Helpful tips when choosing an advisor

• Which questions you should prepare for a meeting
   
• Which questions you will be asked by an advisor
   
• How to begin researching five potential advisors for your money needs

We have prepared a handy checklist for you, download it below.

In addition to checking qualifications, here is a list of things you might want to look out for:

Make sure it’s easy to reach your advisers when you need them – and that when they’re away there’s somebody else who can support you. If the markets turn while you’re adviser is away you need to have somebody ready to help.

A good adviser is a subject expert who listens to your needs, and helps you find the solutions that are right for your circumstances. They should help increase your financial confidence by giving you all the information you need to understand the decisions you’re taking.

It’s a red flag if there's any information that you can’t get hold of – whether it’s about fees, performance of different products, or anything else relevant to your portfolio.

Your adviser should fully understand your financial situation but also how much or how little you know about money and investing. They should understand your investment goals, capacity for losing money, and how much risk you’re prepared to take. They should make sure that you understand the advice they’re giving. They should never try to pressure you down a particular path or towards a particular product.

Remember: there are no silly questions, and it’s important you make sure you understand everything. A good financial advisor should be able to answer all of your questions clearly and patiently.

Do not hesitate to ask what influences their recommendations and what investment rules they apply. Assess if this is in-line with what you are looking for – if, for example, you want to invest sustainably, it is important to understand if the advisor has respective experience with sustainable investments.

Other points to look out for are to understand how they are being paid and to ask for examples of what they’ve achieved for other clients in return for their fee. Do not hesitate to ask for references, a good advisor will have satisfied clients that are happy to provide you with feedback.

A good financial advisor should be aiming to understand your financial situation, your level of experience in investing, and your goals and wishes, so be transparent with them.

They will also need to work out the level of risk you can take with your money, so they can work out how aggressively to invest. This will be based on a combination of your own feelings about risk, and calculations on your current and future assets. In many cases the result of the so-called “risk assessment” is some kind of letter or number or you are declared to be a certain risk-type. Do not hesitate to ask for a clear explanation what this means and how this informs the recommendation you receive. What they should not ask for is any kind of personal banking information such as PIN codes or passwords.

That's entirely up to you. You should never feel rushed or pressured by your financial advisor during or after the meeting.

If you do feel rushed or pressured, you should probably steer clear and find someone else. Remember, it is your money, you’re in the driving seat. Take some time to reflect on the information, and whether you’re happy to follow their suggestions.

Start researching potential companies or specific advisors using our checklist and calculators below...

You've completed the current version of our Money School! Head to our next module for a round-up of all the resources we've shared, as well as a recap of financial jargon in our Money Dictionary.

P.S.: to get the full reward, please do not forget to complete the quizzes in the next module too😉

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