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Do I need a financial advisor?

What's the point in a financial advisor


Financial advisors are qualified financial professionals. However, I have often wondered whether they are worth the fees and charges that are incurred upon engaging with their services:

I have written of my previous interactions with a mortgage broker and I hope that you were able to infer my thoughts in the subject of financial advisors from that.

In short, I'm not sure what the point is.

Everyone expects to talk to a financial advisor and not to you about your money


Recently I phoned up the pension provider to my company pension. They sounded very surprised that I wasn't the financial advisor to the client and was in fact the client themselves calling. I get the distinct impression that it is incredibly rare for a non-professional to call up pension providers and ask them to change the fund that they're invested in.

Arguments for financial advisors


Some argue that I should have paid a financial advisor in order to make such a financial decision that would impact my future. But I'm wondering what for? 

A financial advisor would tell me to take a test to determine what level of risk I'm willing to take. Funnily enough I know my own mind and can work it out for myself.

A financial advisor would then recommend a particular fund that his Company are associated with in order to earn commission. I don't have to be limited only to the funds that the financial advisor is associated with.

A financial advisor understands which are the best funds to be invested in. I would argue that if a financial advisor were able to predict which the best funds would be then they'd be a multi billionaire by now and would not be wasting their time advising me.

A financial advisor is a qualified individual who understand the risks and rewards associated with investing. I say what's the difficulty? High interest rate means higher charges and more risk. Lower interest means lower charges and lower risk.

Do you need a financial advisor?


Having said all the above I can understand that if you are a complete novice in the world of personal finance then I can understand that you may wish to pay for advice. However, I believe that the fees are quite expensive considering that it is something that most people could figure out if only the committee enough time to it.

Ultimately in terms of a financial advisor I cannot justify a percentage of my capital in order to be told something that I could either work out for myself or else be told something that nobody knows such as "invest in this fund, it should be a good growth fund over a long time horizon" - meaningless!

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