appetite for ETFs on the verge of change— these funds may be on the verge of taking off here. Manoj Nagpal is chief executive officer, Outlook Asia Capital

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Money/jSD53pMM8Q6g6Pje98dMrN/Is-the-ETF-wave-coming-to-India.html?utm_source=copy

How your personality affects your investment choices?

Dear All,

Please find below a good article as appeared in Morning Star for your reading:

How your personality affects your investment choices?


If you invest regularly you've probably made investment mistakes. Maybe you sold a winning stock too early or held on to a losing stock too long. Mistakes are common in investing and here at Morningstar we are constantly trying to help you avoid them. However, there are mistakes that seem to haunt all of us, the ones where you went against your adviser or followed your gut to no avail.
Robert Durand, professor of finance at Curtin University in Australia, attributes these decisions to personality traits.
Durand and two colleagues concluded in a Journal of Behavioral Finance article that personality traits are associated with a wide range of investment decisions and outcomes. The research for that article and Durand’s ongoing research is based on the 5-factor model of personality traits (Big Five), which is the leading paradigm in personality research. It's an efficient model because it dismisses hundreds of personality traits in favour of the “Big Five".
1) Extraversion
Extraverts are social, enthusiastic, talkative and assertive. In general, they tend to take on more risk in order to fulfill their need for excitement.
Advantage: They tend to have a higher risk tolerance, which can mean potentially higher returns.
Disadvantage: They may take on too much risk and lose money.
2) Agreeableness
Those high in agreeableness are trusting, altruistic and optimistic. They need to get along with other individuals.
Advantage: They are cooperative when working with advisers on their portfolio.
Disadvantage: They do not like to offend others and may be hesitant to raise any red flags that they see.
3) Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness persons are thorough, careful and diligent. They have the ability to delay immediate gratification in favour of long-term goals.
Advantage: Long-term investors can be patient and restrain themselves from impulsive risk-taking.
Disadvantage: They are too risk-averse.
4) Neuroticism
Neurotic individuals are emotionally unstable. They are prone to psychological distress including depression, anxiety and anger.
Advantage: They are drawn to risk because of its emotional appeal, and similar to the extravert advantage, higher risk tolerance can potentially equal higher returns.
Disadvantage:They are impulsive; therefore, they are prone to making emotional financial decisions.
5) Openness to experience/intellect
Individuals high in openness to experience/intellect are imaginative, curious and open to new ideas. They actively seek new experiences. This trait is highly correlated to intelligence.
There is no advantage or disadvantage listed because openness to experience/intellect is the least studied of all the traits.
The relation to investing
Durand says personality traits are remarkably stable once you reach the age of 30. Therefore, if you determine your personality traits early on in your investing career and understand how they'll affect your decision-making then you should be able to avoid some mistakes. He also makes note of the fact that two of the factors, neuroticism and extraversion, seem to play a larger role compared to the other traits.
Investors scoring high in neuroticism are attracted to risk, but they seem to find it disturbing. They want to do something about it, but seem incapable of doing so; they will sell risky stocks only to buy others. Regardless, neuroticism is associated with heightened emotion.
Higher extraversion scores are associated with higher returns, even after adjusting for risk. Durand says, “Extraverts are attracted to higher risk, but they manage it better, getting higher returns for higher risk, which should be the case according to standard finance theory.”

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Which asset allocation model should your clients follow? Swarn Saurabh

