Thursday 29 September 2011

Financial Advisors Are Admired with the Wealthy

According to a recent survey, America’s richest professionals and ultra high net worth individuals rely greatly on financial advisors to handle their investment decisions. As these wealthy individuals are drawn to independent sources of advice, financial planning professionals are catapulted to a place where they hold a major advantage over competitors in the quest to offer financial options to individuals who want to be ensured of a secure future.

The survey revealed that 21% of ultra high net worth professionals are dependent on their financial advisors. These people have a net worth of $5 million or more, excluding primary residence. Apart from this, 26% of ultra high net worth individuals treat independent advisors as their main financial advisors. This signifies that professionals and wealthy people have a high regard for financial advisors for their education and expertise, and their ability to deal investment decisions, as well.

Financial advisors, also known as financial planners or financial consultants, have full knowledge in investments, tax laws, and insurance. These financial advisors use this knowledge in recommending financial alternatives to people in line with their short-term and long-term objectives. Financial advisors usually deal with college funding, retirement and estate planning and other investment choices. Some of these financial advisor Michigan provide advice for a wide variety of financial issues, while other financial advisors choose to put their concentration on more specific matters like risk management.

The work of financial advisors typically commences with a consultation with clients, who provide information on their finances and financial targets. From the information given by their clients, financial advisors then create a comprehensive financial strategy that:

ity to take risks, and expectation or needs for a return on the investment.

o Points out areas that need attention
o Proposes improvements, and
o Lays out the most suitable investments that match the clients’ goals, their abil

Aside from producing appropriate financial plans, financial advisors also update their financial strategies to coincide with the life changes of their clients. Life changes, which include marriage, disability and retirement, need to be addressed as these might affect the clients’ financial plans. It is also the job of financial advisors to discuss with their clients the impact of the clients’ changes in benefit plans, jobs and other factors. For financial advisors to become successful in their field, they need to have the ability to educate their clients well on risks and different possible scenarios to prevent their customers from entertaining unlikely financial expectations.

Because of the popularity of financial advisors, it has been predicted to grow faster than the average for all other professions. One of the reasons for the projected increase in the number of financial advisors is the rapid expansion of self-directed retirement plans, which are also predicted to continue growing. Due to the fact that the number and complexity of investment options are increasing, financial advisors will become more in demand as more people will need expertise to help them with their financial issues.