8 Reasons to Work with a Financial Advisor
Most of us worry about our money, including financial advisors! Yet, despite these worries and the complexity of managing finances, many people try to go it alone with their financial life. Why not benefit from working with an objective financial advisor? Keep reading for the top reasons to work with a financial advisor.
Peace of mind
Do you ever worry about money? One of the top reasons to work with a financial advisor is the peace of mind knowing that you have an expert partnering with you in your financial life. Comprehensive financial planning covers so much more than investing! Knowing that you have a trusted advisor helping you plan for the future and stay on track is an invaluable benefit. Who doesn’t want to sleep better at night?
Objectivity
Have you ever made a financial decision you later regretted? Do you and your spouse sometimes disagree about your finances? Another key benefit of working with a financial advisor is the objectivity he or she can bring to your financial decision-making. Our emotions are tightly bound-up in our financial decisions. Behavioral finance research is increasingly providing data showing that we do not make consistently good choices with our money once our emotions become involved. One of the most common examples of this is when investors sell investments out of fear when prices decline – right at the time when it would better to hold on to the investment. Working with an advisor brings valuable objective advice to your financial planning.
Advisor objectivity can be especially valuable when there is disagreement between spouses or other family members surrounding a financial decision. A fiduciary working in your best interest can help navigate sensitive conversations about finance.
Expertise
Do you have the financial knowledge to ensure that your retirement, tax planning, insurance, legacy planning, and other areas are fully integrated and well managed? The expertise and education a skilled financial advisor brings is an important benefit of working with a financial advisor. Advisors trained in offering comprehensive financial planning have expertise to answer many common questions such as:
- Am I saving enough for retirement?
- Will I outlive my retirement savings?
- Am I adequately insured?
- How can I save more on taxes?
- How can maximize my giving or what I pass on to my heirs?
A comprehensive financial planner is also committed to your best interests and a good advisor will seek out additional education and information on situations specific to you and have access to other experts like accountants and lawyers who can help in related areas.
Education
Do you wish you understood your finances better and could see the big picture? A good financial advisor seeks to educate you and help you learn about your financial life. By listening to you to understand your goals and values, a financial advisor will help you understand your situation and how to proceed so that you can focus on what means the most to you. This is perhaps the most undervalued of the benefits of working with a financial advisor but a benefit that can bring clarity and confidence.
Organization
Do you have a tough time keeping track of your accounts and their performance or seeing how all your finances fit together? Another reason to work with a financial advisor is that they can help you organize and simplify your finances. Do all your accounts have accurate beneficiary information? Do you have a will and is it up to date? Can you keep track of all your different accounts? Do you know the best way to take your distributions? Do you understand your current cash flow situation? A financial advisor can help get your organized and make sure your financial life is on solid ground.
Accountability
Do you have difficulty following through with your financial goals? A financial advisor can help you identify your goals and put together a plan to achieve them. Then, through coaching and accountability, an advisor can help you follow through on the actions needed to stick to your plan. What good is a financial plan if you don’t follow through? An advisor can help you do that.
Values alignment
Are your investments aligned with your values or do they undermine them? Many Christian investors do not want to profit from business practices that they disagree with such as abortion, pornography, or addictive products. Unfortunately, many Christians are unknowingly profiting from these and other negative business activities. Finding and removing these companies can be difficult without using specific tools and processes. Identifying excellent companies benefiting society can be even more tricky. A Christian financial advisor specializing in faith-based investing has the tools and follows the process needed to help you ensure that your investments align with your values.
Better returns
Can you improve your returns by working with an advisor? While all investment involves risk, and past results do not guarantee future results, recent studies[1] indicate that working with an advisor can positively increase your returns – sometimes as much as 2-3%. The advisor often realizes these types of gains by simply helping their client avoid mistakes like market timing or acting out of greed or fear (see the first reason: Objectivity!)
There are many great reasons to work with a financial advisor. Some reasons are quantifiable like the possibility of getting better returns, but some of the most important benefits are qualitative. Working with a Christian financial advisor can give you the peace of mind knowing that a trained professional is helping you plan, stay organized and stay the course with faith-based financial solutions.
If you would like the peace of mind this kind of relationship can bring, contact us to begin a conversation about your goals.
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/102616/how-much-can-advisor-help-your-returns-how-about-3-worth.asp