hOW TO chOOSE AN EXPERT AdvISER

Chapter 24

C ohoW t hoose An

exPeRt ADvIseR –

FIVE QUESTIONS TO ASK

YOUR FINANcIAL ADVISER

By M att DiCKen

(1) WhAt MAkes YoU An exPeRt?

hoW sUCCessFUl ARe YoU?

You have to ask your adviser how they think they’ll be able to help you
and how successful they are at their job. You might have an adviser with
an alphabet of letters behind his or her name, but you need to find out
how much real world experience he has in helping retirees and pre-re-
tirees. There’s a big difference between studying in a book how to be a
financial adviser and actually applying those methods and experiencing
what works and what doesn’t work. It’s kind of like a doctor who reads
all the medical books and knows how to perform the surgery but hasn’t
actually done it. You want to find out what makes your current adviser
an expert and how successful they are.

The second part of that question is obviously very important. You want
to find out how many clients the adviser has, how much experience he
has in dealing with bull markets and bear markets, and how many clients
he has helped transition from the working world into retirement.