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Investment Advice

You can find all kinds of investment advice out there.  Some offer comprehensive financial planning services while others merely sell your investment products. Some charge you a fee while others take a commission on what they well you.  How it’s set up will depend on what kind of advice you get.

The financial planners that offer comprehensive services to you will take the time to get details of your life.  They will take down all of your assets, find out what your income is, figure out what retirement investments you already have and an assortment of other factors.  They will take into consideration your age, your objectives and your risk tolerance.  It’s almost a full service advising they will give you.

Other investment advisors just sell you product.  They don’t charge a fee for their services.  They make their money on the trading commissions for securities that you buy and sell.  Most of the time they will just advise you on good stocks to buy so they can sell securities.  That’s not such a bad thing if they are giving you good stock picks.  It is bad in the sense that they don’t really take into consideration your personal financial situation.

Investment advisors who charge a fee for their services in any way must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  They must also disclose their fees and strategies.  They must also disclose whether they have had any problems or complaints from past customers on their record.

You can request this information which is called the Form ADV from the investment advisor.  You can also get this information from the SEC website.

The fee structure for getting investment advice varies depending on their business model.  Sometimes the fees are apparent and sometimes they are not.  Make sure you understand clearly how they are going to charge you before getting advice from them.