Working with a good financial advisor can make a real difference in life. There are many types of financial advisors, and which type is right for you can depend on your needs and your situation. The gold standard of financial advisors are Certified Financial Planner practitioners (CFPs®). How do financial planners differ from other financial advisors? Start by learning what a financial planner does, including their daily duties and responsibilities.
A few good ways to learn more include conducting informational interviews and reading books, blogs and listening to podcasts on the subject. A concise but very informative book on personal financial planning is, The Investment Answer by Daniel C. Goldie and Gordon S. Murray. Your research should give you an idea of what a day in the life of a financial planner looks like and how the services they provide could benefit you.
Suffice it to say, financial planners don’t just sit around playing with bags of money that wealthy clients give them to invest in the stock market. Instead, they spend their time providing a valuable service to folks; helping them to prepare financially for their future.
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The many hats of a CFP®
Advising clients on how to save and invest wisely in order to achieve future goals like buying a house, establishing a college account, retirement & estate planning, and investing a portfolio are only a few of the aspects of a Certified Financial Planner practitioner’s (CFPs) job. Some of the other responsibilities are as follows:
- Design and Strategy: A financial planner often needs to design multi-step financial strategies to help clients accomplish financial goals.
- Research: Building sound financial plans and recommending specific actions to accomplish long term goals takes lots of research. Financial planners need to consult a number of credible sources to make sure their facts are always accurate.
- Financial Education: Part of a financial planner’s job is to act as a teacher for both existing and prospective clients. It’s critical to share information through seminars, social media and other formats to help folks learn how to better plan their future.
- Communicating with clients: Checking in on a regular basis to review any changes to client’s lifestyle, goals, etc., is vital to keeping their portfolio and plan up-to-date.
- Networking: A good financial planner works in collaboration with other advisors such as attorneys, tax and accounting advisors, insurance and banking professionals. Knowing the best professionals in these areas helps a financial do the best possible job for clients.
In truth there is no single typical day in the life of a CFP®. They serve many different roles, with the one commonality being that their ultimate aim is to help clients execute their plans and achieve their financial goals.
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Finding the right wealth advisor requires getting referrals from trusted sources, checking credentials, and meeting with one or two to find a good fit.
If you are in the market for a wealth manager in San Diego, find out more about the unique collaborative approach utilized by Blankinship and Foster.