boost-save is a free, open course written by an editorial team for people in the EU and Canada who want to understand how an adviser works before sitting down at their desk: who pays them, which documents they must hand over, how to read the costs. We give no advice, sell no products and ask no one to register.
A diagram without values: it only shows where money flows in an advice relationship. Tap a joint to read its role.
You, the saver
The capital that ends up in the product starts with you. In an advice relationship you are also the person whose goals, situation and limits the adviser must know before recommending anything.
Non-independent: you often see no separate fee, but you pay through the product costs.
Independent: you pay the adviser directly, with a fee written into the agreement.
The adviser
Studies your profile and recommends transactions in specific instruments. Must explain in writing why a recommendation suits you and what it costs in total.
Non-independent: may be paid by the distributor, funded in part by commissions from the product manufacturer, provided this is disclosed.
Independent: payment comes only from you. If a manufacturer paid them anything, it would have to be passed on to you.
The product
A fund, an insurance-based investment, a bond: the instrument in which the capital is invested. Each year it takes management costs and sometimes other charges, which reduce the value of what you paid in.
The manufacturer
The company that manages the fund or issues the instrument. It collects the product costs and uses them to pay for management, its own margin and often a share for whoever sells it.
Non-independent: the share passed to the distributor is called an inducement, a trailing commission in Canada, and must be shown in the cost documents.
Independent: the valve towards the adviser is shut: no commissions kept by whoever advises you.
The distributor
The bank, investment firm or dealer that places the product and that many advisers work for. In independent advice from an advice-only firm this joint does not exist.
Non-independent: receives the commissions and uses part of them to pay the adviser.
We explain the plumbing. The tap stays in your hand.
Who keeps these lessons open
boost-save is an educational resource run by an editorial team. We write short lessons on how investment advice is regulated and paid for, so that readers arrive at the first meeting with the right questions.
Who writes
The boost-save editorial team, which signs every text as a group.
What it costs
Nothing. There are no locked sections, subscriptions or sign-ups.
How it is funded
It is an independent educational project: it sells no financial products and takes commissions from no one.
What it does not do
It gives no advice, places no instruments and flags no transactions.
Advice can reach you through people and firms in quite different positions. Choose a question and see how three common roles in the EU and Canada answer it.
The question
Tied agent of an EU investment firm
Who they work for
A single authorised investment firm or bank, which takes full responsibility for what the agent does on its behalf.
Who pays them
Usually the firm they represent, which in turn collects part of the product costs. The agreement may also set a fee payable by you.
Whether they sell products
Yes: they promote and place the firm's instruments, including at the client's home or office.
What advice they give
Usually non-independent: the firm may receive commissions from manufacturers, provided it discloses and justifies them.
Advice-only firm in the EU
Who they work for
Their own clients. An investment firm authorised for advice, not tied to banks, distribution networks or manufacturers.
Who pays them
Only the client, with a fee set in the agreement: by time, as a flat amount or in proportion to the assets followed.
Whether they sell products
No. They recommend, but place no instruments and hold no client money or securities.
What advice they give
Where declared independent, they may not accept or keep commissions from third parties.
Dealing representative in Canada
Who they work for
A registered dealer, such as a mutual fund dealer or an investment dealer, which sponsors their individual registration.
Who pays them
The dealer, from account fees or from commissions on products; the client pays through those fees or through product costs.
Whether they sell products
Yes, within the product categories their firm is registered for.
What advice they give
Canada does not use the EU label of independence. Registrants must assess suitability, put the client's interest first and address material conflicts of interest.
Where to checkIn the EU, use the register of the national competent authority of the firm's home country, or the ESMA registers for firms working across borders. In Canada, search the name in the National Registration Search of the Canadian Securities Administrators.
The seven stages of an advice relationship
EU investment services rules set a clear order, and Canadian rules follow a similar path. Each valve below is a stage, and each stage leaves a document you can ask for and keep.
Stage 1 of 7
The first meeting and information on the adviser
Before any agreement you must be told who you are dealing with, who they work for, whether the advice is independent, how many products from which manufacturers they will consider and what the service will cost.
What you receiveWritten pre-contractual information, on paper or in digital form.
Stage 2 of 7
The advice agreement
The service starts from an agreement describing what the adviser will do, how often they will update you, whether they will check the suitability of your investments over time and how they will be paid.
