Find a Financial Planner Who Is Right for You

Table of Contents
What is Financial Planning? What Makes a Good Financial Plan? Why You Should Use a Financial Planner How to Find a Financial Planner Why Use a Wealth Manager Instead of a Financial Planner Why You Should Try Pillar Wealth Management

What is Financial Planning?

A financial plan can be defined as a scheme to help an individual or organization achieve a specific financial goal. Financial plans are typically created by taking your wealth and income into account and charting up a strategy to meet your desired goal.

All individuals need a financial plan at some point, whether to meet a short-term goal for the near future, or a long-term goal many decades down the line.

What Makes a Good Financial Plan?

Anyone can make a financial plan. However, there are certain things to remain aware of when developing your plan. These include:

Listing Down What Your Goals Are

All financial plans are created with the intention of meeting some goal. Some people are interested in retiring early and spending the rest of their life enjoying the wealth they have built up. Others would like to set up a business that grows continuously and provides their beneficiaries with a sizable income.

When you are creating a financial plan, it is essential to understand what exactly your goals are. The goals mentioned above sound simple enough, but they are also vague. It would be best to write down your goals and strive to be specific about what they mean.

If you intend to retire early, you should decide what age you wish to retire by. You should also have some idea of how much wealth you will need to maintain a comfortable lifestyle following your retirement. Create attainable goals that are quantifiable, as they will give you some idea of how far you are from achieving them. Set up a meeting with our wealth managers and learn if your goals are realistic.

Understand Your Finances

Once you have defined what your end goal is, you will need to assess your current financial position. Retrieve your bank statement and look over how much you have in savings. Review your portfolio and learn how much of your wealth is tied up in your assets. It’s also important to calculate what your annual earnings are and whether or not your income is expected to grow or shrink over time.

Once you understand your current financial position, you can chart out what trajectory to follow or what changes you will need to make to achieve your goal.

Choose the Best Strategy

There may be numerous different approaches to meeting your financial goals. Each strategy may come with its advantages and drawbacks, so you should thoroughly assess each one and pick a sustainable strategy. This is especially important if you are attempting to work towards a long-term financial goal.

For example, if you are attempting to protect your portfolio, it may be wise to invest in a diverse range of assets. This will help minimize financial damages if any particular market experiences a downturn. Alternatively, you can follow the wealth protection strategies discussed in our book The Art of Protecting Ultra-High Net Worth Portfolios and Estates – Strategies For Families Worth $25 Million To $500 Million.

Why You Should Use a Financial Planner

Many high net worth or ultra-high net worth individuals attempt to create and follow their financial plans themselves. They may experience some degree of success with this strategy. However, there are many reasons why it is better to use a professional financial planner. You may be wondering, “is a financial planner worth it?” The answer is yes.

Some reasons to use a financial planner include:

Receiving a Second Opinion From a Professional

Financial planners typically have an educational background in finance. They possess knowledge related to many different financial matters and apply this knowledge to help their clients achieve their goals. It’s wise to consult with a professional regarding your financial plan, as they may be able to spot hidden risks that you may not be aware of.

Such risks may jeopardize your ability to meet your goal and leave you in financial ruin. In addition to this, you are likely to devote a large amount of time towards following your created plan. Once you realize your plan isn’t helping you towards your end-goal, you may never get the time spent on it back. Get in touch with our wealth managers, and receive a second opinion on your financial plan.

Finding Easier Solutions

As mentioned earlier, any financial plan should be created with your own abilities in mind. There’s no point in creating and following a financial plan if you are unable to carry out what is required. However, you may not be even aware of alternative strategies you can use in your plan.

A financial planner can inform you about all the possible routes you can take to meet your goal. Some of these strategies may be ones you previously overlooked or did not know about. Therefore, it’s likely that a financial planner can help you revise your plan using sustainable strategies that are less difficult to perform.

If your goal is to grow your portfolio safely, a financial planner may suggest special strategies. Such as the ones mentioned in our special portfolio growth strategies guide.

