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If something is not right: a plan, a bill or a meeting
Tell the office, in writing if you can. Here is what to say, what the agreement already promises, and how to end it.
AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.
Tell the office first
If something about a plan, a bill or a meeting is not right, tell the office in writing. The office answers in office hours, says who will deal with it, and puts any change to an agreement in writing before it is made.
That covers a figure in your plan that does not match a document you gave, a bill that does not match the agreement, or a meeting that left you less sure than you were before it. An e-mail is the clearest way: it puts the problem in writing and gives everybody the same words to work from.
Enquiries and e-mails are answered in office hours: on the day they arrive if they arrive while the office is open, otherwise on the next day it opens.
Something in the plan
Every assumption in a plan is written down and labeled as one, so you can point to the line you disagree with rather than a feeling about the whole.
Farhan writes down every assumption a plan makes, so a client can disagree with it.
A figure that looks wrong is traced back to the document it came from. Owen checks every figure in a draft against the document it came from.
Something on a bill
Before any paid work there is a written agreement: what the plan or the hours will cover and what they won't, the fee in dollars, when it is billed, and how either of us can end it. Nothing is billed before you sign.
Every bill should match the agreement it comes from: the fee in dollars, and when it fell due. Beatriz sends every bill with the agreement it comes from.
Ending an agreement
You can end any agreement at any time, in writing. You pay only for the work done up to that day, and anything you paid for work not yet done is refunded within thirty days.
With a real practice
Before anything goes wrong with a real practice, look up where it is registered and who works there, because that also tells you where a complaint would go. The rule in New York, the place to check, and where a client takes a complaint:
In New York, a practice that is paid to advise people about investments must register as an investment adviser: with the New York Attorney General's Investor Protection Bureau, or with the SEC once it manages $25 million or more. Each of its planners must also register and pass a securities law exam or hold a qualifying certification. This demonstration practice is fictional and holds no registration of any kind.
- N.Y. General Business Law § 359-eee(2)(a) (opens the source in a new tab) It is unlawful for an investment adviser to do business in or from New York until it has filed a registration statement with the Department of Law.
You can look up any real adviser, and the people who work for it, at adviserinfo.sec.gov, the SEC's public database, which covers advisers registered with a state as well. A real practice gives you its name exactly as it appears there; this demonstration practice will not be found, because it does not exist.
A client of a real New York adviser registered with the state can take a complaint to the Attorney General's Investor Protection Bureau, and a client of one registered with the SEC can take it to the SEC. This demonstration practice has no clients and no regulator.
Contact the office
A first meeting costs nothing, gives no advice and asks nothing of you afterwards: about forty-five minutes, at the office or by video. The office replies in office hours.