Why Should You Use a Financial Planner?

Posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 8:04 pm in Financial Planning

We all need to plan for our retirement, regardless of how old we are now or when we want to give up working. Years ago, retirement meant the end of your productive life, and that you were ‘old’ and therefore useless. Happily, attitudes are quite different these days. People are living for longer after they retire, and staying healthy and active for many more years than in previous generations.

This also means that proper financial planning for your retirement is getting more and more important. Since you’re likely to be around for many years after you stop drawing a regular salary, you need to make sure you save enough money now to live comfortably for all that time. This can be quite a daunting task to tackle on your own, unless you are a trained financial professional.

When you’re planning for your future, you would probably benefit from talking to an experienced financial planner. This is a person who can help you achieve your financial goals by advising you about saving and investing your money in the most effective way. There are financial planners with different areas of specialization, depending on their background and training. These include general financial planners, stockbrokers, investment advisors in banks and insurance companies, accountants and estate-planning lawyers.

These are some of the advantages you can gain by consulting a financial planner rather than going it alone:

Save time: Financial planners have in-depth knowledge of various aspects of personal and general finance. They regularly give advice about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, retirement plans, savings products, tax planning and many other financial matters. It would take you a great deal of time to learn and keep up-to-date on all the factors involved in making the most of your investments or keeping your family’s finances protected. A financial planner does this full-time, and has access to all the relevant information and expertise that you would have to spend valuable time locating and digesting.

Get specialist advice: Financial planners have different backgrounds and areas of expertise. If you need to know about making a will or establishing a trust, speak to an estate attorney. For guidance on legal ways to minimize your taxes, you can go to an accountant who also does financial planning. If your regular financial planner can’t help you with a specific area, they can refer you to someone who can.

Get a balanced opinion: No matter how well you prepare for your future, unexpected events can derail even the best-laid plans. Losing your job, a stock market crash, a medical crisis in the family – a number of things can change your financial picture for the worse. A financial planner with many years of experience has seen a lot of these situations, and can often predict what’s coming next and recommend the appropriate action. They can take a calm, practical approach to the issue, without the emotions that would overshadow any decisions you take on your own at this time. This makes it easier for you to get back on the right track.