10 Questions You Should Consider Before Retaining a Financial Planner

A lot of people ask me the question, “I just don’t know, should I meet with a financial advisor?” As such, we’ve put together a checklist of 10 key questions to consider before retaining the services of a financial advisor.

That being said, before I start giving you some of the bullet points on this list, I think the first thing to consider is number one, are you a do-it-yourselfer. Where you just know at the end of the day regardless the advice you receive from whether it’s a CPA, or an attorney, or a financial advisor, or your landscaper; I’m just going to do it myself. Then that’s the route that you likely should choose.

If however, you feel like you know what, the time that I spend being a physician or being a family member, or being a friend, is simply going to take up my time, I want to make sure that I have experts in place to handle that.

That’s the very first question you should ask. But beyond that, there is any number of life issues that would indicate that you should visit with a financial advisor.

  1. Are you without a will?
  2. Are you about to be married or divorced?
  3. Do you have a child, or planning to have children?
  4. Do you have an employment contract on the horizon?
  5. Have you recently begun practicing, are you about to become a partner?
  6. Have you sold any investment properties?
  7. Do you have non-correlating asset classes?
  8. Have you actually developed a plan?
  9. Do you have a distribution plan, or retirement plan, an actual education funding plan?
  10. Do you have an appropriate asset allocation strategy?

ARE YOU ON TRACK?

These are just a number of a long list that we’d be happy to go through with you in greater depth. Feel free to give me a call and we can cover these and determine what an appropriate relationship is for you.

If you would like to learn more about this subject or receive a free quote then please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

By Anthony C. Williams, CWS, ChFC, MRFC, CLU | Investment Advisor Representative | President & Founding Partner of Mosaic Financial Associates & Orthopaedist Advisory Group | Securities and advisory services offered through Cetera Advisors LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC, a broker/dealer and a Registered Investment Advisor.  Cetera is under separate ownership from any other named entity.