dear all

Which asset allocation model should your clients follow? 
Swarn Saurabh
 
In the western world, asset allocation advice driven by computer algorithms (Robo-Advisors) are posing serious threats to human advisory practice. If we believe in trends, then the time is not too far for us to do a catch up game. 
One of the key determinants of portfolio optimization is the asset allocation strategy that you adopt for the client. Risk tolerance, return objectives, financial goals, time horizon, asset valuations etc. are factors that go in towards building an appropriate asset allocation. 
Asset allocation is both art and science, and it’s the scientific side that we are covering here. Among the various strategies, the most popular ones are static, strategic, tactical and dynamic asset allocation models. Today, most of these models are being offered by asset managers themselves, but in the idealistic sense, it’s a proposition that an advisor should project as unique. 
In the western world, asset allocation advice driven by computer algorithms (Robo-Advisors) are fast emerging and are posing serious threats to human advisory practice. If we believe in trends, then the time is not too far for us to do a catch up game. The question is how we get to a scientifically driven asset allocation model. 
In this article, we have compared various strategies and its performance with empirical data for more than a decade. By the end of it, you would indeed be surprised with the output which clearly goes against the conventional hypothesis. 
Static asset allocation (SAA): It is an approach to asset allocation in which the investor takes into account all the information available regarding: 
i) macro-economic conditions,
ii) Performance expectations of the capital market and various asset classes over the time horizon of his intended investment,
iii) Own risk tolerance level and
iv) Risk-reward trade-off in terms of investment goal etc. 
at the beginning of his investment while deciding the structure of investment and sticks to that original investment till the end without any re-balancing or change in proportion of the asset classes or any addition of other asset classes with the original mix.  
Basically, it is a buy and hold strategy. For example, if an investor invests Rs. 1,000 for a period of 1 year with 35:30:35 ratio in large cap equity, small cap equity, and bonds respectively, he shall remain invested without any alteration in the asset mix or rebalancing to keep the same asset mix over the period.
The main tool used by the investor for minimizing risk while opting for SAA is diversification through investing into various asset classes having low correlation of returns among themselves. 
Dynamic Asset Allocation (DAA): It is an approach to asset allocation in which the investor, based on his situation and goals, keeps adjusting the asset class mix in the portfolio in response to the changing market conditions, with the aim of getting higher returns. 
DAA gives a lot of flexibility to the investor in general and the institutional investor in particular as there is no target asset mix to chase. The investor is free to respond to the change in market conditions as per his assessment of the situation. Therefore, for example, if the investor is initially bullish on equities, he may allocate large portion of his portfolio on equities. If after some time, he anticipates an impending bear market, he can sell equities and buy bonds as per his own assessment of the timing. 
SAA can be considered as a special case of the DAA in which, the investor may opt not to change original investment structure based upon his assessment of market conditions. 
Strategic Asset Allocation (StAA): It involves starting with a target asset mix and periodically rebalancing to restore that target asset mix. There might be a permissible range with a target allocation corresponding to each asset class as a tool of risk management. The portfolio formed using the strategic asset allocation technique is often called the policy portfolio. 
Suppose a conservative investor has a strategic asset allocation target of 30:50:20 into equities, bonds, and cash respectively, with initial investment amount of Rs. 1 lakh for 5 years horizon, with re-balancing permissible at the end of each year. Investment starts at 01.01.2009. If in one year, the equities, bonds, and cash have given gross returns of 10%, 6%, and 4% respectively, then the values of the equity, bond, and cash components as on 31.12.2009 EOD are Rs. 33,000, Rs. 53,000, and Rs. 20,800 respectively, with total portfolio value at Rs. 1.06 lakh. Rebalancing would require the investor to sell equities worth RS. 960, buying bonds worth Rs. 400, and putting rest Rs. 560 in cash so that the asset mix reaches the target initially allocated. This process would be repeated on 31.12.2010, 31.12.2011, 31.12.2011, and 31.12.2012. 
Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA): It is an approach to asset allocation which involves making short term adjustments to target asset class weights based on short term expected relative performance among asset classes. It can subsume a range of approaches, from occasional and ad hoc adjustments to frequent and model-based adjustments. When executed for the asset classes in many country markets, this approach is often called “global tactical asset allocation”. 
TAA starts with a strategic asset allocation and adjusts it when the need arises based upon the assessment of the investor about the evolving market conditions and the potential returns various asset classes can give. Continuing with the example discussed in the StAA segment, assume that the investment strategy is TAA instead of strategic one. Let the returns be the same in 1st year as mentioned above. Suppose the investor anticipates an equity market boom in 2010, and wants to increase the equity exposure to 60%, while reducing that of bonds and cash to 30% and 10% respectively. Then, he would have to sell bonds worth RS. 20960, take Rs. 10,120 from cash, and invest the sum, viz. Rs. 31,080 in equities to achieve the short term target allocation of 60:30:10.

regards

Exchange Traded Funds: A largely unexplored investment option

Dear All,

Please find below a good article on Exchange Traded Funds as appeared in Advisor Khoj for your reading:

Exchange Traded Funds: A largely unexplored investment option

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have been around in India for the last 13 years. However, ETFs have not gained as much popularity in our country, as they have in more developed markets. The commission structure may have something to do with the lack of popularity of ETFs in India, something that the industry should collectively think about. Its lack of popularity, notwithstanding, ETFs on account of its characteristics merit an important consideration in the spectrum of investment products. What are Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)? Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are essentially Index Funds that are listed and traded on exchanges like stocks. There are various categories of ETFs in India. They are:-
  • Equity

  • Gold

  • World Indices

  • Debt
An ETF is a basket of stocks that reflects the composition of an Index, like the Sensex or the Nifty. The price of the ETF reflects the net asset value of the basket of stocks. In many ways, it is similar to a mutual fund. However, mutual funds and ETFs differ in many ways:-
  • Unlike a mutual fund, where NAV is calculated at the end of the day, the price of the ETF changes real time throughout the day, based on the actual share prices of the underlying stocks at any point of time during the day

  • Mutual funds are actively managed, whereas ETFs are passively managed. Mutual funds aim to generate an alpha (or outperformance versus a market benchmark), whereas ETFs aim to track a particular index

