In my experience, I have found it challenging to connect with a person that matches what I expect in an excellent financial advisor. Many candidates have what I consider a "fatal flaw" in a financial advisor. Here are some of the key misses in my expectations:
So far, I've only met
two financial advisors who I feel do not exhibit these "fatal flaw" characteristics. The first one I met seven years ago and have hired to manage part of our retirement funds. I am happy to refer friends and acquaintances The second I met three years ago in my part time seasonal financial services job. Our work requires us to refer clients to an financial advisor in a partner company when needed. From my evaluation interview, I decided that he met my criteria for referring my clients.
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This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.Copyright © 2010 Achievement Catalyst, LLC
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4 comments:
The slick sale pitch will make me run. I got sick of not doing well in the market so I put some time into being a great investor. Now my friends are all asking me for advice.
A really nice and informative article.Asking for reference and look for prior track record of an advisor before appointing one.
I have been investing on my own for almost 25 years and I don't need an investment salesperson at this point. In the future, I may hire a fee-based advisor who has specialized knowledge of trusts, taxes and wealth management.
My first investment experience with an "advisor" led me to a couple of conclusions:
1) You can pick your own no-load mutual fund and do much better than the fee-based products.
2) Most advisors, especially those who are younger, don't even have investments or a portfolio. They blow all of their money on status stuff to appear sucessful.
The financial services industry always reminds me of the movie Wall Street, where Charlie Sheen is broke and cold-calling widows.
Nice post.
I'm with Bret above. I think that most financial advisors just care about selling your products, and therefore an investor is much better off to manage their own portfolio.
I'm reminded of what an older friend of my dad's used to tell me about his advisor. Whenever his advisor would recommend a product/stock, he'd ask how much of the advisor's money was invested in it. If the answer was none, he wouldn't buy the product.
Of course, the advisor started answering that he did have money in the product. So Ed would say "great, next week show me a statement that proves it (with the amount of money whited out to protect the advisor's privacy) and I'll buy some."
He ended up being a do it yourself investor. I wonder why.
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