A Fee-Only Advisory Firm-Why Work With One?
You have some expectations from a financial advisory company on how it is possible to save, invest and grow your hard-earned cash when you hire them. The financial adviser ought to offer sound financial advice, be independent and professional. In the event you haven’t hired a fee-only financial advisor, then you may not get exactly what you signed up for.
There are more than 200,000 financial advisors in the United States and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. However, of these, only about 2,000 are Fee-Only and are enrolled with the Personal Financial Advisors. Financial advisers who charge dependent on the transactions earn their money from commissions that they make from selling financial products. However, fee-only advisory firms do not sell any products thus they do not work on commissions. Rather, they charge their customers a flat fee for the independent financial advisory services they supply rather from the investments they recommend.
Most of the financial advisory businesses are commission-based which indicates that their revenue is linked directly to the investments and financial products they sell to you. These firms might call themselves financial advisors but they are majorly interested in promoting their merchandise. Hence, they may suggest some financial products more than many others since they would like to make a commission from them. Thus, it is quite difficult for you to assess whether the investment portfolio they have recommended is most suitable for your portfolio.
On the other hand, fee-only advisory firms like Financial Fiduciaries LLC do not earn any commissions since they do not sell any financial products. Therefore, customers know that fee-only advisers work to their best interests and aren’t connected to any investment product or business. For this reason, they supply independent and impartial investment, and they don’t have any conflict of interest. They could openly recommend investments and products that are suitable for their customers.
However, look out for firms that use fee-based rather than fee-only as these two are not the same. Fee-based financial advisors charge both fees and commissions plus they may also suggest some goods endorsed by the businesses which sponsor them.
A fiduciary is a fiscal expert who’s held out in trust and has the legal responsibility to put the clients’ interests above their own. Fee-only financial experts like Thomas Batterman are the only financial experts that work under a suitability standard. Federal regulators and the State regard fee-only financial advisors highly which gives you more reasons to choose Fee-only financial advisory firms.
Before choosing a fee-only financial advisory firm, do some due diligence and research on it. Ask several questions prior to entering into a professional relationship with a financial advisory company.