subject: What Should You Expect from Your Financial Advisor? [print this page] What Should You Expect from Your Financial Advisor?
Every year millions of investors have high expectations when they select their latest and greatest financial advisors. Where do the expectations come from? Paladin Registry (www.PaladinRegistry.com) research shows financial planners, financial advisors, sales representatives, and money managers create excessive expectations when they use sales tactics to convince investors they are:
Competent investment experts
Ethical professionals who put investor interests first
Capable of producing exceptional investment returns
Excellent communicators who keep investors fully informed
Why do advisors create high expectations? They increase their odds of winning when they create high expectations. They reduce their odds of winning if they do not create high expectations.
Win, they make a lot of money
Lose, they make nothing
Paladin research shows investors should establish relationships with financial advisors that are based on four "realistic" expectations.
Competent Advice
Investors have the right to expect competent advice from advisors that will help them achieve their financial goals. For example, they need a specific amount of money for a financially secure retirement. Advisors should provide specialized knowledge and services that help them realize their hopes and dreams
How do they know if financial advisors are competent? Advisors don't have track records so investors must review documentation for their sources of competence: Education, experience, high quality certifications (CFA, CFP, CIMA), and association memberships (NAPFA, FPA, AICPA, IMCA, CFA Institute).
Ethical Advice
Investors should expect advice that is free of conflicts of interest and puts their financial interests first. When advisors have to choose between doing what is best for investors and what makes them the most money, they should choose to do what is best for investors.
How do investors know their advisors are providing ethical advice? Most of the time, they do not know. Investors' best protection is doing their homework when they select advisors and limit their selections to advisors who have clean compliance records, are Registered Investment Advisors or Investment Advisor Representatives, are compensated with fees like other professionals, and are acknowledged fiduciaries. Most investors use the services of experienced professionals to conduct background checks for them to validate the accuracy of advisor claims and data.
Competitive Results
Investors should expect competitive investment returns on their assets so they can achieve their financial goals. Returns will vary based on individual circumstances, return objectives, types of investments, and tolerances for risk.
How do investors know their advisors are producing competitive returns? They can compare their returns to applicable benchmarks that reflect their situations (age, asset amounts, purpose of the assets, return objective, tolerance for risk, and need for income or principal). They can also compare their returns against the S&P 500, bond funds, risk-free investments, or CPI. Relative returns are more important than absolute returns and returns that are net of all expenses are more meaningful than numbers that include those expenses.
Quality Services
Investors should expect quality services from their financial advisors. It all starts with quarterly performance reports that show recent results and describe how those results were achieved. Investors should also receive monthly statements from an independent custodian that reports the current values of assets, receipt of income, distributions, transactions, and other data. Advisors should not influence or control the companies that custody investor assets or produce monthly or quarterly reports.
Investors should also expect meetings with advisors on a regularly scheduled basis and the professionals should be readily available when investors want to talk to them. Too many investors experience advisor disappearing acts during down markets. Advisors should meet with investors on a quarterly basis to review investment returns and meet annually to update their financial plans.
ABOUT PALADIN REGISTRY
In 2003, Paladin began providing information services to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Our services include Background Checks, Quality Ratings, Online Documentation, and a service that matches investors to planners and advisors in their communities who achieved the Registry's highest quality rating (five stars). Visit Paladin's websitefor additional information.
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