Financial advice is advice given by a financial advisor. A financial advisor is an independent practitioner who guides you about investment management, income tax preparation, and even on real estate planning. He aims at fulfilling his client’s financial goals. He helps you by guiding when and how to invest your money in order to make a profit as well as savings. Stockbrokers, insurance agents, investment managers, estate planners, and bankers all are types of financial advisors.

There are some agents and brokers who try to practice financial advising. These advisors work in order to serve the company rather than serving their clients. This is because they are associated with the company and are bound to sell some policies or properties for the sake of their own incentive or to achieve an imposed target.

What do financial advisors do?

A financial advisor is a well-educated and experienced person, who closely determines the market condition. An advisor gives helps you by giving you financial advice to invest your money at the right time in the right place to meet your financial goals. Thus, an advisor helps you in planning your retirement or education so that you don’t lack in money whenever needed. He helps in tax reduction, charity investment, debt reduction, or generating income with capital. A financial advisor helps you in understanding the strategies, risks, and benefits involved in suggested investment decisions. He helps you with proper distribution of your capital so that the investment made is equally distributed in different sectors. He also helps in spreading your asset into different investment sectors such as in the stock market, real estate, commodity market, etc., thereby reducing the risk to your money. An advisor also works as your counselor when the market graph is moving downward, suggests important changes, and gives appropriate financial advice to cope up with losses if any.

Importance of a financial advisor

• An advisor can help you to avoid mistakes
• He helps in finding an opportunity for growth in the market
• He helps you to stick to your plan even during hard times (if it is profitable for the future)
• He tackles risks smartly
• He focuses on protecting your assets

Financial advisors are of great importance to moneyed clients. He helps you by adding an extra value to your asset. This helps in tax reduction and simultaneous growth of the financial ability of the clients. A financial advisor finds outs different tax or planning opportunities that you might not be aware of, such as the following:

• Planning social security
• Good retirement plans
• Tax reduction plans
• Education plans for children
• Suitable saving plans
• Housing plans

Tips to find the best financial advisors

A financial advisor is a person whom you offer a privilege to handle your financial accounts. Therefore, a financial advisor must be chosen after acute examination. Below mentioned are few criteria that will help you choose a good financial advisor:

• Your financial advisor must be certified financial planner (CFP)
• He must not be a commission-based planer
• He must not be associated with any financial institution
• He must be a private practitioner
• He must be a Fiduciary (pledged to act in favor of the client)
• Check their credibility in all the possible ways. A CFP advisor’s detail can be found even online. Find them and cross-examine each and every detail.
• You can also find financial advisors on the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).

If you are looking for an advisor for small projects, go for a search online. The advisors registered also hold CFP credentials and can help you with the hourly-based fee structure.

Two most important questions you should ask before choosing a financial advisor

Choosing a financial advisor is a tough job. You need to be very alert and active. The below mentioned are few questions which may help you while making a choice of a good financial advisor.

What is the service charge?

If the advisor mentions that the charges have not to be paid by the client, this probably means that he is an incentive-based advisor. Such advisors are bound to sell certain products or insurance plans in order to earn. They may not be working for your benefit and may concentrate on the company’s welfare.

Can I have a look at your certificates or license?

Nowadays, many people after completing their graduation, get associated with different companies and start working as a financial advisor for their clients. The motive of such companies is just to sell the company’s product. Such people don’t have any practical knowledge of how to manage one’s finance. So, handing over your asset to such people means putting it in danger. You can also lose your asset or face extreme loss. So always check and cross-check your financial advisor’s certificate or license.

10 best financial advisors

The top ten financial advisors to choose from are as follows:

• Jeff Erdmann
• Christopher Errico
• Brian Pfeifler
• Andy Chase
• Patrick Dwyer
• Rod Westmoreland
• Mark Curtis
• Charles Zhang
• Greg Vaughan
• Robert Skinner