The Secret to Finding a Good Financial Advisor
1. How many clients do they work with?
It is important to know how many clients your prospective advisor works with. Are you one of 100 clients or one of 1000? Based on your assets are you in the top 15%, or the bottom 15% of their clients? These are important things to know. Ask if you are one of their top clients or one of their bottom clients, if will you receive more attention or less attention?
2. Do they have a network of professionals that they trust and can refer you to when you have a need?
It is valuable for an advisor to have a strong network of professional individuals available to their clients, in which they have full trust. Your advisor should know and trust these individuals completely, so that if an issue arises with them, your advisor will be able to go to bat for you.
3. Ask the financial advisor for a list of clients that you can contact.
Are there any clients that have given testimonials and who would be willing to speak to you about the advisor and the services provided? Ask these individuals how they enjoy working with the advisor and their staff. Ask some of the questions that you have asked the advisor, such as, Who do they meet with when they have their meetings, the advisor or an assistant?
4. How does the financial advisor contribute to the community?
Whether or not this is important to you, it is a good question to ask. You will discover if the advisor has given back to the community and if they are doing things over and above the day-to-day job to give back and help others.
5. How do they feel they will best help you and support you in achieving your goals?
This may be a question that you want to ask the advisor in a second meeting, if you have a two meeting process. Ask: How can they bring value to the relationship? What do they feel they can help you with? What will they do to ensure that you achieve your goals?
6. Do they have any tools that they have developed specifically for their clients?
I have touched on this earlier as well. This is really where you can see if a financial advisor is pro-active and if they specialize in a specific area or a specific type of client. An advisor who is pro-active should be creating some tools or have some processes in place to support their clients in their target market. Some of the tools will be used behind the scenes, but should be able to be explained to you, and provided to you during your relationship, to help you achieve your goals and keep you on track.
7. Do they prefer to meet at their office or are they willing to come to your house and why?
It is a great idea to go to the advisor's office to meet with them initially if you are able to do so. This will allow you to see their office and their working environment; and, it will give you a sense of what type of an advisor they are, and the clients, with which they work. In the same respect, if you do not live close to their office, you should question if they are willing to come to meet with you at your home. If not, you will want to understand why they want to meet only in their office. Likely, they believe that they can provide the best possible service where all of their paperwork and resources are readily available, despite which questions might arise. They may prefer to come to your home once to see your environs and to get a better understanding and feel for the type of client you are. But, if you are unable to get out to meet with them, or if your situation in this regard changes in the future, you will want to know how this will be managed.
8. Do they do financial planning, and if so, do they charge for it?
If you are looking for somebody who is going to look at your overall situation, and who is going to spend the time to help you plan how to meet your goals, you will want an advisor who is proficient at financial planning. If you are looking for a broker whom you simply want to be able to phone to have them place a trade for you, then you will not need financial planning. Understanding whether financial planning is provided is a key component. Be very careful that you are actually getting financial planning when you ask an advisor if they do financial planning. Also, you must understand whether or not there are any fees associated with the planning service. Some advisors may charge an additional fee for the planning on top of everything else that they do, while others will provide you with an actual financial plan at no additional cost.
9. Do they look at the whole picture or only one area?
It is important to know if the prospective advisor has a particular focus. Are they proficient with investments, insurance, financial planning, retirement planning, taxes, and estates? Will this one person be able to take over all of these areas for you? Will you be able to establish a relationship with one solid individual who understands all aspects of your financial situation? Or will they only help you with your investments and have someone else do your taxes, your insurance, your estate planning and retirement planning? Will you need to go out and find the others who do that? It is important to understand if the advisor can look at the whole picture or only one or two areas. You will be able to achieve your goals more quickly if an advisor can service your entire financial portfolio, because each of those areas mentioned, needs to understand and complement the others, while not undermining them, which may occur if various individuals are working on different aspects of your financial plan.
It is important to know how many clients your prospective advisor works with. Are you one of 100 clients or one of 1000? Based on your assets are you in the top 15%, or the bottom 15% of their clients? These are important things to know. Ask if you are one of their top clients or one of their bottom clients, if will you receive more attention or less attention?
2. Do they have a network of professionals that they trust and can refer you to when you have a need?
It is valuable for an advisor to have a strong network of professional individuals available to their clients, in which they have full trust. Your advisor should know and trust these individuals completely, so that if an issue arises with them, your advisor will be able to go to bat for you.
3. Ask the financial advisor for a list of clients that you can contact.
Are there any clients that have given testimonials and who would be willing to speak to you about the advisor and the services provided? Ask these individuals how they enjoy working with the advisor and their staff. Ask some of the questions that you have asked the advisor, such as, Who do they meet with when they have their meetings, the advisor or an assistant?
4. How does the financial advisor contribute to the community?
Whether or not this is important to you, it is a good question to ask. You will discover if the advisor has given back to the community and if they are doing things over and above the day-to-day job to give back and help others.
5. How do they feel they will best help you and support you in achieving your goals?
This may be a question that you want to ask the advisor in a second meeting, if you have a two meeting process. Ask: How can they bring value to the relationship? What do they feel they can help you with? What will they do to ensure that you achieve your goals?
6. Do they have any tools that they have developed specifically for their clients?
I have touched on this earlier as well. This is really where you can see if a financial advisor is pro-active and if they specialize in a specific area or a specific type of client. An advisor who is pro-active should be creating some tools or have some processes in place to support their clients in their target market. Some of the tools will be used behind the scenes, but should be able to be explained to you, and provided to you during your relationship, to help you achieve your goals and keep you on track.
7. Do they prefer to meet at their office or are they willing to come to your house and why?
It is a great idea to go to the advisor's office to meet with them initially if you are able to do so. This will allow you to see their office and their working environment; and, it will give you a sense of what type of an advisor they are, and the clients, with which they work. In the same respect, if you do not live close to their office, you should question if they are willing to come to meet with you at your home. If not, you will want to understand why they want to meet only in their office. Likely, they believe that they can provide the best possible service where all of their paperwork and resources are readily available, despite which questions might arise. They may prefer to come to your home once to see your environs and to get a better understanding and feel for the type of client you are. But, if you are unable to get out to meet with them, or if your situation in this regard changes in the future, you will want to know how this will be managed.
8. Do they do financial planning, and if so, do they charge for it?
If you are looking for somebody who is going to look at your overall situation, and who is going to spend the time to help you plan how to meet your goals, you will want an advisor who is proficient at financial planning. If you are looking for a broker whom you simply want to be able to phone to have them place a trade for you, then you will not need financial planning. Understanding whether financial planning is provided is a key component. Be very careful that you are actually getting financial planning when you ask an advisor if they do financial planning. Also, you must understand whether or not there are any fees associated with the planning service. Some advisors may charge an additional fee for the planning on top of everything else that they do, while others will provide you with an actual financial plan at no additional cost.
9. Do they look at the whole picture or only one area?
It is important to know if the prospective advisor has a particular focus. Are they proficient with investments, insurance, financial planning, retirement planning, taxes, and estates? Will this one person be able to take over all of these areas for you? Will you be able to establish a relationship with one solid individual who understands all aspects of your financial situation? Or will they only help you with your investments and have someone else do your taxes, your insurance, your estate planning and retirement planning? Will you need to go out and find the others who do that? It is important to understand if the advisor can look at the whole picture or only one or two areas. You will be able to achieve your goals more quickly if an advisor can service your entire financial portfolio, because each of those areas mentioned, needs to understand and complement the others, while not undermining them, which may occur if various individuals are working on different aspects of your financial plan.
