Weekend Reading: A Hierarchy of the Value a Financial Advisor Provides

This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
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Weekend Reading

Your financial advisor should be much more than the implementor of your retirement plan. They are your financial thought partner, avid listener and trusted provider of sound, strategic guidance.

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Your financial advisor should be much more than the implementor of your retirement plan. They are your financial thought partner, avid listener and trusted provider of sound, strategic guidance. Most notably, with their help, the goal is to reach financial peace of mind so that you can spend more time focusing on what matters most to you.

More than meets the eye: When it comes to the value you receive from your advisor, financial planning should just scratch the surface. The benefits of working with a professional financial advisor can in fact be viewed as an entire hierarchy, in the order of:

📌Encouraging consistent and increased savings

📌Encouraging consistent investment

📌Financial planning

📌Managing expectations and behavior

📌Asset allocation

📌Managing costs and fees

📌Portfolio rebalancing

📌Security selection.

A depth to better decisions: Above all, this hierarchy means following a fiduciary standard and putting your (the client’s) needs first. Even beyond the values listed here, a financial advisor can guide you through behavioral finance bias, and ultimately, help you make better financial decisions. If you think the biggest benefit of working with a financial advisor is their stock-picking advice, you have it backwards.