What you receiveA copy of the signed agreement, with the payment section spelled out.
Stage 3 of 7
The profiling questionnaire
The adviser gathers information on how well you know the instruments and how much experience you have, on your financial situation and ability to bear losses, on your goals and on the risk you are willing to take. Without this information they cannot recommend anything.
What you receiveA summary of your answers and the resulting profile: reread it before signing.
Stage 4 of 7
The recommendation and the suitability statement
When recommending a transaction, the adviser must explain why it fits the profile you gave. In the EU the explanation is put in writing and handed over before the transaction is carried out.
What you receiveA suitability statement linking the advice to your answers.
Stage 5 of 7
The costs, before you decide
Before signing you should see all costs added up: those of the service, those of the product and any commissions, as an amount and as a percentage, with their effect on the value of the investment over time.
What you receiveThe ex-ante cost disclosure, meaning costs calculated in advance.
Stage 6 of 7
The periodic report
At least once a year you receive an account of what you actually paid. In Canada this is the annual report on charges and other compensation. If the agreement provides for a periodic review, the adviser must also tell you whether the investments still suit your profile.
What you receiveThe ex-post cost report and, where provided, the periodic suitability assessment.
Stage 7 of 7
If something does not add up
The first step is a written complaint to the firm. If no answer comes or it does not convince you, in the EU you can turn to the out-of-court dispute body of your country, listed through the FIN-NET network; in Canada, to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments. For the client these routes are usually free.
What you receiveA written reply to the complaint, which you will also need for any further step.
Where to checkEach stage shows up in the documents just listed: ask for all of them and keep them together, because in a complaint they are your record.
The profile read on pressure gauges
The same instrument can suit one person and be wrong for another. Three hypothetical profiles, five qualitative indicators: watch how the needles move.
Hypothetical profile
Knowledge
Experience
Horizon
Bearable losses
Accepted risk
Profile A, hypothetical
Has set aside a sum needed in two years for a planned purchase. Has never invested and knows the instruments only by hearsay.
Knowledge
low
Experience
none
Horizon
short
Bearable losses
minimal
Accepted risk
low
An adviser proposing an instrument that is hard to sell within two years would have to explain in writing why it is suitable, and the explanation would hardly hold up.
Profile B, hypothetical
Has a stable job, an emergency fund already put aside and some savings that will not be touched for many years. Has bought fund units in the past.
Knowledge
medium
Experience
medium
Horizon
long
Bearable losses
partial
Accepted risk
medium
Here the room for choice is wider, but it stays tied to the answers: if work or goals changed tomorrow, the profile would need updating before new advice.
Profile C, hypothetical
Works in the financial sector, has followed markets for years and has wealth that is large compared with spending. Says strong swings are acceptable, but has two children at university to support.
Knowledge
high
Experience
high
Horizon
medium to long
Bearable losses
large
Accepted risk
high
Deep knowledge does not cancel spending commitments: a good questionnaire brings them out, and the adviser must take them into account even when the client claims to be ready for anything.
Where to checkIn the questionnaire summary you sign: if an answer does not represent you, ask for it to be corrected before receiving recommendations.
How much a yearly cost takes
A cost of one or two per cent looks small because it is seen one year at a time. The tank shows what happens when the same draw repeats.
With a hypothetical 20,000 euro, a cost of 1.8 per cent a year and a term of 15 years, with no return at all, costs take about 4,770 euro in total: 23.8 per cent of the starting amount.
Teaching assumption: zero return, so that only the effect of costs is visible. Each year the cost applies to what is left, so the total grows a little less than simple multiplication. This is not a forecast and describes no real product. Readers outside the euro area can read the amounts in their own currency.
stays in the tankgone as cost
Six phrases to turn over
Some phrases come up often in meetings about investments. Each tag carries a phrase; on the back, what to ask or check when you hear it.
“The service costs you nothing.”
Someone always pays. If there is no fee, the payment usually comes from product costs: ask for the total of costs and commissions, as an amount and as a percentage.
“This instrument carries no risk.”
Every instrument has some, only of different kinds. Many products have a key information document or fund facts summary: ask for it and read the risk section.
“Go ahead and sign, we will sort out the questionnaire later.”
