Picking a Financial Planner

How do you pick a financial planner? Can you say Google? Type in financial planner and your city, and you will be served up an abundance of planners to choose from, or not. Unfortunately, just because someone is listed, doesn't mean that you should entrust your future to them. You must determine if they are legitimate and that they are not just someone just waiting to get their hand in you pocket. Read, read, read, read! Educate yourself on what to look for. You can find all kinds of information by doing basic searches. You will learn that there are many ways that financial planners get paid. Some receive a fee based on a percentage of your portfolio while others receive commissions on transactions they make like buying and selling stocks for you. Still others are paid a salary and receive bonuses from financial services firms they are employed by. They can be experts on stocks, insurance, annuities, bonds, or maybe nothing at all. There are planners that are certified and regulated by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. You can go to the Financial Planning Association's web site and do a search for a certified planner. You can also find a planner by asking friends and family if they are using a financial planner or know someone that they can refer you to.

Which ever method you use to find a financial planner, your work does not end there. You must then meet with the planner and interview him or her thoroughly. Ask lots of questions. If you don't feel comfortable with the person, then move on. The first individual that I met with I did not particularly like. My wife liked him and felt ready to sign on, but I wasn't comfortable. He tried to get us to sign a contract with him with the promise of a full refund if we decided that we weren't happy at any time during the first year. He seemed to be more of a salesman than a potential partner. We refrained from signing and told him that we wanted a few days to make a decision. I am glad we took the time. My wife's boss heard that we were talking with a financial advisor and he provided her with a name of an individual he had done business with in the past. This referral turned out to be a great fit for us. We were better prepared when we met with the second financial advisor and found him to be well educated, experienced, grounded, and someone that we both were instantly comfortable with.

Our first meeting went very well and we decided to go back for a second time to see what type of plan our potential advisor would lay out for us. We provided him with all of our financial information so that he could review it and make some recommendations. That in itself was hard for me to feel comfortable about. Handing over information that one would normally keep confidential was not easy for me. Trust is critical for there to be any chance of forming a strong partnership with a financial advisor. Prior to accepting the recommendations there would be cause for many more questions and a lot of soul searching. With more questions to ponder I am sure that I will suffer through a few more sleepless nights.