Hi there and thank you for stopping by today. Welcome to part three of questions to ask a potential financial planner (view part one by clicking here). My name is Tina Anders. I am the owner and founder and certified financial planner for Anders Wealth Management located in Petaluma, California serving Sonoma and Marin counties, and the greater area.
Here’s one question that you can ask a potential financial planner. Are you accountable to your clients and how so? In other words, do you say what you’re going to do? And do you do what you’ve said, you’re going to do? The answer obviously, should be yes. How I’m accountable to my clients, I talk about what I’m going to do, and I follow through. I asked my clients to do things they follow through. I’m accountable for following up. I’m accountable for checking in. I’m accountable when there are COVID-19 situations at hand. I check in with clients. I am accountable, I will do, and I do what I say I’m going to do.
Another question you might ask is, how do you work in my best interest? Have you taken a fiduciary oath to work in my best interest as a potential client? The answer, of course, should be yes. A fiduciary oath is critical, because that indicates to you that the financial advisor that you’re interviewing actually is not going to be selling you products at the expense of your financial success. That they have your best interest in mind. Critical, definitely asked that question.
Another question that you might ask is, for how long have you been investing? And do you provide expert investment management? The answer is yes to expert investment management by looking at funds for instance, diversification about funds, sales loads, expense ratios, returns, fund management. There are things that an investment manager for your portfolio needs to be looking at to make sure you are positioned properly and diversify. But also, expert Investment Management means positioning you in a way that’s going to work for you over the long term, and also is going to work for you for your peace of mind. It also doesn’t mean aggressive, it means successful. So, for how long have you been investing? You might ask? I’ve been investing personally since 1983. Successfully, not aggressively, successfully, and really, really enjoy it.
Another question that you might ask is have you built your firm on integrity and trust because not only was it going to be good for business, but also the right thing to do? And that’s kind of, kind of an obvious answer you’re looking for, which is, of course, yes. How do we do that we build relationship over time. There’s no rush. When you’re ready, we proceed to the next step, integrity. I have integrity with my clients. I have integrity with the people I deal with. I am also trustworthy. That’s important. You’re going to get a feel for somebody, when you walk in the door and you sit down and start asking these kinds of questions. Is this something that I feel like I can trust? Does this person seem to have integrity? So, it’s going to be a personal, subjective feeling on your part? It’s always the right thing to do to build a business on integrity and trust. Always the right thing to do, whether it’s good for business or not. And it always is.
Another question you might consider is are you passionate and unwavering with the work that you do with your clients. What I mean is, do you care about your clients? Or do you close the file at the end of the day? And you don’t talk to them for a year? And then you open their file again? Do you care? Are you unwavering in your care? Are you checking in, at least with their portfolio? If not with them a few times a year? Passionate and unwavering also means are you interested in the industry? And what’s going on in the industry that could affect your clients? Are you staying abreast of the material and I touched on that earlier regarding being a certified financial planner? If your Certified Financial Planner, you’re mandated within the certification rules to be getting at least 30 units of continuing education over the two-year period, every two year period. But passion unwavering? Yeah, that would include staying up to date on what’s going in the industry so that you can be as helpful to your clients as they hope that you will be.
Tune into part four for questions to ask a potential financial planner. Thanks again for stopping by. I appreciate you listening in. Comment below with any questions, comments, or if you have any topics you would like me to discuss in the future, I will try to put a video out for you. Thanks again. I am in your corner.