Financial Advisors & You

In personal finance space, there are a lot of people who call themselves as financial advisors. However, it becomes difficult to identify a true financial advisor from myriad choices, forget demanding appropriate services from them. DSIJ explains different types of financial advisors and the services that you should demand from these advisors for a great service experience.

Every one of us is blessed with or has acquired one or another set of skills that make us better than others in that field. They have skill sets that make them experts on the subject and they take better decisions in that field. Financial advisory is one such subject where financial advisors are supposed to make informed and better investment decisions on behalf of their clients.

He is the person who advises you on various financial aspects and sometimes even on the taxation and legal aspects as well. May it be an insurance agent or a mutual fund distributor or even a stockbroker, all of them call themselves as financial advisors. Although, they don’t deal in every aspect of your personal finance to call themselves as financial advisors.

A true financial advisor is someone who should guide you not only on insurance and investments but also in other key areas that impacts your personal finance. Then there are some species in the personal finance world who call themselves Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs). Here they not only create financial plans for you but also help you to implement it. They deal in great amount of products such as mutual funds, insurance, bonds, stocks, etc. Even the major part of their revenue comes from the commission they get from the products they deal in, rather than advice they give through financial plans. Currently, the majority of investors invest through them.