As you begin planning how to leave what you have to those you love, it makes sense to want to increase what you currently have.  A good financial planner can guide you down the right path but you need to do as much due diligence when hiring a person to grow your estate as much as you do in hiring an attorney to plan it.  Financial planners are poorly regulated, poorly credentialed, and your remedies against a crooked one are few.  Our firm works with a number of very reputable financial advisors and we can recommend two or three that we feel might fit your needs, but you should still take the time to interview each of them yourself and choose the one that feels right for you.

• Find out how long the planner’s been practicing. Better yet, ask them if they’ve passed the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) exam — that’s an exam that only 56,000 planners have passed out of the 650,000 folks out there who say they are financial planners.
• Notice if they are trying to give you advice or trying to sell you products. Stay away from those who are primarily selling products — the odds are that they’re steering you toward products that get them maximum compensation rather than those that will meet your needs best.
• Ask them if they are preparing your financial plan or hire outside consultants to do so.
• Find out how they are compensated. Are they fee-only or commission-based? It’s not that one is necessarily better than another, but it’s important to understand how they are being paid and to make sure that they will act in your, not their, best interests.
• Check with the SEC to see if they have received any complaints about the planner.

For more information on growing and protecting your assets, please contact the law firm of Wild Felice & Pardo, P.A. for a free consultation.  You can reach us by phone at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com.