Whether you are looking for financial services
for your startup or for your individual finances, there are certain pitfalls
that you must definitely avoid. While some consultant come cheap, some charge
you by the hour and are way too expensive. It is important therefore, to make
sure you get value out of what you spend. The first question you have to deal
with is why you need a financial consultant at the first place. There are those
who specialize in income planning
and those who can assist with financial planning. There are those consultants
who can inform you about various products in the market and those who try to
sell a specific set of financial instruments.
There are very few experts like Jeffrey
Michael Viveros who have seen the financial markets go through a lot of
upheavals with many trends coming and fading away. That is why you must make
sure you know what kind of assistance you need from the consultants. There are
individual consultants who get paid for the advice they offer and those who are
institutional advisers who are in effect salesmen for different companies. In
other words, you will come across consultants who sell insurance policies, make
commissions through equity broking firms, work for banks and sell bonds,
deposits and mutual funds or work for distribution houses. Apart from
consultants, there are also wealth management institutions which have thousands
of investors as clients. It boils down to your priorities as to what you can
afford and the kind of consultation you are expecting.
There are friendly and flexible
insurance agents, share sub-brokers and independent financial advisers too who
can spend time with you, understand your requirements and offer you the perfect
products. However, the obvious trick is to check if the consultant benefits
from the products he or she is selling to you. If they are benefiting through
the sale of the insurance
policy or securities
that they make you invest in, then it might not be entirely in your interest to
take their advice. It comes down to whether you can trust them to offer you a
win-win situation.
Financial advisers not only sell
you various products but can also pinpoint where and how you have to tighten
your finances. With a proper plan chalked out, you can set aside the right
amounts for various obligations, whether it is short term investments for quick
money, long term savings for retirement or medium term investments for steady
returns. There would be a separate set of products for each of these categories
and only a seasoned consultant can match your requirements to a product
available in the market. Another obvious pitfall is communication. Not all
consultants are professional, trained or experienced enough to elicit all the
information from the client before giving appropriate advice. It is one thing
to talk about a narrow range of products and completely another to understand
the client’s viewpoint and then offer the right advice and the right data about
various investment options.