Getting a Financial Planner: What to expect

Labels: Financial Planner, Personal Finance on Sunday, August 17, 2008 at August 17, 2008

A financial planner is not a miracle worker. He can't guarantee you earning millions from your investments but he can provide you with the following:

1. Financial planning begins with financial education. A good financial planner will educate you with your financial status. (Educational Programming)

2. A financial planner can help identify risks in your current portfolio and help you build an insurance program to cover your risks. (Insurance Programming)

3. Emergency and Liquidity needs: Help you figure out how much money you'll need for emergencies with your current lifestyle.

4. Presents to you options where you can invest your savings. With his experience, he can give feedback on what has been working for others and which investments are safer or with less risk. He will help you develop your investment portfolio so that your money will be working for you. (Investment Programming)

5. Retirement Planning - Helps you develop a retirement plan so that you can retire comfortably when the time comes.

Having a financial planner is a lifetime relationship. A good financial planner has to be able to guide you all through your life through different economic times and changing markets. Therefore choose someone that you can trust and be comfortable with.

Also, a financial planner shows you your options, gives you feedback on what the different investments available, but in the end it is still YOU who will have to make the decisions.

source: http://blogs.inquirer.net/moneysmarts/2008/07/22/video-what-financial-planners-should-do-for-you/