Questions to Ask a Financial Planner

A financial planner is a practicing professional who helps people deal with personal financial issues in areas like cash flow management, retirement planning, investment planning, risk management, insurance planning, tax planning, estate planning and even business succession planning. Basically he/she is the person who will help you with all your finances in case you have no clue how to go about handling and managing your finances. In case you are hiring the services of a financial planner, there are a certain things that should be clear.

Important Questions to Ask a Financial Planner

What are your areas of specialization (if any)?
It is always better to have a guy who specializes in an area that you need help with - be it taxes, investment or insurance. If you have the guy who has exactly what you need - he can definitely help you better than a guy who is jack of all trades.

For how many years have you been in this profession?
This question helps to build credibility since you don't want a dabbler to handle all your finances. It is also better to have references from credible clients. Do not hesitate to confirm the credibility, after all you need to establish trust to hand him/her the rights to plan your financial matters.

How exactly can you help me manage my expenses?
This question will help you fathom, how exactly your relationship will work. This is an important question, which will define the terms and conditions of the work relationship and define duties of your financial planner.

Do you have clients who have similar needs?
This will guarantee whether the financial planner has experience in handling clients with similar needs. It would also be great if you could contact these clients and get in touch to get their feedback about the financial planner.

What is the remuneration that you are looking for?
Be very clear and specific while discussing the remuneration, since finances are a matter to be handled very carefully. Make sure you have documented records or contracts to define your agreement about the remuneration.

Remember that there are three important things that you should seek in a financial planner - his ability to guide you in matters of finance, his ability to help you grow financially and most importantly his ability to ensure security to your financial matters.