Working with a CFP®
The Benefits of Working with a Certified Financial Planner ®:
- The peace of mind that comes with knowing that your personal financial
affairs are in order
- Assistance in establishing and prioritizing your goals and objectives
- Creation of a comprehensive plan to help you achieve them
- The time to focus on what you do best
What a Financial Advisor Does:
- Asks for and absorbs information about your whole financial situation
- Stays current with the financial planning field
- Helps you learn more about personal financial management in general
- Helps you develop prudent financial habits
- Offers specific recommendations with enough background information so that
you can make informed decisions
- Helps you implement and monitor planning decisions
- Provides reality checks about your financial habits
- Helps you sort through important value decisions
- Shows you how to align financial habits with personal values
What a Financial Advisor Does Not Do:
- Predict the future
- Guess what you are thinking, but not talking about
- Guarantee performance
- Protect you from the consequences of destructive financial habits that you
do not address yourself
- Go beyond the role of advisor into the role of therapist
- Magically get you as much money as you would like to have
- Earn higher than average returns year after year
Your Responsibilities as a Client:
- Provide necessary background information so that the advisor can develop
informed judgments and recommendations
- Be ready to consider new information
- Ask for clarifying information when you do not understand something
- Be forthcoming about your personal values, including goals, concerns,
preferences, and worries
- Consider the advisor's comments and written communications and to correct
any misimpressions implied by these communications
What We Can Do for One Another:
- Be prompt for appointments
- Respond promptly to requests
- Listen well
- Have reasonable expectations
- Be frank about ideas or situations that make you uncomfortable
What Satisfied Clients say about us:
"I feel like I have someone on my side."
"I finally know where I am financially and what I need to do next."
"Now I feel organized, in control and on top of my financial life."
"What's really been great is finally having a point of view about my
portfolio that makes sense and that allows me to stay the course!"
"I can ask any question, no matter how basic and get a useful answer."
"I can't believe how much I've learned."
"Who would have thought that a financial advisor would help me sort through
life goals? And then show me how to make it all happen financially?"
"When I was going through the divorce - or when I was widowed - or when I was
going through the adjustment to a big promotion - or got an inheritance - or
decided to retire, I was paralyzed by all of the paperwork and all of the
decisions. My advisor got me through that period of change, kept me financially
safe, and led the way towards my new financial life. Now I'm in good
shape."