Paul Easton asked:


ing for a financial advisor, it can be very complicated to find a trusted personality who will provide sincere analysis and guidance to your decision-making in your investment choices. Look for these sets of criteria when searching for your financial advisors. Start by scrutinizing their education and experience on finance management. Are they recommended by friends or trusted peers? Do they have familiar clients who have entrusted them with their transactions? Veteran financial advisors have both the education and experience. Education provides them with the necessary knowledge in our complex global financial system. Since their main function is to gather financial information, analyze it, and make recommendations, they should be well an expert in the field already. Moreover, their experience is a very good indication of their confidence to guide you through great deals. With their experience, you will definitely notice that these persons spend a lot of time working with people. Thus, they really developed their communication skills. Another consideration you should always iron out is to resolve how these advisors are paid. Expect financial advisor to be paid in three different ways. When taking his time and using his expertise, you can expect to pay him with an hourly rate, a monthly retainer, or commission-based. Be very keen with your agreement in payments so as to avoid ending up regretting your choice. As a tip, prefer the hourly rate or monthly retainer rather than paying your advisor on a commission basis. Usually, when paid with commission on trades, they may recommend changes, which can be unnecessary or even harmful, in your portfolio. This is because they have the motive of increasing their commission payments. This is what we need to avoid getting a biased and probably bad investment deals. Your main purpose in getting a financial advisor is for an expert to guide you in intelligent decision-making. As their role is to assist you in the planning and arrangement of financial affairs, such as your retirement provisions, you need to have a loyal one behind your back. By ensuring the financial advisor’s track record with his career, you will found out that he will certainly understand your financial situation in the first place. Finance can be very intimidating and a good financial advisor will be responsible to make sure that a client’s risk is minimized. By taking the time to look for the best financial advisor, you prevent yourself from a future of stress and frustrations.

Paul Easton asked:


ondering what to look for in a financial advisor? Here is some information you need to know when looking for one. Begin with investigating on education and experience. This can be observed with the mere confidence during the initial meetings. One important issue to resolve as well is the payment method. By taking the time to look for these qualities in your possible financial mentor, you can eliminate a lot of anxiety in your financial future. You will hire a financial advisor as a teacher and guide to render investment advices and other services. The role of a financial advisor is to help you maintain the balance of investment income and capital gains. He or she will also assess an acceptable level of risk by using proper asset allocation. Financial advisors use several financial vehicles like stocks, bond, options, notes insurance, and other products to meet the needs of the clients. Many financial advisors are receiving payment through commissions. By brokering financial products, they get paid by the company but these types of advisors I do not advise. Fee-only financial advisors offer a more balanced and unbiased planning thus it is becoming more popular nowadays in the financial service industry. If financial advisors are paid through commission for every product their clients subscribe to, they will likely be recommending changes in your portfolio which are unnecessary. You end up being misinformed due to a conflict of interest to increase their commission payments. With advisors receiving 100% of their compensation directly from you as client, there are no conflicts of interests between theirs and those of their clients. This is often the problem with financial advisors with biases for the company they work with because of the problem created by commissions paid. Fee-only advisors will customize an investment portfolio designed to guide the client realize short- and long-term investment goals. In addition, a simplified performance reporting is provided to make accounts monitoring as easy as possible for clients. Find out how your financial advisor will be paid for his expertise surely is worth the trouble. Many people very frequently make the mistake of ignoring this very vital information. By choosing a scheme that would make your financial advisor as objective as possible, you will never end up regretting your choice. Always confirm the payment arrangements with your financial advisor. It is one of the single most important parts of this deal.

Jody Palmer Model asked:


Given today’s slow economic growth and continuous inflation, proper management of financial resources is an important aspect of our living that we need to focus on. We must maximize the full potentials of our resources and find means through which it can steadily grow. We need to know our future plans and priorities and be determined to set our financial goals. However, because of our busy schedules, fulfilling responsibilities to our family, friends, the work place and spending some necessary time for rest and leisure, being our own money manager can be a difficult task. Hence it is not surprising that a service industry consisting of professional money managers has been steadily expanding.

Money managers are also known as financial advisors, financial planners, and investment advisors. They have expertise in business and finance and can provide detailed procedures through which you can resolve your problems about past, present and future investments, payment of due credits, and consolidation of debts. And as the industry of money management grows, the degree of specialization of certified financial advisors and investments advisors also takes a higher notch. This means that the industry can strengthen the quality of its services and bring out innovative techniques and strategies in financial planning and investment management.

Having a Personal Financial Advisor is like hiring your best self, without the stress and the time constraints. A Personal Financial Advisor serves your primary interests and priorities and lays out specific and customized ways to secure, if not enhance, the status of these interest and priorities. In addition to this, A Personal Financial Advisor also has expertise in assessing movements and plotting out trends brought by different financial factors like job promotion, conjugation of assets, business expansion or collapse, death and inheritance issues.

