Points to consider before choosing the best financial adviser for your investments

A financial adviser is one who creates financial plans for and sells financial products to their clients. They provide insights on savings and investments to their clients and provides advices investments, insurance, estate planning, taxes, retirement, and other financial decisions.

What are the types of services provided by financial advisers?
To find some of the best financial advisers, you first need to understand the types of services offered by them. Financial advisers provide three main types of services:

• Financial planning helps you in managing financial aspects such as savings, types, and insurance that will provide you maximum returns.
• The investment advisory services focuses on investment management that helps deciding what investments to own. Investments are a part of any ongoing financial process.
• One of the main services offered by financial advisers is the retirement income planning. It focuses on how to coordinate social security taxes, investments, pensions, and other retirement planning. The main aim is to align these investments that will eventually help in delivering paychecks in the form returns in the future.

How are financial advisers compensated?

• The objective of the best financial advisers is to charge for the fees strictly on the services that they provide you.
• Financial advisers usually get compensated on factors like asset-based fee, hourly fees, and some even participate in commissions-based fees on the returns that you get from the investment.
• People who buy investments that they plan on holding for a long time, it is always advisable that you pay the commission to your financial adviser, thus making it a cost-effective way for you to compensate them.

How to seek financial advisers with reputable credentials?
If you want to hire the best financial advisers with reputable credentials:

• Look for advisers who have their CFP (certified financial planner) or PFS (personal financial services) designation or an adviser who is a chartered financial analyst.
• You can also check the potential of the adviser by verifying if they are a member of the NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors). It is a membership group of fee-only advisers that requires a particular educational qualification.

What questions should one ask before hiring a financial adviser?
Asking the right questions will help you get the best financial advisers. Here is a list of questions that will help you select the same:

• You can ask the potential financial advisers about their ideal clients. The best financial advisers have an area of expertise. If a financial adviser tells that he or she works for young families, then he or she might not be the right adviser for you. Find a financial adviser that has experience in terms of providing services to every age group, at every stage of life
• The simplest question you can ask a financial adviser is to explain a financial concept to you. If they offer you a very generic or a very technical explanation to it that goes over your head, then they might not be the right advisers for you. Look for those advisers who can explain you tricky concepts of finance in a language that you can understand.
• Ask how a financial adviser wishes to be compensated. An honest answer entailing a clear explanation of all the fees and expenses that you might have to pay them based on your investment profile and the returns that you will get from it should be the norm when picking the right financial adviser. Answers like “you will not have to pay anything out of your pocket” should not be acceptable.

How do I verify the credentials of financial advisers?
To make sure of whether you are hiring one of the best financial advisers that are legitimate and have a good service record, you can

• Verify their records at FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.), SEC, CFP boards, and other membership organizations that the adviser might be associated with.
• There are online websites, that can help you find which organization the financial adviser is a member of and if they have any complaints and grievances reported against them.