We therefore need to have a comprehensible image, of who are the best advisors, and how to evaluate the talented advisors. Be watchful, never ever use amateurs, they can hoodwink you, considering Rwanda’s few qualified personnel.

A bond broker is someone who is licensed and registered to buy and sell bonds for institutional or individual investors. Brokers are required to register with Rwanda Capital Market Advisory Council (CMAC).

Brokers may work within bond firms or they may work as independent brokers. Different types of brokers offer different levels of service and varying access to bonds.

Full-service brokers offer clients a wide range of services including: helping clients develop investment goals, researching and recommending investment opportunities for individual clients, as well as executing purchases and sales of bonds for a client’s portfolio. Another difference between full service brokers and other types of brokers is that full service brokerage firms maintain an inventory of various bonds to offer directly to clients.

Discount brokers execute buy and sell orders for clients, but they generally do not make investment recommendations and they often do not hold a large inventory of bonds. Instead they purchase bonds from full-service brokers or bond issuers and then resell them to individual investors at a mark-up (price increase) for their services.

Online brokerage companies offer full and discount services for investors who would rather invest directly through the internet. Online brokerage firms may enable you to compare bond inventories across multiple dealers, research bond types, and place orders online. Not all online brokerage firms offer bonds and not all online firms offer you the ability to compare across dealers. You purchase and sell bonds by opening an online account.

Third party brokers do not carry an inventory of bonds. Rather they bid for bonds for individual investors from a wide variety of dealers. Think of third party brokers as "bond head-hunters."

Many banks also offer customers the ability to invest in bonds through on-staff registered representatives.

When evaluating a potential financial professional to help you achieve your wealth-building goals consider:

Competence: Make sure he or she has the education, experience, and credentials necessary, as well as established success in the field. You want to know that your potential broker has experience investing for clients in the type of bonds you are most interested in, and is registered with CMAC and is licensed to do business in Rwanda.

Not every broker has immediate access to the types of bonds you may be interested in. For example, full service brokers keep a large inventory of various bonds for individual investors while discount brokers maintain a much smaller inventory. Know what type of bonds you are most interested in (Government Treasuries, corporate bonds) and determine if your broker has the best access to those bonds.

Ends