The name Financial Planner or even financial advisor isn’t owned by any accrediting board right now, so anyone can call themselves a Financial Planner. What’s important is that you know what type of financial help you are looking for and determine if the advisor you are seeing is accredited to give it.
Comprehensive financial advice based on your financial personality and financial goals.
If you are looking for a plan to help you reach your financial goals then you are looking for a Comprehensive Financial Planner. Certified Financial Planner professionals are trained in a six step process that ensures that they get to know you personally and devise a plan in your best interests to help you reach those goals.
The six step program looks like this (see more details here):
- Establish and define the client-planner relationship
- Gather client data including goals
- Analyze and evaluate the client’s current financial status
- Develop and present recommendations and/or alternatives
- Implement the recommendations
- Monitoring the recommendations
If your advisor can only help you build a plan for some of your goals, then you are not getting a comprehensive financial plan. Your comprehensive plan should include recommendations on all five facets of your financial portfolio: investible assets, retirement assets, insurance, tax planning and estate planning. These work together to help you build wealth and reach your financial goals.
Read more about Certified Financial Planner professionals on the website letsmakeaplan.org.