What inspired me to do what I do...

It is funny how I can personify the direction my life has taken into two seemingly mild comments. In retrospect, there's really no way to justify otherwise, which makes these comments rather life-changing epiphanies.

It was high school when I truly fell in love with the stock market. The concept of buying ownership in pieces of a large entity that went up and down in value. The adult version of baseball cards, I thought at the time. Never having a lot of money, I used to passionately research these companies and make mock portfolios. It was only for fun, really.

One day a peer of mine, noting my enthusiasm, approached me and told me that his parents had opened a brokerage account for him in order to "practice" investing for himself. Of course, he didn't know where to start, and he needed some suggestions. I let him know what I was doing and a couple things to keep in mind. As the months followed and the portfolio ballooned, that friend sat across from me in the library one afternoon and said, "Z, thank you." With a look of sheer admiration and respect in his eyes, my initial response to ask, "For what," quickly subsided, and it was that moment I realized what I wanted to do for the rest of my life...become an investment advisor. While doctors saved lives, advisors enabled their clients to enjoy their lives, helping them reach their goals and aspirations. That moment, that feeling at the library some years ago was a moment I wanted to feel for the rest of my life.

My notions of what, in fact, a stockbroker was during high school are frightfully different from what I believe it is today. Years later, working at a full-service investment counselling firm, I was given the contact of a hard-working Canadian who had requested information about our firm. Calling him to answer any inquiries he might have, he said, "No, I simply wanted some ideas. You guys are all a bunch of crooks. I was cleaned out a few years ago...a bunch of crooks." There was no venom in his voice. He said it simply. He politely excused himself and that was it. To be hit with an assessment as such a matter of fact, felt like a blow and a direct rebuke of why I joined the business in the first place.

It was later that night that I began my draft of the business plan for the Onus Consulting Group, but it was not to say that I was completely blind sided by this man's revelation. It was just hearing those words so plainly ended any justifying I was doing of my aspiring profession. The fact of the matter was that the typical financial advisor's main ambition wasn't to make their clients money, as I originally had believed; it was to make themselves money. This isn't necessarily the fault of the advisor, who are being cultivated in an industry that stresses the bottom line (and by bottom line, I mean their total commissions) and not the success of their recommended investments.

Thus, began my search for the perfect financial advisor and my quest to educate retail clients as to the true politics of the retail investment industry. More on that later.

'Z'

Zahid Jafry is the founder and chief consultant of Onus Consulting Group, a financial advisor search firm specializing in investor awareness. While educating the public on how to assess the quality of their financial advice, the company has carved a niche in the Toronto retail investment industry by matching Canadians with highly-proficient financial advisors recruited through the firm's Advisor Indexing Program. Prior to that, he worked in Private Client Services at TD Waterhouse where he was employed after studying economics at Wilfrid Laurier University. He has successfully completed the Canadian Securities Course and is in the 2nd phase of the certified Canadian Investment Manager designation from the Canadian Securities Institute.