Navigating Through Complications

Individuals with a high net worth or an ultra-high net worth are susceptible to many of the same risks that people with average wealth are exposed to. However, they may be at greater risk, as a large portion of their wealth is tied up in assets that other people would not be able to afford.

It’s impossible to get rid of all risks from your portfolio, so you may need to learn how to traverse through the complications they create. This is one area where a financial planner could be especially useful. A professional planner will anticipate these risks and also help you move past them so that they do not interfere with your goals.

How to Find a Financial Planner

Once you have decided to ask a professional for help, you may ask yourself, “how do I find a reputable financial planner?”. After all, there are thousands of financial advisors across the country. So how do you go about finding the right person for the job?

We recommend using the following strategies:

Online Research

The internet has made it much easier to connect with professionals in your area. Performing a Google search is the fastest way to look up financial planners that practice in your city. You can sort through the list of financial planners to find the ones that offer the specific type of services you are seeking. If you were interested in learning “how do I pick a financial planner for retirement,” you should look up financial planners that specialize in creating retirement plans.

Online research can also be used to distinguish between good financial planners and those with a low reputation. You may be able to find reviews for each financial planner in your list or testimonials from their past clients. This information can help you determine if a financial planner that touts themselves as highly qualified is actually a poor choice.

Test Their Knowledge

Many financial planners advertise that they gained experience through helping numerous clients over the years. However, this may not necessarily indicate that they are knowledgeable on all financial matters. For this reason, it’s essential to visit all financial planners in person and understand how deep their financial planning knowledge goes.

During your search, you should ask them various questions. Such as the questions outlined in our special guide to selecting a financial advisor.

Ask Friends and Acquaintances

Another approach to finding a financial planner is to ask friends and acquaintances. This strategy may provide fewer choices than online research, but each suggestion you receive is likely to be a trustworthy professional.

It’s possible for some financial planners to fake online reviews regarding their services. For this reason, it is smart to choose a planner that your friends or acquaintances have recommended.

Why Use a Wealth Manager Instead of a Financial Planner

Financial planners can undoubtedly be useful for individuals with a high net worth or an ultra-high net worth. You may be wondering, “who are the best financial planners?” We’d argue that a wealth manager is a better choice than an ordinary financial planner. Here are some reasons why:

Wider Range of Services

At Pillar Wealth Management, our wealth managers offer clients a wide range of services. These include retirement planning, investment management, tax management, estate planning, and asset allocation analysis. Set up a special free consultation and learn more about our list of services. You may be able to find financial planners that specialize in each of these services, but it is rare to find someone who can offer every single one of them.

You may not need to use every single one of our services. However, our wealth managers understand that each financial decision you make can have an impact on your long-term financial plan. Having a good understanding of these decisions is important if you wish to stay on track with meeting your goals.

Experience With High Net Worth Clients

Wealth managers specialize in offering services to clients with a high net worth or an ultra-high net worth. As a wealthy individual, you may already be familiar with the unique problems and concerns that such clients face. This includes difficulties involved in setting up a charity or improving the performance of a broad portfolio. We discuss some strategies to improve portfolio performance in our guide.

By using a wealth manager, you can ensure that problems specific to individuals with your wealth background are identified and addressed as soon as possible. Investors with $10 million or more can learn about protecting their wealth in retirement using our guide.

Fee Structure

Wealth managers also charge a different fee structure compared to ordinary financial planners. The latter may charge clients on an hourly basis each time they request a financial plan. At Pillar Wealth Management, our wealth managers charge clients an annual fee.

This is a straightforward charge that isn’t dependent on how often you use our services. This means you can reach out to our wealth managers for advice whenever needed.

Why You Should Try Pillar Wealth Management

At Pillar Wealth Management, we have 60+ years of experience serving wealthy clients. We understand the ins and outs of wealth management and strive to provide a quality of service that few financial planners can provide. Sign up for our free consultation to learn how we can help you.

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