If you’re looking for help with your finances, a financial advisor can be a huge asset. Many people don’t realize just how helpful these professionals can be. Let’s take a look at the top 5 ways a financial advisor can help you reach your financial goals.
1 – They Have the Training and Experience to Help You Set Up a Plan
If you’re like most people, you have many different variables that need to go into your financial plan. They may include short-term savings, long-term savings, investments, wages, additional income, charity donations, and more. Figuring out how all these pieces fit together can be extremely difficult for the lay person. A financial advisor has the experience, training, and resources to make sense of all your variables and create a plan that will work for you.
2 – Use Their Discipline to Your Advantage
Financial advisors have more discipline than most for two reasons: First, it’s not their money, which means they can make decision based entirely on facts without emotions entering into the equation, and second because they have the training. For example, one of the biggest mistakes an investor can make is to buy into an investment when it’s hit a market high – which is understandable since the lay person sees a strong performance and thinks that’s an indication to buy.
However, a problem can arise when that same investor sees the market go down and immediately sells in an effort to reduce their risk. A financial advisor is much less likely to make this classic mistake, because they’ve studied the markets for years and are much more knowledgeable about the best time to buy and the best time to sell.
3 – Help You Avoid Unwise Investments
It’s not just market investments that can be unwise. There are many products out there that don’t make sense for most investors, like permanent life insurance, bad business deals, loaded mutual funds, or unfavorable limited partnerships. Your financial advisor can help you find wise investments and weed out the bad ones.
4 – Offer Referrals to Other Professionals
Once you have a financial advisor you trust, such as the highly trained professionals at IPC Securities Corporation, you can likely get referrals to all sorts of other professionals. For example, if you need an accountant, lawyer, insurance agent or other professional, an advisor is likely to have working relationships with people you can work with. This opportunity to work with pre-vetted professionals is an excellent resource.
5 – They Stay Up to Date So You Don’t Have To
Some people don’t have the financial background to keep up with their portfolio and make the right decisions, but even those who do have a financial background likely don’t have the time to stay up to date. In many cases, those who do it on their own instead of hiring a financial advisor will do the research required to initially set up their portfolio, but they won’t do the day-to-day maintenance that a professional advisor can do.
For example, most people understand that a good investment today won’t necessarily be a good investment tomorrow. However, when an individual adds an investment to their portfolio, they may only check up on it every few months. A financial advisor has one job: to stay on track of their clients investments. As a result, they’ll keep their finger on the pulse and will know exactly what the markets are doing.
It’s easy to see that a financial advisor can make a big difference in the average portfolio. There are dozens of ways in which an advisor can add value to their client’s portfolios.