  • Mutual funds have specific investment objectives, like capital appreciation, income generation, large cap stock focus, midcap stock focus, sector focus etc. ETFs only aim to track the relevant index and reduce tracking errors

  • Even though mutual funds aim to diversify unsystematic risks (or security specific risk), and they do diversify, to a large extent, there is likely to be still some residual unsystematic risk in mutual funds because mutual funds do not exactly reflect the market portfolio. ETFs, on the other hand, are only subject to systematic risk (or market risk), since they reflect the market portfolio
Why should an investor choose an ETF versus a mutual fund?
  • In our blog, we have always advocated mutual funds as the ideal investment option for long term financial objectives. However, we had also cautioned investors that, not all mutual funds are equal. There are a large number of mutual funds and considerable performance differential exist between the funds in the top quartiles and the bottom quartiles. Please read our article, Choose Best Mutual Funds wisely: A big performance differential between top and bottom performers. It is not always easy to identify funds that will perform well in the future. One should not go with short term performance, when selecting a mutual fund (please read our article Do not go by short term performance when selecting a mutual fund). There are a number of factors that play an important role in determining future performance, e.g. fund manager track record, AMC track record, long term performance etc. It takes considerable skills and experience to identify a top fund that may outperform its peers and the market in the future. An ETF, on the other hand, tracks the market. There is little or no scope of outperformance or underperformance. If you just want market returns for your investment, which by no means have been unimpressive, given the equity market performance in India over the last 15 to 20 years, ETFs are very efficient investment options

  • The alpha generated by the fund manager in a mutual fund, is to large extent dependent on the inefficiencies in the market. A good fund manager is able to spot these inefficiencies in the valuation of specific stocks or sectors, and is therefore able to earn higher returns. As our equity market matures, the inefficiency in the market will gradually reduce. Having said that, our equity market today is far off from being efficient. However, there are certain segments in the market that are more efficient than others. For example, the segment of the large cap stocks is more efficient than the midcap and the small cap segment. Given the proliferation of large cap oriented funds in the universe of equity mutual funds, and also FII preference for large cap stocks, the valuation inefficiency in the large cap stocks segment is lower and is further going to reduce over time. Hence, in this segment, ETFs will become an attractive investment choice. In fact, most of the equity ETFs in our market is in the large cap segment

  • The expense ratio of ETFs funds is much lower than their mutual fund counterparts. The expense ratios of ETFs can be as low as 0.25%, whereas the expense ratios of mutual funds are in the range of 1.5% - 2.5%. Unless the mutual funds are able to generate considerable alpha in the long term, they will not be able beating the returns of ETFs in the long term

  • Some people argue that performance is not the focus of the ETFs, since they only track the relevant indices. This is not entirely true. Why? The indices, which by their method of construction based on market capitalization, eliminate or at least, reduce the weight of underperformers in the index portfolio. Therefore, by extension ETFs also eliminate or at least reduce the weight of underperformers in their portfolio
What are disadvantages of investing in ETFs?
  • You will only get market returns in ETFs. Top performing mutual funds have generated good alphas, over the short, medium and long terms. Therefore, by investing in ETFs you will be giving up alphas (or returns above the market benchmark) which top performing mutual funds can give you. Whether you have top performing mutual funds in your portfolio or are the funds in your portfolio generating alphas, is another question, that you need to evaluate yourself

  • Even though an ETF is supposed to track an index, it may not be able to guarantee the returns of the index. While variations tend to be small, the difference between a fund’s return and the index’s return, often called tracking error, can sometimes be significant. When evaluating ETFs, you should keep an eye on tracking errors.

  • As discussed earlier, the market of equity ETFs is not well developed in India. Most of the ETFs in India are focused on frontline indices or large cap stocks. There are not too many options in midcap stocks, sector specific stocks or debt investments space. However, of the few midcap and sector specific ETFs, that are available, the Motilal Oswal, MOSt Shares Midcap 100 ETF and the Goldman Sachs, GS Infra BeES fund have given excellent returns over the past one year or so.
Top performing ETFs
The table below shows the top performing equity oriented ETFs, along with the last 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and 3 years trailing returns. Please note that the 2 years and 3 years trailing returns are annualized. NAVs are as on close of trading session on, June 30 2014.


Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed the relative merits and demerits of exchange traded funds. ETFs cannot replace mutual funds in your investment portfolio. Yet, there are a number of reasons, as discussed in this article, why you may want to consider ETFs to complement your mutual funds portfolio, for the diversification of your overall investment portfolio. If your financial adviser deals in ETFs, you should consult with him or her, if ETFs are suitable for your investment portfolio. Even if your financial adviser does not deal in ETFs, you should consider allocating a portion of your long term investment portfolio to ETFs.