Financial Advisors: Yes No?

Working in the Financial Services industry myself, many of my friends and family ask me what the best way to go about investing is. On one hand, I tend to be a do-it-yourself kinda guy. If at all possible I have the capability to take care of something on my own, I”ll seize that opportunity (and hey sometimes I learn something!). As such I tend to lean toward people running their own portfolios. However this approach is not suitable for everyone.

Managing your own money takes some serious time and research. You have to find out what your risk appetite is, what type of investor you are, what your proper asset allocation based on these factors is, and so on. Also as your assets grow, managing them becomes increasingly complex. It”s not as easy just to throw it all into an index fund and be done with it (though some have achieved success in this manner). Some people simply don”t want the hassle of researching and picking their own investments, instead they want a professional to handle their money for them.

If you decide to go that route, be sure to do some shopping around. Try to find a firm that will take your best interests to heart and provide a professional that you can develop a proper relationship with. You want to be able to have some level of trust with whoever is managing your money, because that hard-earned money is very important to you, right? Northern Trust, for example, provides that focus a lot of their effort on building a relationship, as per the site:

“Your relationship manager provides client advocacy and advice in an atmosphere of privacy and confidentiality.”

Be very careful and very choosy when it comes to managing your money. Write down a list of questions you have and see if they can be answered in a satisfactory manner. Resist hard sells and only make your decision when you are entirely comfortable, and you”ll have an advisor who cares about managing your assets *almost* as much as you do.