Like it or not, money is important.
No, your life shouldn’t be focused solely on money but you can’t ignore the facts: money is a tool and without money you’ll be downright miserable.
Which brings us to our question today.
Do you need a financial advisor?
What is a Financial Advisor?
First of all, let’s look at what a financial advisor is. In general a financial advisor can be anyone who gives you advice on your money. This could be an insurance agent, stock broker, an accountant, or a certified financial planner.
Some financial planners try and cover a wide range of topics while others go into more niched down topics. However, one of the most common uses for a financial advisor is getting investment advice.
Do You Need One?
Using a financial advisor is a personal decision that you need to make. Here are some questions to ask yourself before making the decision.
- Do you understand your investments?
- Have you mapped out a plan for retirement?
- Do you have a complicated tax situation?
- Do you need help starting a college savings account?
If you don’t understand your investments and retirement talk sounds like a foreign language then you might need a financial advisor.
There’s no shame at all in getting help with your money. In fact, it makes far more sense to hire someone to help you make your money work for you.
Traditional vs. Online Financial Advisors
In the last several years many online financial advisors have started to pop up. This has led to the question; should you hire a traditional financial advisor or opt for an online financial advisor?
There’s no easy answer. Let’s take a look at the two.
Traditional Financial Advisors – A traditional financial advisor is a person, or depending on your situation, a team of money professionals who are there to aid you. This could be a certified financial planner, certified public accountant, or stock broker. You meet with them in person, discuss your concerns, and they offer advice.
Traditional financial advisors can help you choose investments to best fit your needs, help with retirement planning, taxes, and estate planning.
The pros of traditional financial advisors are:
- In person advice
- Customized investing advice and guidance
- Advice on taxes, estate planning, and insurance
Online Financial Advisors – Online financial advisors have become increasingly popular and rightfully so.
Online financial advisors, like Future Advisor for example, use investing algorithms to custom tailor investments for their clients. Most online financial advisors will ask you a set of questions pertaining to your personal situation, risk tolerance, and investing goals and pick investments for you.
They typically offer several different types of investing accounts you can open and track your progress for you.
The pros of online financial advisors are:
- Customized investing advice
- An easy to use platform
- Low costs compared to traditional advisors
What’s Right for You?
If you need investing advice it’s never been easier to get it.
Whether you go the traditional or online route you can get the investment help you need.
This post has been sponsored by FutureAdvisor. The views expressed represent the opinion of the author and are not intended to reflect those of FutureAdvisor or serve as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, investment recommendations or an offer to buy or sell securities.
