Choosing a financial advisor? You’ll want to be cautious. After all, when money’s involved, it’s important to do your due diligence and get the best results possible.
Of course, making the decision to get a financial advisor at all can often be a prudent one. But here are some questions to ask that might even get you a step further.
1. Are You a Fiduciary?
What’s a fiduciary? The short answer is that fiduciaries are held to a legal standard of working in the client’s best interest, rather than hitting a standard of recommend courses of action that are suitable.
Essentially, a fiduciary is going to tell you what they think the absolute best course of action is, while a non-fiduciary can recommend options that are good but might also work in their interests better.
2. Do You Get Paid by Commission or Fee-Only?
This one’s important. You’ll want a fee-only advisor who isn’t getting commission to sell you certain financial products.
And you’ll want to be very careful here, and not fall for the words ‘fee-based,’ as there are hybrid models of payment and some of the less than scrupulous may try to pull the wool over your eyes.
3. How Are You Going to Allocate My Assets?
Remember, you want a diversified portfolio. Know exactly what your money is going into.
What percentage of your portfolio is stock–and what kind? How does the stock part of my portfolio look when divided by market cap?
4. Have You Hired an Independent Custodian?
It’s important to know where your money’s being held. Simply don’t trust a financial advisor to be their own custodian–make sure it’s an independent custodian.
And make sure you always have the ability to check for yourself whether your financial advisor is faithfully reporting.
These are just some of the basic questions you can ask to keep your prospective financial advisor honest before you make a choice.
If you want to learn more about financial planning contact Blisk Financial Group today.