You have some expectations from a financial advisory company on how it is possible to save, invest and grow your hard-earned cash when you hire them. The financial advisor should be professional, independent and provide sound financial advice. You might not get what you signed up for in the event you have not hired a Fee-Only financial advisor.
There are more than 200,000 financial advisors in the United States and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. But of these, the fee-and registered with the Personal Financial Advisors are just about 2,000. Financial consultants who charge based on the transactions make their money from commissions which they earn from selling financial products. But, fee-only advisory firms do not work on commissions as they don’t sell any products. Instead, their customers pay them a flat fee for the individual financial advisory services that they provide rather than from the investments they recommend.
Most of the financial advisory businesses are commission-based which indicates that their revenue is linked directly to the investments and financial products they sell to you. These firms might call themselves financial advisors but they are majorly interested in promoting their merchandise. Hence, they may suggest some financial products more than many others since they would like to make a commission from them. Hence, it is relatively tricky for you to examine whether the investment portfolio they have suggested is most acceptable for your portfolio.
On the other hand, fee-only advisory businesses like Financial Fiduciaries LLC do not sell any financial products and thus don’t earn any commissions. Hence, clients comprehend that fee-only advisors work for their best interests and are not attached to any investment company or product. As a result of this, they give impartial and independent investment, and they do not have any conflict of interest. They might freely recommend products and investments which are most suited to their clients.
Nonetheless, search for companies that use fee-based instead of fee-only as these two are not similar. Fee-based financial advisors charge both fees and commissions plus they may also suggest some goods endorsed by the businesses which sponsor them.
A fiduciary is a fiscal expert who’s held out in trust and has the legal responsibility to put the clients’ interests above their own. Fee-only financial experts like Thomas Batterman are the only financial experts that work under a suitability standard. The state and federal regulators respect fee-only financial advisers highly that provides you more reasons to select fee-only financial advisory companies.
Before choosing a fee-only financial advisory firm, do some due diligence and research on it. Ask numerous questions before you enter into a professional relationship with a financial advisory business.