Do You Need a Personal Financial Adviser?

Posted on by Forest in Banking, Budgeting, Debt, Insurance, Investing, Saving Money & Finances

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Do You Need a Personal Financial Adviser?

The need for a personal financial advisor is a personal choice that you need to weigh up. Depending on the kind of person you are and the kind of finances you have it can be helpful or a pain in the backside.

I am no expert (hopefully some experts will weigh in in the comments) but wanted to share my own personal experience and what I think about the whole thing.

Do You Need a Personal Financial Adviser, My Experience….

When I reached 23 I found myself in an interesting position. I suddenly found myself earning great money for my age, living away from home, with a few credit cards but no real set up for organising or dealing with any of my finances. A superior at world asked me if I had a financial advisor and I said I didn’t, he told me it was probably about time I got one.

I remembered the guy who used to visit my dad every few months and go through his pension and other money related things. I guessed that must have been a financial advisor so I thought, well if it was good enough for my old pa and the old git at work then I probably need one too.

I did a little research and found a company in London near my work place that would give me free consultation and financial advice, obviously in exchange for commission on insurance and such things that I purchased through them. Seemed like a resonably risk free deal so I went for it.

He sat me down, went through my finacnes, set me up a pension, liability insurance, contents insurance, life insurance, got me to open up a savings account and talked a jumble of figures at me and then made me sign loads of papers and got it all set up. To be fair it was all very easy, I was an easy sale.

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I went with this for a few months and realised how complex all my finances seemed in this day and age. I also didn’t like the fact that subsequent meetings normally involved a new kind of insurance he felt I needed. I guess this silly salesman thought I was easy….. Maybe that is because I was.

Anyway, out f rebellion, I dropped him and dropped all the insurances he made me buy. I must admit at the times it was a silly decision but my finances were very simple and a more mature version of myself would have been more tactile about the decision.

I didn’t need contents insurance, all in all my life consisted of about $2000 worth of stuff. The pension was probably a good idea but the liability insurance was pretty useless and life insurance wasn’t needed, for me, at that point. At that point in my life I probably could have done with a good advisor and not a pure salesman. I suffered from jumping in head first with lack lustre research.

Skip on a few years and I was looking at buying a house. I found an advisor I knew because he advised my company that I worked for and he helped me find a mortgage, arrange all my household insurances and restart a pension. My experience with him was great. When I sold the house a year later he helped with that too.

In general though, he agreed, I have very simple needs, I have money in and money out without much else and at this stage in my life I don’t need a personal financial advisor. However for certain life events I have a goto man and in that way it suits my needs.

If you really can’t control yourself or are involved in a mix of property ownership, investments and such things then I bet a decent advisor can work wonders in making your life easier. I think it comes down to complexity and how you personally handle your money.

Now…. I want your thoughts on the whole thing. Do you use a personal financial advisor? What do you think you need one for and how can they help you even in simple decisions? - Do You Need a Personal Financial Adviser

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