What to Know Before Meeting with A Financial Advisor? PillarWM
There are numerous benefits of hiring a financial advisor, especially if you have a minimum of $5 million in liquid assets. For example, financial advisors have the skills and expertise needed to manage the portfolios and assets of affluent individuals. In this article, we’ll discuss the services offered by financial advisors, what to know before meeting a financial advisor and several other things. If you want to make sure you choose the best financial advisor, don’t forget to read our guide here.
At Pillar Wealth Management, our team of financial advisors are adept at assisting individuals who have investable assets worth $5 million to $500 million. Click here and sign up for a meeting with our advisors to get more details on how we can manage your finances.
Type of Financial Advisors
A financial advisor is a professional who offers a variety of financial products and services to their clients. A good financial advisor will discuss your financial goals with you and create a plan to help you accomplish them.
There are different kinds of financial advisors. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at the four main types of financial advisors.
Transactional Financial Advisors
Transactional financial advisors move money between mutual funds and savings account. They also invest their clients’ wealth into various markets, bonds, stocks and other financial products. Such advisors may also sell you financial products such as life insurance or annuities.
Transactional financial advisors will frequently share a progress report with you to update you on your investment and portfolio performance. Read our guide, Improving Portfolio Performance, The Shifts Multi-Millionaires Must Make To Achieve Financial Security And Serenity to learn the techniques for getting the highest investment performance.
Wealth Advisors
Wealth advisors generally cater to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals and provide holistic investment advisory and financial planning services. The clients of wealth advisors usually have very specific investment and financial planning requirements that require a different set of financial planning skills and expertise. Therefore, wealth advisors can offer assistance to their clients for each aspect of their financial life, including services such as retirement, insurance, and estate planning.
Wealth advisorsusually require higher account minimums for your assets under management. In fact, most advisors have a minimum investment in the millions. For example, at Pillar Wealth Management, we provide wealth management services to clients who have a minimum of $5 million in liquid assets.
Certified Financial Planners
Another type of financial advisors is certified financial planners. Some financial advisors are registered investment advisors (RIA), certified financial planners (CFP), and chartered financial consultants (CHFC). Financial advisors who have CFPs have undergone the immense experience and training requirements outlined by the CFP board.
Financial planners can offer services that aren’t regulated, such as debt pay-off, budgeting, and retirement planning.
Robo-advisor
A robo-advisor is an automated, low-cost investment management service. These financial advisors use computer algorithms to create and oversee an investment portfolio that is aligned with your financial goals. Rob-advisors are ideal for young people who have don’t have a lot of savings but wish to pay off credit card bills, student loans, and want to properly manage their finances and plan for the future.
However, robo-advisors aren’t as useful as you collect assets and get close to retirement. The increased complexity of your financial situation will call for more in-depth and comprehensive financial solutions.
Regardless of the type of financial advisor you choose, the main goal is the same: handling your financial affairs and investment portfolio is relatively more painless if you’re getting guidance from a qualified financial professional. For more information on how to choose the best financial advisor, don’t forget to read The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Financial Advisor.
Financial Advisor Services
A financial advisor will ensure that you have an adequate emergency fund, offer advice to minimize your tax burden, estimate how much money you will need for retirement, etc. They will even research and guide you about places where you can invest your wealth for maximum gains. Other financial advisor services may include:
- Cash Flow Management
- Estate Planning
- Retirement Planning
At Pillar Wealth Management, our financial advisors offer fiduciary services to affluent individuals. Sign up for a free meeting with one of our team members and learn more about the services we offer!
Cash Flow Management
Efficient management of your wealth and assets helps to ensure that you continue to move towards your financial goals and attain financial serenity. Another reason why cash flow management is important is that it allows you to create and maintain an emergency fund so that you don’t face trouble if any unplanned expenses pop up.
At Pillar Wealth Management, we are adequately experienced in developing cash flow management plans so that you can spend your life without stressing over your finances. Our financial advisors work by analyzing your cash inflows and outflows along with your assets and liabilities to check for areas where we can enhance your cash flow. With our services, you can make intelligent decisions regarding your wealth and assets, foresee any potential cash-related problem, and remediate it before it even happens.
Estate Planning
An important task you need to carry out before your death is picking out the people who will inherit your assets and wealth after you’re no longer in this world. This is primarily what estate planning is all about. One main objective of estate planning is to ensure that your heirs get their inheritance in a manner that minimizes taxes.
Unfortunately, many people don’t realize the value of estate planning, which costs their families vast amounts of stress and money. To know more about estate planning, read our hardcover book, The Art of Protecting Ultra-High Net Worth Portfolios and Estates – Strategies for Families Worth $25 Million to $500 Million.
Estate planning is a vital component of your overall wealth strategy. In fact, the lack of estate planning will ruin the legacy you leave for your family. Our financial advisors will formulate a comprehensive estate plan that includes various financial instruments such as a succession plan, trust, wills, and life insurance coverage so that your beneficiaries don’t have to pay extra taxes.
Retirement Planning
A relaxing, stress-free, and peaceful retirement is very much possible for you, given that you start planning from now! While many people know the importance of retirement planning, they’re a little confused when it comes to the actual process.
