How to Find the Right Financial Expert for Your Business

Anchor: Accounting tests 

Financial advisors are everywhere, but the right one depends on your financial situation and budget. There are different types of financial advisors for every situation. However, choosing the right one is sometimes a challenge for some people. 

Choosing a good financial advisor not only saves you your money, but allows you to avoid unnecessary costs and lets you focus on goals. In fact, in the past two years, the term “Financial advisor” has grown by 75% on search engines. 

Let’s dive deeper into this article to learn more about choosing the right financial expert for your business. 

6 Ways you can find the proper financial expert in your business

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• See what your financial needs are 

Financial advisors can provide you with many services, but before you hire one, you need to know more about your financial needs. Some financial advisors specialize in some areas of finance, but might not be so good at offering you investment advice and debt management. Others, on the other hand, will be able to guide you on other financial aspects. 

Before you hire a financial expert, you need to ask the following questions: 

• Do you want to create a financial plan? 
• Will you be needing tax help? 
• Do you need to order your estate plan? 
• Are you going to reach your saving goals? 
• Do you need help with your investments? 

When you answer the following questions, you’ll identify what kind of financial advisor you need. Additionally, it can help you decide whether you need one or not. If your financial life is complex, you want to work with either a traditional or online financial advisor to help you clarify it. 

• Give them an accounting test 

Accounting tests can be great ways for evaluating the knowledge of individuals and managing their financial records. It allows you to identify candidates with strong bookkeeping and accounting skills. They are used specifically for financial advisors and cover the following skills: 

• Defining basic terminologies 

• Posting figures on the correct accounts 

• Calculating accounting figures

• Managing financial records and more 

Good accounting practices are what allow company management to make much better decisions based on the financial data they have. It’s great to see how well financial advisors know their facts. It’s not a bad way to help you choose whether you should hire a financial advisor or not. 

• Find out what are the types of financial advisors 

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Financial advisors can be called many names, from investment advisors to experts, financial coaches and more. Each financial advisor has their own field of specialty, so don’t assume that because they are called that. Studies show that there are around 500,000 financial advisors worldwide, so it’s important to know who you are choosing. 

However, there are numerous ways you can cut through this noise, but what are the types of financial advisors you should look out for?

• Investment advisors: People who give out investment advice need to be registered as investment advisors with either the exchange commission, state, or U.S. securities. Registered investment advisors can either be an individual or an entire business. 

• Fiduciary financial advisors: Many financial advisors will act in the interest of their clients. Whenever you work with a licensed fiduciary, it ensures that the advisor is paid through you and not commissions. In other words, these types of advisors can also be called “Fee-only advisors”. 

• Commission-earning financial advisors: There are plenty of financial advisors who will earn money through sales commissions from third parties. Financial advisors who earn commission through third parties will gain some of their income from selling you financial products. These types of advisors will usually work for insurance brokerages, investments and have their own standards. 

• Robo-advisors: These are excellent low-cost alternatives. Specialize in helping people with their retirement and long-term goals. 

• Ask yourself which part of your financial life you need to manage 

Before you hire any financial advisor, you need to clarify which aspects of your financial life you need to manage. Before you sit down with your advisor, you need to be ready to explain your money management needs. 

Financial advisors don’t only provide you with investment advice, but in everything they’ve specialized at. This may include financial advice for retirement plans, debt repayments, insurance product suggestions and more. 

Depending on the area you are in life, you might not always need help in financial planning, but another area like insurance product suggestions, or something else. 

However, if your financial life is complicated, you might need more help than you think. It may be a college debt you need to pay off, a tax problem, or something more. Did you know that the global debt is $226 trillion right now? 

• Find clarity 

If you do hire a financial expert, there’s one thing that makes them differ from each other and that’s clarity. If an advisor isn’t making you feel smarter and more complete. It’s simple, don’t hire them. You can’t ever create long-term relationships with someone who won’t clarify things for you. 

Financial advisors will clarify new things for you, but if they don’t, you don’t need to hire them. There’s always a new advisor and until you find the one who clarifies everything for you, don’t stop. 

• Check their backgrounds 

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When you hire a financial professional, you must ensure you correctly manage your money. One thing that might be easier for you is the fact that you can check up on a financial advisor’s professional background. 

You can use sites like BrokerCheck to find advisors and it’ll show you the amount of time they’ve been in the industry and the firms they’ve been working for. It offers you a search tool that you can use for verifying people’s status. 

Alternatively, you can also conduct a quick search on Google for searching through your professionals and at the same time, pay attention to the local news to re-check for any updated information. Sometimes, there may be financial advisors that are undergoing a criminal case, but their records might not state it, so keep your eyes open for this. 

Questions you need to ask a financial expert 

If you want to define them as experts, you need to see how experienced they really are. Here are some powerful questions you can ask a financial advisor before you hire them: 

• How do you get your income? Finding out how an advisor gets paid is what helps you define if the relationship will be right or not. Ensure their goals are aligned with yours and make sure they aren’t only helping you for the commission, but for making your financial life easier. 

• How do you measure performance? You want to ask this question by identifying if the financial advisors are working in their favor for annual bonuses, or for simplifying your financial life. 

• Tell me more about your credentials. This helps you learn more about the advisor’s educational background and professional credentials. The financial world itself is complex and you need an expert to simplify it for you. Therefore, when they show you their credentials, you’ll know if they’ve gone through the proper training or not. 

• Are you a fiduciary? Acting as fiduciary shows you that the advisor will put their interests before their own. Therefore, you want to make sure they’re acting as one at all times. 

• What will happen if you change firms? People will leave their jobs for new opportunities just like in any business. The worst-case scenario might be that if they do switch firms, they might not contact you because of the new firm’s policies. Afterward, your account might be transferred to someone else that you don’t know. This not only reduces customer loyalty, but will cause more complex issues in your financial life. 

The bottom line 

Everything is more simple than we think, but we complicate it. Hiring a financial advisor should simplify your life and something you should clarify before you hire a financial expert is if they are working in your favor or their own. 

Financial advisors that work in their own interest will only seek to get through you and to avoid simplifying your financial life. With inflation at its peak and a global economic crisis, it’s always important to think through some things carefully. As we said before, the financial world is complex enough, so the more simple you can make it, the better it’ll be for you. 

The Author: 

Tony Ademi is a freelance SEO content and copywriter. He has been in the writing industry for three years and has managed to write hundreds of SEO-optimized articles. Moreover, he has written articles that have ranked #1 on Google. Tony’s primary concern when writing an article is to do extensive research and ensure that the reader is engaged until the end.