The profile is needed before the recommendation, not after. The answers must be yours and you must be able to reread them before signing.
“This offer is only valid until Friday.”
Pressure to hurry is worth noting. Those who work well leave you time to take the documents home, reread them and come back with questions.
“You cannot lose anything on this.”
Real protection has someone providing it, with written conditions and limits. Ask who offers it, on what, and in which cases it does not apply.
“I am registered, trust me.”
Trust is fair, and checking takes a few minutes: the public register of the competent regulator, or the National Registration Search in Canada, shows the name and what the registration covers.
Articles from the editorial team
Four longer reads, one for each pipe in the system. Choose a title: the full text opens alongside.
Advice
Independent or not: what changes in the relationship
The word independent does not describe how skilled an adviser is, but how they are paid and the range of products they look at.
EU rules distinguish two ways of giving advice. A firm that declares itself independent must assess a wide range of instruments, not limited to those of companies it has close links with, and may not keep payments from those who make or distribute them. If it receives any, it must pass them on to the client.
Non-independent advice is lawful and very common. The adviser may look at a narrower range and the firm may receive commissions, provided they serve to improve the service and are disclosed in advance, with their amount or the method of calculating it. Canadian rules take a different route: they do not use this label, but require registrants to address conflicts of interest in the client's best interest.
In practice the difference shows in two places in the pre-contractual information: the sentence saying which of the two services you are receiving and the cost section, where commissions must also appear. If either is vague, it is a good moment to ask questions.
Costs
The ex-ante disclosure, line by line
The document on expected costs is often a dense table. It reads better if you know in advance which lines to look for.
The first distinction is between service costs and product costs. The former relate to advice and any order execution; the latter are taken by the instrument itself, such as a fund's management fees. Then there are third-party payments, meaning commissions, which must be shown separately.
For each item the disclosure gives an amount and a percentage. The most useful line is usually the total, with an explanation of how costs reduce the value of the investment over a given period. As a hypothetical example: on 10,000 euro, a total of 2 per cent comes to about 200 euro in the first year.
It is worth comparing this document with the ex-post report that arrives the following year. If the two figures are far apart, ask which item causes the difference.
Profile
What the suitability questionnaire really asks
In the EU it is often called the MiFID questionnaire, after the directive on markets in financial instruments; in Canada it is part of the know-your-client process. It is not a test: it is the basis on which every later recommendation is measured.
The questions fall into three areas. The first is knowledge and experience: which instruments you have used, how often, and whether your work or studies have made you familiar with the subject. The second is your financial situation, meaning income, assets, spending commitments and how much you could lose without changing your standard of living.
The third area is your goals: how long you plan to leave the sum invested, what it is for, how much fluctuation you are willing to accept. Answers should not look better than they are, because an inflated profile makes instruments look suitable when they would not be for you.
A profile does not last forever. A change of job, an inheritance or a large expense ahead are good reasons to ask for an update.
Concepts
Personal recommendation and general information
An article explaining how a fund works and an adviser telling you to buy one are two different things, in law as well.
Under EU rules, advice exists when a recommendation is addressed to a specific person, is based on their circumstances or presented as suitable for them, and concerns a transaction in a particular instrument. Without one of these elements, it remains general information.
That is why boost-save lessons name no products, issuers or platforms and tell no one what to do: they explain mechanisms, rules and documents that apply to everyone in the same way.
The same test helps when reading what you find online. Content that knows your situation only by hearsay and points you to a specific instrument is not advice protected by the rules, even when it uses their language.
Questions about the project
The short answers are here. More questions, on advice and on using the site, are on the FAQ page.
An editorial team that signs its texts as a group and answers at [email protected]. We cite no expert names, titles or partnerships you could not verify.
boost-save is an independent educational project. It sells no financial products, collects no commissions and receives no payment from those who create or distribute investment instruments.
No. The content is for education and information only. We explain how advice works, but we do not give it and we do not know your situation.
Only what you write in the request form, meaning first name, last name, phone, email, country of residence and your consent choices, plus two technical values in the browser. We use no analytics or advertising tools. The details are in the privacy notice.
No, because that would be a form of advice. We can, however, point you to the lesson that explains the document you received, so you arrive prepared for your next conversation with whoever offered it.
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