How To Pick A Financial Advisor

Rarely, if ever, do or should we try to tackle our finances alone. 

For the average person, financial life is too confusing and stressful to navigate without the help of an expert in this field who understands the ins and outs of finance and can help the everyday individual navigate this labyrinth – a financial advisor. 

With that said, however, it is important to do some careful selection and research when it comes to picking a financial advisor because, although we may just want to take a friend or family member’s referral and leave it at that, picking a good financial advisor is imperative to financial success. 

Here are three tips for picking a great financial advisor. 

1. Check Qualifications

Like we mentioned at the top, many people are tempted to take a family member or friend’s referral for a financial advisor and just leave it at that without asking any questions. Checking a potential advisor’s qualifications and background through a resume or by calling their professional associations can be a helpful step beyond a referral to verify the fit between you and a prospective financial advisor so you are more prepared before making this crucial choice.

2. Ask Questions

Further to the point above, it is important that you ask questions to a potential service provider before signing on with them. Questions about past clients, conflicts of interest and frequency of meetings (how often and for how long are we going to meet face-to-face?) are good places to start when you are trying to be especially careful with who you hire to advise you on what to do with your hard-earned money. You will always want to ask as many/specific questions as possible because, again, choosing a financial advisor is potentially one of the most important money decisions you will ever make. 

3. Ask for References

This is not to insinuate that you should never trust people but it’s never a bad idea to ask for references from a financial advisor before hiring them. References can be a good way to check for other clients of a potential financial advisor with similar needs to you to see if said advisor has had success accomplishing goals like the ones you want to accomplish. This should make you more confident that the financial advisor you are bringing on board can lead you to where you want to go.

At the end of the day, we hope we’ve made it more clear than it already was that having a financial advisor by your side to provide expertise that you may not have is a crucial piece to the puzzle of financial success. On top of that fact, looking towards the future, this reality is only going to become even more true for our current generation of children, teenagers and young adults due to the increased prevalence of cryptocurrencies and other new financial tools. 

To that end, we are sure that you would agree with us when we say that your child will be much better prepared for their financial future if they get an early head start on obtaining proper financial literacy skills and expertise, in addition to learning about why they would benefit from having someone as a financial advisor. 

Well, the good thing is that we can help you with exactly that. Visit our website here and sign your child up for one of Explorer Hop's personal finance programs today.

We’ve got nationally and internationally-acclaimed personal finance programs for children in grades one to twelve, covering topics including the basics and history of money, the stock market, global finance and more, so we encourage you to check out our courses and classes today and sign your child up as soon as possible!