When you are seeking an investment advisor, look for someone who holds either a CFP designation ( Certified Financial Planner ) or a CGA designation ( Certified General Accountant ).

The Financial Planning Standards Council is responsible for the training and certification of all individuals who hold the CFP designation. You can reach them on their website at www.fpsc.ca. On the right hand side of their home page, you will see "Find a CFP Professional". You can start here to find a CFP in your city or town or close to where you reside. Contact them, explain what your situation is, ask them if they do consulting in this area and what their hourly billing rate is. You may wish to contact other CFP members and compare responses. Make notes to yourself after the telephone conversations have ended so that you can review the information that you have received. Also, be sure to ask if 2 or more individuals from your company can attend the consultation and would there be a single hourly billing rate for the group.

The Certified General Accountants' Association of Alberta is responsible for the training and certification of all individuals who hold the CGA designation. You can reach them on their website at www.cga-alberta.org. You can contact them at their telephone number shown at the bottom of their home page. Once again, you can request a list of their members who practice in your city, town or close to where you reside. Use the same format as I have detailed above for those holding the CFP designation.

I think that it is an excellent idea that 2 or more employees who are considering purchasing these offered shares to attend a consultation, as a group, with a professional. The meeting may last a little longer, but all the employees can equally contribute to the professional fee that is charged. After reviewing your notes and discussing it with your fellow employees, you can then decide who you wish to consult with. Contact the professional, set up the meeting and bring any paperwork that you have regarding the share offering including the prospectus. Be sure to ask lots of questions because you are paying for this consultation.

You and your fellow employees will then quickly receive an education on what is included in a prospectus and some basic investment advice. Go 4 it. Keep me posted. I would be very much interested in the results of your meeting.

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Educating one Consumer at a time

Thanks Footloose....my company will not be publicly trading shares, you must work for our company to own shares. I guess the "Prospectus" is still an expected piece of information I should be asking the company about. I appreciate the input, and although I am not investment savvy I regularily deal with the billing of projects that I work on, and I see the reports on them.

I will definitely look to talk to an investment consultant, as $50-$100 isn't much for some objective advise. I may even approach a few fellow employees about getting together to retain a professional for some ongoing advise. Would I just google professional investment consultants in my city, or is there another name specific to this type of investment?

Thanks again FL.

Before any public company issues shares, be they common, preferred, class "A", class "B" or any other class, they are required to issue what is known as a PROSPECTUS. This prospectus details the share offering including types of shares that are being offered, their face value, their initial offer price if offered at a discount, total number of shares offered and much more detail about the share offering. Wait until you receive this prospectus before contemplating purchasing any shares.

If reading this propectus is "all Greek" to you, ask a senior financial executive in your company to explain what it means in layman's language. If you are not comfortable with doing this, contact a financial consultant to help you understand what it is that your company is offering. Be sure to find out if you can sell it on a public stock exchange or how do you sell it when you want to dispose of it and what are the income tax implications upon sale. Are there provisions in the prospectus to sell the shares back to the company and when and at what price?

As a retired professional accountant and tax consultant, I highly recommend that you contact a professional investment consultant to fully explain this prospectus to you. Even if you had to pay a fee of $75 to $100 for a half hour to an hour consultation, it is money well spent. Consider it an investment. I can't begin to tell you the number of clients that came to me AFTER they made a bad investment seeking help. By then, it's too late.

i assume that you are NOT financial savvy. In other words, you do not know how to read an Income Statement, a Balance Sheet or a Cash Flow Statement.

I don't even know how to change a tire on my car, replace a burned-out tail light or make any repairs to my car. All I know is how to drive it. So, I hire a mechanic to do these jobs. And the same goes for you. Hire an accountant, financial consultant or someone who you feel comfortable with to walk you through the prospectus. Ask lots of questions. Remember, it's your money on the line. Don't gamble it, invest it wisely.

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Educating one Consumer at a time

My company has recently announced they will be adding shares to be offered to employees. Most shares will be a class "B" share non voting, but select people will be offered class "A" shares from what I understand. I have never been involved with any investing before, and our company is coming off our worst profitable year in decades. However, we have landed a very lucrative and high profile project, with lots of talk of other projects to follow.

So although the share offer has not been presented yet, the number $3000/share has been stated in a recent speech by our CEO. This is all the information to date.

So now I am wondering what questions I should be asking as we go forward, as I am interested in investing in my company. We have great and talented people, and I truly believe we are going to ride this upswing in the economy.

Any tips on what I should understand or be asking would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

DBG