
The Importance of Discussing Your Financial Plan with an Advisor
With the gamut of financial services and products available, choosing how you will reach your financial goals can be daunting. This is precisely why speaking about your financial plans with an advisor is so important. Having someone who can pair the appropriate financial services and products with your risk tolerance and time-horizon makes all the difference with your investment expectations and sense of security.
Even with the appropriate products and services, your financial plans need to be managed and updated at least every 12-18 months. Not only does our tolerance for risk change over time, but so does market performance. Given the “new normal” of the marketplace, our financial plans and goals must adjust to a changing economy. This is why discussing your financial plan and expectations with an advisor must be part of your ongoing investment strategy.
But planning and discussing is merely one aspect of a healthy advisor-investor relationship. The other part is having clear expectations for each other and trusting one another. Inasmuch, this means understanding your own finances, and clearly communicating your financial issues and goals. You should expect your advisor to explain and also point-out the risks and weaknesses of their recommendations. On the other hand, you can’t expect your advisor to accurately predict market performance and pick only profitable investments. Investors can easily check if their advisors are registered and qualified for the services they are rendering by speaking to a local securities regulator.
Building a secure financial plan takes work from both parties and isn’t something that develops overnight. Putting the work into this relationship once you find the right advisor will hopefully quell any uncertainties and ensure expectations are defined at the onset. Having clear expectations from the beginning will allow you to monitor and manage each other’s commitment and progress from the get-go, and help maximize the most of your investment strategy. The first step in finding that advisor is using Optimize’s Advisor Search tool to find the advisors in your area.