If you’re like me and you don’t have a financial advisor, you might think that working with one is expensive and unnecessary. After all, who needs another person telling us what to do with our money?
But if you have some basic knowledge of investing, it could be worth the cost or time to find someone who can help guide your investments towards your goals.
They Can Be A Valuable Partner
They can help you make better decisions, set goals and reach them, save money and avoid costly mistakes.
It’s not just about getting advice on investments, it’s also about understanding your options so that when the time comes to buy or sell property or make other big purchases like buying a home or starting a business, you have all of the information at hand to make an informed decision.
The Wrong Financial Advisor Can Be Disastrous.
The right AG Morgan Financial Advisors can be a valuable partner in your quest for a secure future and the first step is to figure out what kind of adviser you want: an independent broker or a commissioned salesperson such as an insurance agent.
The former charges fees based on the amount and complexity of services they provide; commissions are paid by third parties such as mutual funds or insurance companies that sell products such as annuities, life insurance policies and long-term care coverage.
Basically, they’re incentivized to make sure that their clients’ money stays invested with them–and keeps paying out those juicy commissions.
That’s why it’s important not just to know how much your financial advisor earns but also what his or her incentives are when making recommendations about investments in products like mutual funds or annuities.
Or even whether it makes sense for you at all given your age, risk tolerance and other factors affecting how much risk capital should be allocated toward growth vs. income generation over time elderly people may need more income than younger ones.
What To Search For In An Advisor
- The advisor like AG Morgan Financial Advisors is a fiduciary and a fiduciary is someone who has a legal obligation to act in your best interests and disclose any conflicts of interest they have. This means they must put your needs above their own when making investment recommendations.
- An independent financial advisor works for himself or herself or as part of a small team, not for an insurance company or brokerage firm that sells products like annuities or mutual funds sold by commission-based.
Sales people who may not always have your best interests at heart when recommending investments for you to buy from them instead of elsewhere and often charge high fees for these products anyway.
Guidelines For Finding The Right Financial Advisor
- Make sure they are licensed
- Check their background, credentials and experience
- Ask for references from clients who have had similar needs to yours and who have been with the advisor for at least a few years
- The longer an advisor has been in business, the more likely he or she will be able to meet your needs as well as those of other clients like you
- Find out what fees and services are included in their fee schedule, how often they charge these fees, how long they will continue to provide service before requiring additional payments from you and whether there are any hidden charges such as mutual fund load or commissions on transactions made through the advisor’s brokerage firm
