How To Choose A Financial Advisor

By Author: Ivan Benites
Total Articles: 200
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If you happen to be one of those lucky people with more money to spend or invest than most, you may do well to get yourself a Financial Advisor. A Financial Advisor is a person who helps people invest their money for long and short term goals. One of the main duties of a Financial Advisor is to determine the clients' goals and risk tolerance and then recommend appropriate investments.
It goes without saying that a Financial Advisor must be trustworthy and have your best interests at heart, above everything else. After all he is (literally) the one who controls the purse-strings in the household. However, apart from the above two qualities, there are a lot of other considerations to be taken into account while choosing a Financial Advisor.
CHOOSING A FINANCIAL ADVISOR: TIPS TO KEEP IN MIND

1. Goal Setting - While most of us have a broad idea of what we want to spend our money on (a new house, a new car, college education for the kids etc.), many of us may not actually get down to hard numbers and calculate how much college education for the kids actually comes down to. Here is where a good Financial Advisor ...
... comes in. He is your human calculator, the one who actually does the calculations and tells you in hard figures how much of your money you have to keep aside for various activities.

2. Planning - Financial planning is something we all need to do at some point or the other, whether we like it or not. It can be something simple or something complex. While most of us may be able to deal with simple financial planning, a Financial Advisor would help with the complex part. This is simply because, as a qualified person, he would possess the knowledge and experience to understand our financial goals and draft them into a proper financial plan.

3. Professional Help - Lets face it - it isn't easy for us to understand investment, tax-saving and the numerous other schemes being thrown into our face thanks to advertising. It's pretty complex, and here is where the financial advisor can help us. By explaining and analyzing the numerous schemes available to us, he can help us make better, more informed choices.

4. Personal Attention - Everyone has unique financial needs and goals, and hence, everyone needs a financial advisor of their own, who can actually take time to study and decipher the different schemes that would suit one's investment plans the best.
Choosing a financial advisor is a laborious process. It is important for us to have some knowledge of how things work financially, as that will help us decide. Equally important is to ‘shop around' - check with professionals close to us like a lawyer or a bank manager, business associates, or even other family members. Interviewing potential candidates face to face, gauging their potential would be a good idea - after all you will reap the benefits of your hard work at the initial stages forever.