Benefits of Working with a Financial Advisor
This article was featured in the Personal Finance section of the El Nuevo Herald on Sunday, January 17, 2016. The link to the published article can be found at the bottom of this post.
A financial advisor will help you reach many of your financial goals and depending on your situation, this could be a significant benefit. Your financial advisor is a person with whom you will develop a relationship of mutual trust and respect.
An advisor can help you with many things:
- Assess your current financial status, including your income, investments, assets, insurance coverage, tax situation, employee benefits, the status of your current business and planning around the sale of the business, as well as your need for wills and beneficiary designations;
- Set goals that are both ambitious and reasonable based on your current situation like saving for retirement or plan for college funding for your children;
- Frequently evaluate changes in your personal circumstances (births, marriage, divorce, deaths) and make sure that this is reflected in your savings and investment goals as well as in your estate planning documents;
- Address weaknesses in your current investment and retirement planning that can help you determine how close you are to achieving your goals;
- Develop a comprehensive plan to suit your current needs and future desires; AND
- Assist with the implementation of the plan, monitor the success and help make changes based on changes in the market and your personal situation.
A financial advisor can provide a valuable new perspective to your own outlook. Even if you don’t feel you need the help of a financial planner now, something could happen to trigger a call for help. For instance, maybe you’ve inherited a large sum of money or you are planning to sell your business and you are not sure how to manage the situation. The decisions you make and the timing of those decisions are critical in the long-term consequences of changes in your financial life.
Finally, if you do decide to use a professional financial advisor, you’ll still need to find one who is experienced with helping clients in your situation. There are many types of financial advisors, however, I believe that a “fee-only” financial advisor is committed to working in the best interest of the clients they serve, since their compensation is not commission based. They provide an unbiased approach to making sure that your financial affairs are in an order best suited for your needs and goals. A great website that can be used to find a financial advisor in your area is https://napfa.org. For your protection, be sure to conduct a thorough interview of any potential advisor and also review their education, work experience and credentials.
Link to the article in El Nuevo Herald: https://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/finanzas/article55067670.html