The Million Dollar Question: Who’s the Best Financial Advisor for You?
It stands to reason the right financial advisor can help you accumulate more assets during your working years and preserve more of those assets during your retirement years.
But, who are the “right” financial advisors who can help you achieve your goals, in particular, a comfortable, secure retirement.
There are hundreds of thousands of advisors, planners and sales representatives in the United States who sell financial advice, ser
vices and products. Every one of them is going to claim they are trustworthy financial experts whether it is true or not. Why? They know this is what you want to hear when you select a financial advisor.
Paladin has been researching the quality of financial advisors for more than 15 years. The evidence shows the majority of these experts are not what they claim. In fact, more than 50 percent are salespeople who are paid commission to sell you investment and insurance products.
Choosing the right financial advisor is the most important decision you will ever make. That’s because the advisor will be in a position to influence or control your planning and investment decisions. After all, the advisor is the expert and we do not question the advice of experts.
This is even more important when the advisor’s recommendations can impact when you retire, how you live during retirement and your financial security late in life when you need it the most. What is more important than that?
Your challenge is to select a competent, ethical advisor who can provide high-quality advice that helps you achieve your financial goals. Ideally, the advisor will be independent, an acknowledged fiduciary and compensated with fees.
Here are some tips that will help you make the right decision:
- Trust what you see, not what you hear (require documentation for key information)
- Require written confirmation of their fiduciary status
- Make sure a brand-name custodian has physical possession of your assets
- Pay fees for advice, not commissions for sales recommendations
I believe that selecting the best financial advisor is a five-step process:
- Step 1: Gather the facts
- Step 2: Use the Internet to validate the accuracy of the facts
- Step 3: Interview the best advisors
- Step 4: Control the process you use to interview advisors
- Step 5: Maintain your objectivity throughout the process
I have explained this process in more detail in another article that was recently published here. This article will show you how to evaluate advisor information and select the advisor with the best credentials, ethics, business practices and services.
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