How do I find a financial advisor?
Finding a trusted partner to help you grow your wealth is not easy. The task is made more challenging by the complexity of financial markets, and by the enormous crush of sales pitches and false information.
One of the most difficult aspects of the problem is that talented financials advisors are both rare and in demand. They rarely take accounts that are less than $500,000, and many have higher limits. So those with less assets are generally at the mercy of less-talented salespeople who often know little about the science of growing wealth.
Whether you have $100,000 or $1 million or $10 million, the most important thing you can do is to be VERY skeptical throughout the whole process. The financial markets are very efficient, and there are no free lunches. If something sounds even slightly too good to be true, then move on immediately.
If you are wealthy, then you are in the fortunate position of being able to attract a talented advisor – but that doesn’t mean that you will find one. Skepticism helps, but also important is to find someone who structures their portfolios without a single prediction about the future of the financial markets. There is NO ONE who can predict the future, and investments that are predicated on hypotheses about future events generally do not pan out.
If you interview someone who thinks that "this is going to be a great year for health care companies" or "food will continue to be scarce, so agriculture will do very well this year" then you need to move on. Predicting the future is the occupation of charlatans, not financial advisors.
Caveat – I do run a boutique advisory firm catering exclusively to wealthy clients. If you want to find a financial advisor, then I invite you to take a look. If you have less than $1,000,000, then you may enjoy the articles I’ve written on managing wealth, or my weblog.
Good luck,
Brendan
