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Protection - There are four primary types of protection that you should be receiving:
1. Protection from outside entities - Your advisor should always have your back and be proactively protecting you from banks, investment firms, vendors, business partners, family members and others who threaten the accomplishment of your plan. You always need someone who is conflict free, who is not being compensated by any of the providers of your financial products or services and who agrees to seek out and disclose every potential conflict of interest being faced in your financial life.
2. Protection from fraud - It is critical that there be more than one fiduciary looking at your entire financial house to ensure that no one who is supposed to be protecting you is committing fraud or compromising the plan with conflicts of interest. For example, your financial planner, your accountant, and your attorney should not all be from the same firm. You need independent oversight from each to ensure that all parties are playing by the rules. It is this lack of independence that allows scammers like Bernie Madoff to succeed. Had Protection been built into the plans of his investors, Madoff would have been caught much sooner.
3. Protection from seen and unforeseen risks - This is typically done with insurance. Some risks can be predicted with great accuracy. Some cannot. A great advisor builds a plan for both.
4. Protection from YOU! - In truth, the greatest risk to any financial plan comes from the clients themselves. They get emotional, they get scared when market conditions are poor or the economy shifts suddenly. They fall in love with clothes, cars, boats, airplanes, houses or particular investments. They go crazy on vacation or they fall in love with
someone new. They drink a bit too much or they spend a little too much time in Las Vegas. They give in to their brother-in-law and invest in his 12th get rich quick scheme. All of these things create real risks to the plan. That doesn’t mean the plan can’t be adjusted to accommodate these things when necessary. It can, but it should be a conscious well thought out, vetted adjustment.
What you must realize is that you hired your financial advisor to keep you on track and you need to take his or her advice and stay the course for as long as possible. Staying true to your plan will deliver your Ideal Life in the shortest time possible.
Attention - You deserve to have your advisor’s undivided attention when you need it to deal with your concerns and issues. But there is another level of attention which is even more important. Your advisor should be PROACTIVELY monitoring your situation and proactively noticing when your financial affairs have drifted off track and provide real-time, appropriate recommendations for the course correction required to get back on track to your stated goals. Sadly, most affluent clients believe their advisors are providing this level of attention, when they’re not and they don’t discover it until something blows up.
Coordination -
Every affluent individual has multiple advisors including a tax professional, one or more attorneys, investment advisors, insurance professionals, money managers, mortgage brokers and more. Often optimizing one area of your financial life will cause tax, estate planning, cash flow or other issues elsewhere in the plan. But, whose job is it to coordinate, integrate and optimize all that advice into a single coherent whole? Usually that job is left up to you even though it is unlikely that you have the skills and background to do it, let alone the time and inclination.
A great advisor will step into the role of Financial Leader or Most Trusted Advisor. They will ensure that your team talks with each other for all critical decisions to ensure that the overall plan is optimized. A good team that talks regularly will beat a great team that does not. Good communication among and across the team is essential for optimum results. Your advisor should be driving proactive coordination among the team.
Transparency -
Your Most Trusted Advisor should be responsible for ensuring transparency of all actions, conflicts and fees paid. They should be responsible for ensuring that you clearly understand exactly what you are paying each year to every financial professional on the team, and it is their job to clearly disclose, on a regular basis, exactly what the fees and charges are, both internal and external, related to every financial product or service you own.
Cross Disciplinary Team Approach - This has been covered above, but it bears repeating. Don’t get all of your advice from a single individual, even though they may be exceptionally knowledgeable in multiple areas. Be sure that they (or you) are using a team of financial experts who are deep subject matter experts in their own area of expertise. The financial, tax and regulatory worlds are complex. You need the best advice you can get in Truly Comprehensive Financial Services which includes each of the five critical areas of Financial Planning, Insurance, Tax, Money Management and Estate Planning. Your advisor should be consulting his or your specialist in each area and coordinating advice across all five disciplines to ensure your plan is optimized.
Leadership -
Your team needs a clearly defined “named” leader who is responsible for calling meetings, setting agendas and driving the team toward the timely accomplishment of your goals. It could be any member of the team but is usually the Financial Planner or Tax Professional.
Results - Your team should have the goal of getting your entire financial house in order within 12-18 months. (Push hard for the 12-month goal) Thereafter, the goal should be to keep it that way forever.
You might be asking yourself, “Where do I find the right Financial Consultant near me who charges a flat fee and will treat me fairly?” “Where can I find an advisor who can create an Integrated Aligned Overarching Strategy?” or “Where can I find an advisor who will only invest my money in proven passive investments? We suggest that you interview several. You’ll quickly learn that there are very few who are fiduciaries, believe in passive investing and have a process to create an Integrated Aligned Overarching Strategy. When you do find the right advisor, you’ll be able to relax in the knowledge that you are in the right hands and that your financial future is secure. Feel free to reach out to me with your questions. I’m committed to investor education.
Dean Kendall is a Financial Organizer in Calgary, handling all of the financial affairs for a select group of clients who value unbiased quality advice for one simple flat fee.
His book - Stop Paying Hidden Investment Fees! Click here for more information https://www.ideallifeexperience.com/Stop-Paying-Hidden-Investment-Fees
Newest book - Becoming The Champion of Your Dreams: How to Set and Achieve Your Most Important Goals Click here for more information. https://www.ideallifeexperience.com/Becoming-the-Champion-of-Your-Dreams
In addition, Dean is a 3X Canadian National # 1 Amateur, a 5X Canadian National #1 Professional BMX rider, downhill mountain biker and an avid snowboarder. He is an expert at winning. Let him show you how to win the money game. You can reach Dean at dean@ideal-life-experience.ca or Phone 403-543 -7226
©Copyright 2008 – 2022 by Dean Kendall. All rights reserved. 403-543-7226
dean@ideal-life-experience.ca