Introduction

You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you don’t have your finances in order, don’t help me with mine.” The same logic applies to financial advisors but the hard part is, financial planning isn’t simple and requires a lot of time and effort every single year. If you ask almost anyone in the financial sector “Do financial advisors have a financial advisor?”, you’ll get a resounding “sometimes”. Before hiring someone to help you manage your money, make sure they have a financial advisor themselves. Here are the top five reasons why. 

Do Financial Advisors Have A Financial Advisor? 

I get asked regularly “Do financial advisors have a financial advisor“. The financial sector is filled with salesmen who don’t truly take financial planning seriously so the unfortunate truth is only “sort of”.

The most experienced financial planners almost always have their own financial planner because they understand the value of delegating, an objective third party, an accountability partner, and someone to help them improve their decision-making ability. 

The Top Five Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Hire a Financial Advisor Who Doesn’t Have a Financial Advisor, Themselves

Reason Number 1. They may think of financial planning as a scam themselves because they don’t understand it. 

Less experienced financial advisors don’t understand that financial planning isn’t just about managing money. Life is hard and at every step, it carries with it a new challenge that may require technical expertise or a trusted ally who will listen and help you understand the best choice at that moment in time. 

The challenges you may experience in life might be:

• Starting or selling a business.
• Changing Careers.
• Getting married.
• Having children.
• Getting divorced.
• Getting sick.
• Retiring from your life’s passion.
• and so, so much more. 

As you go through every step, understand that making the right decision is hard because there’s a risk you could be wrong and things could turn out poorly.

Many new advisors think financial planning is mostly about investing money and telling your client to spend less, save more, retire later, and earn more. This is a GROSS oversimplification of what financial planning is really about and the potential benefit of hiring a financial planner, yourself.

So, what does this all mean to you? If your advisor doesn’t understand the value of an ally who helps them set goals, stay accountable, stay disciplined and stay objective; how can they provide you that same service?

Reason Number 2. If your Financial Advisor is Talented, They’re Also Incredibly Busy. 

Let’s face it: managing a practice with well over 100 clients who all require regular conversations, thought, analysis, and counsel is a lot of work. Working this hard can weigh on a financial planner and oftentimes, their own financial lives take a backseat.

All busy professionals need to have the intelligence to know when to DIY their way through a problem and when to delegate work to someone else. If your advisor is talented, they’re busy and, if they care about reaching their own financial goals, they should probably get help.

Reason Number 3. An Objective Third Party Can Help Bring Peace To The Shared Finances Of A Couple. 

As you could probably guess, Financial Planners have arguments with their partners sometimes, too. Without an objective third party, if one person takes control over all financial decisions, (regardless of profession) it can create problems in your relationship. This is why the spouses of therapists may have a therapist, themselves (but not use their partner as their therapist).

Having an objective third party can bring peace and organization to the shared finances of a couple and make it easier for them to come to an agreement and know what to do, next. This helps the couple reach their goals faster and easier. 

Reason Number 4. You Can’t Manage a Ship Without a Crew. 

No one professional can learn everything important to understand about finance, tax, insurance, and estate planning and all the while, be emotionally intelligent enough to counsel their clients through tough times in life; it’s just too much to know to do perfectly.

For this reason, at Progress Wealth Management, we believe that a team of professionals is best suited to serve our clients because everything changes so often.

If your advisor doesn’t understand the complexities of managing their own personal finances; they won’t hire an advisor because they think it’s simple when it’s not.

If you want someone to treat your financial plan with the care it deserves, it’s important to hire someone who gives their own finances that care, first.

Reason Number 5: Many Financial Advisors Get Arrogant In The Way They Manage Their Own Investments.

Regardless of profession, almost all of us have all tried our hand at picking stocks, and for the most part, regret it. This is especially true in the advisor community. As you’ll hear from your advisor. It’s vital when you’re planning that you use an investment strategy that utilizes a science and a process because, without it, your whole financial plan is based on hope and a dream. 

Before making investment decisions, if your advisor had a professional who held them accountable and helped them avoid mistakes, it would help them reach their goals better.

If your financial advisor has had even a moment where they lost their self-discipline by gambling with money they couldn’t afford to lose or selling because they were afraid, they would benefit from hiring an advisor themselves.

Conclusion

To summarize, financial advisors are people, too. We have arguments with our spouses, experience grief, get arrogant, and get overwhelmed with life sometimes. If you ask almost anyone in the financial sector “Do financial advisors have a financial advisor”, you’ll, unfortunately, get the answer “sometimes” despite the fact it should be an “obviously, yes”.

Without someone to help us improve our ability to make better decisions and follow through with them, we put ourselves at risk of mistakes and being incapable of reaching our financial goals. 

If you pick someone to help you reach your financial goals, in addition to ensuring that your advisor is fee-only, a fiduciary, and a CFP, you should pick someone who takes their own financial goals and their profession as seriously as their client’s. The simplest way to know if your advisor is serious about their profession is by asking them if they have their own financial advisor and following up by asking why they hired them and the benefit it had to them reaching their financial goals.