Working With A Financial Advisor

Working with an experienced financial advisor will go a long way toward helping investors achieve thier investment goals. In fact, there are a number of important areas where professional advice can make a real difference.

A financial advisor can help you:

• Establish a long-term investing strategy: An advisor begins by understanding your tolerance for risk and investment preferences. Together you will examine your current financial situation, explore your financial goals, and build a financial plan to help you achieve them.
• Provide objective guidance in times of market volatility: Emotions can easily get in the way of making objective investment decisions. Investors who flee the market because of emotions are faced with the complex decision of when to re-enter the market. A trusted advisor can provide a balanced perspective to manage your portfolio through the ups and downs.
• Bring discipline to the construction and management of your portfolio: Advisors have access to in-depth research and investment tools that can help create a diversified strategy in line with your goals. They can monitor the impact of market activity to keep your investment strategy on track and help revise your plan to reflect significant life events and changes.
• Address taxes and other important issues: An advisor can recommend other professionals you may need to address aspects that affect your financial future, including attorneys and accountants who handle estate, tax, and business planning.

A knowledgeable financial advisor will typically follow a disciplined investment process designed to create and execute investment solutions that are appropriate for your situation. This process will generally include the following steps:

• Understanding your goals: It is important that you and your advisor should have a discussion in order to provide a comprehensible picture of your goals, risk tolerance, and specific needs.
• Assessing your financial situation: Together, you will analyze your financial situation and evaluate investing strategies that may to help you reach your goals.
• Tailoring an investment solution: Your financial advisor will evaluate and recommend an appropriate investment mix for your strategy, clearly explaining your options.
• Executing your decisions: Your financial advisor will then help you implement the investment strategy that you have approved.
• Ongoing guidance and monitoring: Your financial advisor will oversee your investments on an ongoing basis, maintain regular contact, provide account information, and make recommendations to help you stay on track to meet your goals.