Retirement planning is one of the most essential financial advisory services you can take up for yourself – particularly if you’ve crossed 50. Always keep in mind that retirement planning determines the quality of your future, so this is one thing you should never skip. Our financial advisors have plenty of experience in creating retirement plans for affluent individuals who own at least $5 million in liquid assets. If you want to learn more about how you can enjoy a peaceful retirement, read our guide, 5 Critical Shifts for Maximizing Portfolio Growth Strategies.
Who Needs A Financial Advisor?
You might be wondering who needs a financial advisor when you can simply manage your finances on your own. After all, the tasks listed above don’t seem to complex! Well, believe it or not, a financial advisor can help its clients more ways than you can imagine. Here is a list of people who need to hire a financial advisor.
People Who Don’t Have Time to Manage Their Finances
A high net worth or an ultra-high net worth is super busy from the time their alarm goes off in the morning till they hit the bed at night. Such individuals obviously cannot put in the hours of research it takes to select the right investment avenues or strike an optimum balance between risks and returns.
In fact, even if affluent individuals did get some spare time, they would spend it with family and friends instead of pouring over numbers.
People Who Are Too Emotional
People who are too emotional and start panicking when the market begins to dip or even crash are the ones who strongly need a financial advisor. In such cases, if you don’t have a financial advisor to guide you, your emotions can overpower your logic and compel you to make rash decisions such as sell all your investments.
A good financial advisor will know that market dips are like getting stocks on sale. They’ll advise you to maintain your current investments and invest any extra money on the low-priced stocks. Similarly, when a new investment trend is gaining popularity, a financial advisor will assist you in maintaining a balanced portfolio.
Suppose you’re a wealthy individual and fit either one of these categories. In that case, you definitely need a financial advisor who can do the time-consuming research for you and keep your emotions in check. This way, you can stay assured that your investments are being handled in the best possible way. Read our ultimate guide for investors with $10 million and learn more about how you can select the best financial advisor to oversee your finances.
Why the Ultra-Wealthy Need A Financial Advisor?
Another popular question related to financial advisors is “why the ultra-wealthy need a financial advisor?” While the question sounds simple and straightforward, the answer to it is multi-faceted. Here are some reasons why ultra-high net worth individuals and families need to work with a financial advisor.
Knowledge and Skills
Ultra-wealthy individuals usually do not have in-depths insights into the various financial markets and how they work. Thus, they need to hire a financial advisor who can guide them about the ongoing market trends and advise them on how to invest their wealth.
Financial advisors have vast knowledge in managing the portfolios and assets of people who have liquid assets worth $25 million or more. They have complete information of all the different financial and investment products available and closely monitor the ongoing market movements to immediately capitalize any lucrative opportunity.
Moreover, ultra-wealthy individuals also don’t have access to historical market data which is essential in formulating financial planning strategies. On the other hand, experienced financial advisors have treasures of data that they use to create the best plan for their clients. For instance, at Pillar Wealth Management, we have economic data from 1925, which we use to offer objective financial advice to our clients.
Get Customized Plans
Several financial institutions, such as private banks and investment houses, provide ultra-wealthy individuals with standardized cookie-cutter plans. These firms fail to realize that the needs of every ultra-wealthy individual are different and call for a different approach. Because of this reason, many ultra-high net worth individuals need to hire a financial advisor who can design financial plans in accordance with their interests and goals.
Plus, financial advisors also hold detailed discussions with such ultra-wealthy individuals to fully grasp their needs and develop customized plans that are entirely in line with their distinctive financial circumstances.
Unlike the massive Wall Street firms, who are more concerned about their shareholders, our financial advisors are more focused on building the legacy of ultra-wealthy individuals. This year, we onboarded only 17 new clients so that we could provide customized services to each one. Book a free consultation with our financial advisors and get your own customized financial plans.
What to Know Before Meeting with A Financial Advisor?
After you’ve decided to hire a financial advisor, you should schedule an introductory meeting with the ones you’ve shortlisted. This meeting will allow you to learn more about your chosen financial advisor’s personality and see if you want them to work with them. For this meeting to be fruitful, you need to do a little homework. Otherwise, the meeting will not lead to any proper conclusion. So, here’s a list of things you need to know before meeting with a financial advisor.
- Your assets and liabilities
- Your current and expected income and expenses
- Financial goals that you want to attain
- Financial statements such as statements for 529 savings plan, 401(k), details about your investment portfolios, estate documents including life insurance, wills, and tax records, etc.
- Questions you need to ask your financial advisor about their fee structure, services, etc.
Last Few Words
Selecting the best financial advisor will play a significant role in safeguarding and growing your wealth. At Pillar Wealth Management, our financial advisors are highly skilled at understanding your financial goals and developing strategies to translate your dreams into reality. If you’re interested in learning more about our services, sign up for a meeting with us!
To be 100% transparent, we published this page to help filter through the mass influx of prospects, who come to us through our website and referrals, to gain only a handful of the right types of new clients who wish to engage us.
We enjoy working with high net worth and ultra-high net worth investors and families who want what we call financial serenity – the feeling that comes when you know your finances and the lifestyle you desire have been secured for life, and that you don’t have to do any of the work to manage and maintain it because you hired a trusted advisor to take care of everything.
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