Get ready for your first meeting
Schedule and appoint interviews. Then plan and get ready for personal interviews with no less than three or four planners. Usually the first interview lasting from half an hour to an hour is free, don’t forget to check this rule while making an appointment.
You should prepare a list of personal information for the first meeting. This list should include your assets and liabilities, your current income and expenditures. Also don’t forget to enclose your wills, powers of attorney on your estate, insurance policy and trust documents. It is very important to give all possible financial information because it will be used as a base for all financial advice.
Then determine your objectives. Keep in mind that financial planning concerns your future financial objectives and strategies to win them. Specify your objectives, make sure that they are realistic and try to define time frames for their gaining.
Another important thing in planning is your risk profile determination. It means that you have to consider the possibility of an investment’s value falling in order to see what investments you will be comfortable with and to measure the amount of risk you would agree to take.
Listening for good advice at your first meeting
As it was mentioned you are the client and the centre of the financial planning process, so the concentration at the first meeting should be on you. A planner should be asking questions, but still letting you do most of the talking, letting you outline your goals. Take with you a checklist of questions or problems you would like ask your candidates. During the first meeting you must interact with the candidate – you are interviewing the advisor for a job – and the advisor is interviewing you. Your can wish not only get to know about investment experience, professional background, and education, also your interests may include the information about strategies or principles the planner uses to develop financial recommendations. Find out what you can expect the planner to do for you. Request a copy of a typical financial plan.
These questions will help you interview and evaluate several financial planners to find the right one for you. You will want to select a competent, qualified professional with whom you feel comfortable, one whose business style suits your financial needs.
1. What experience do you have?
Clarify the information about term of experience of financial planner practice and the number and types of companies with which he or she has been associated. Inquire the planner to tell briefly about his/her work previous work experience and how it relates to current practice. Give an advantage to a financial planner who has experience counseling individuals on their financial needs.
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