50 Things a Professional Financial Advisor Can Do For You

Here’s a list of some things that professional Financial Advisors can do for you: 

Financial Planning

1. Cares about you and your money more than anyone who doesn’t share your last name.
2. Guides you to think about areas of your financial life you may not have considered.
3. Formalizes your goals and organizes them for you.
4. Helps you prioritize your financial opportunities.
5. Helps you determine realistic goals.
6. Studies possible alternatives that could meet your goals.
7. Prepares an investment proposal according to your investment policy.
8. Suggests creative alternatives that you may not have considered including the best way to claim CPP and OAS.
9. Reviews and recommends referrals for your life insurance needs.
10. Assists you in setting up a retirement plan.
11. Assists you with Estate Planning questions.
12. Reviews your children’s trust accounts and RESPs.
13. Helps you determine your RRIF required minimum withdrawal.
14. Provides reminders about key financial data.
15. Checks with you regularly to identify your financial needs. 
16. Guides you on ways to fund retirement activities.

Investments

17. Prepares an asset allocation for you so you can stay within your risk tolerance.
18. Stays up to date on changes in the investment world.
19. Monitors your investments.
20. Reviews your investments in your company RRSP plans.
21. Reviews your existing RRSP accounts.
22. Helps convert your investments to lifetime income.
23. Refers you to a team of financial advisors in different disciplines.
24. Sugests alternatives to increase your income during retirement.
25. Records and researches your cost basis on investments.
26. Provides you with unbiased investment research.
27. Provides you with personal investment analysis.
28. Determines the risk level of your existing portfolios.
29. Helps you consolidate and simplify your investments.
30. Can provide you with technical, fundamental, and quantitative investment analysis.
31. Provides access to top tier money managers.
32. Shows you how to access your statements and other information online.

Taxes

33. Suggests alternatives to lower your taxes during retirement.
34. Reviews your tax returns with an eye to possible savings in the future.
35. Stays up to date on tax law changes.
36. Helps you find ways to reduce your taxes.
37. Repositions investments to take full advantage of tax law provisions.
38. Works with your tax and legal advisors to help you meet your financial goals.  

Person-to-person

39. Monitors changes in your life and family situation.
40. Proactively keeps in touch with you.
41. Serves as a human glossary of financial terms such as beta, P/E ratio, and Sharpe Ratio.
42. Provides referrals to other professionals, such as accountants and attorneys.
43. Shares the experience of dozens or hundrends of his clients who have faced circumstances similar to yours.
44. Helps with the continuity of your family’s financial plan through generations.
45. Facilitates the transfer of investments from individual names to trust, or from an owner through to beneficiaries.
46. Keeps you on track.
47. Identitifies your savings shortfalls.
48. Develops and monitors a strategy for debt reduction.
49. Is a wise sounding board for ideas you are considering.
50. Is honest with you.  

 Based on a list compiled by Eric F. Parker, CFP, Morgan Stanley

  www.cwealth.ca