Money Manager.com lives to be a bridge between Personal Financial Advisors and Financial Advice Seekers. The site understands that Financial Advice is no joke, and to find a financial advisor is a difficult task. It acknowledges that financial advice seekers only want the best, the reputable, and the certified in their options, and guarantees that all financial advisors found in this site are legal, efficient and superb.

Paul Easton asked:


or a financial advisor? These different qualities should be searched for in your prospect financial advisor. These qualities, if given a good effort to look for, will not only avoid you a lot of stress in the future but can also be a precious move you will treasure. Financial advisors must have both education and experience. With proper education, your advisor is equipped with the required knowledge in today’s most sophisticated global financial system. Experience gives your financial advisor the confidence of negotiating with the best deals and the solid network which can be attained with a great track record. And only with experience will your financial advisor be working with people with better respect and trust. A seasoned financial adviser usually has extensive knowledge of budgeting and forecasting. In addition to that, a good knowledge of taxation, asset allocation and latest financial tools and products will definitely be an edge. These are great help in establishing with you realistic goals and the strategy for your investments. Their main function is to assess the performances of prospect companies that you are interested to invest in. Financial advisors, with a good network in the financials sector, can work with analysts. Financial analysts analyze company financial statements and can provide you with valuable information for your investment requirements. One of the most critical criteria in finding a financial advisor is the communication aspect. From the very beginning, you must know how much your advisor is willing to get to know you. By interviewing them from the start, you will begin to notice his willingness with this aspect. Personal touch is very important in building a professional relationship so better spend some time with your advisor face to face. Communicate your preferences in your finances and tell your plans for the future. This experience with your financial advisor will be much more enjoyable if this aspect is given attention. Especially at these bad economic times, you have to emphasize this aspect as this can be very crucial. To recapitulate, find out the level of education, the history and experience of your prospect financial advisor. Spend ample time with your advisor to assess their communication skills by conducting a personal interview. Find a match by finding an expert with your financial preferences. With due diligence learning these vital information with your advisor, you are on your way to creating a good start of a harmonious financial relationship.

John asked:


Learning about careers as a financial advisor, or financial planner

What are financial advisors and financial planners?  They are referred to as a mentor, a teacher, a registered rep., a sales person, an adviser or advisor, a consultant, a planner, a broker or stock broker, or a trader.  Many terms define what it is to be a financial advisor.  Financial advisors work at a brokerage, wire house, broker-dealer, or financial services firm.  Some specialize in insurance and some specialize in investments.

Financial planners and financial advisors deal with all things having to do with money, investing, and risk management.  They deal with banking, budgeting, and business investment.  Some firms have in-house legal and tax advice.  Financial advisors and financial planners must have a working knowledge of portfolio building, allocating assets, economic analysis, and other fiscal and monetary issues.

As a financial advisor you will help people become debt free and financially independent.  To help people reach financial freedom you will use tools and financial solutions such as mutual funds, common stock, preferred stock bonds, options (calls and puts), commodities and futures, outside consulting, life insurance, and soft ware assisted financial analysis.

In order to enter a career in financial services one must pass a series of exams.  Different firms have different requirements of tests you must pass.  The series 7 allows one to sell general securities such as stock, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds etc.  A series 6 allows a rep to sell mutual funds.  The series 66 allows an advisor to charge a fee based on advice.  Other tests one may be required to pass are the series 31 (commodities and futures) and certain insurance licensing exams.  Studies show that a career as a financial advisor will be one of the best careers to pursue as the need for financial services increases.

The hardest part of a career in financial services is getting your foot in the door.  There are many secrets to landing a dream job as a financial advisor or stock broker and many hoops one must jump through to overcome the weeding out process.  To learn more visit http://www.aspiringfinancialadvisor.com/

chai asked:


With hundreds of financial advisors boasting their expertise in money management, how can we find a financial advisor who can best serve our interests?

Excluding the privileged few, most of us spend our everyday existence trying to gain some earnings from our jobs. We have so many plans waiting to be realized, the dream car, the dream house, the dream vacation, the dream business, the dream job, the dream life partner, the dream family. Given these unfulfilled wishes yearning to transform into realities, and given the few resources through which we can materialize these wishes, how do we come up with strategies to gradually and surely fulfill what we want?

Hiring the services of a certified financial advisor / investment advisor is a good way to come up with a detailed plan on how to appropriate our resources to the right places wherein they can grow and be used as means to acquire future assets. An investment advisor can help us picture clear processes to strengthen our financial assets, predict future financial challenges, and ways through which we can resolve such challenges and bounce back to our initial goals.

Determining an effective financial advisor can be done with a simple face-to-face consultation with the potential money manager. An effective financial advisor does not blabber an enumeration of promises but first inquires on the nature of the work. If we are not articulate enough, a good financial advisor will have the initiative to ask questions on what we want to happen to our financial resources, and the ways through which she can help realize these wants. An effective financial advisor provides her clients options to choose from, or in some cases the lack of it. She will make her clients understand the scope of services which she can provide, and then honestly admits her own limitations, and the limitations of the possibilities of fulfilling her clients’ financial ambitions.